Title: ROCKS TO ROBOTS: A BIOLOGICAL GROWTH APPROACH TO RAPID LUNAR INDUSTRIALIZATION OR HOW TO REALIZE VON
1ROCKS TO ROBOTS A BIOLOGICAL GROWTH APPROACH TO
RAPID LUNAR INDUSTRIALIZATIONORHOW TO REALIZE
VON NEUMANNS VISION
- L. M. E. Morin
- Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health, Space, and
Science - United States Department of State, Washington, DC
- morinlm_at_state.gov
2Dreams of Space - Childrens Space Art John
Sisson
- "It is difficult to say what is impossible, for
the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and
the reality of tomorrow" Robert Goddard, 1927. - "The younger generation of rocket engineers is
just beginning. They are of the new generation to
which space travel is not going to be a dream of
the future but an everyday job with everyday
worries in which they will be engaged" Willy Ley,
1951. - "The visions we offer our children shape the
future. It matters what those visions are. Often
they become self-fulfilling prophecies. Dreams
are maps" Carl Sagan, 1994. - "Soon there will be no one who remembers when
spaceflight was still a dream, the reverie of
reclusive boys and the vision of a handful of
men" Wyn Wachhorst, 1995.
http//sun3.lib.uci.edu/jsisson/john.htm
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13US Lab Destiny 14,000 kg
14ISS at Mission 5A 101,600 kg
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16Caterpillar Model 330C LHydraulic Excavator
35,100 kg
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18Lunar Reality Apollo 6900 kg
19Saturn
20Atlas
21Kg to LEO for Launch Systems
http//space.skyrocket.de/
22- You can deliver about 10 of the LEO mass to the
lunar surface (one-way) - The mass you can deliver with COTS launch systems
is on the order of 1000 kg
23Apollo 11 Mass Loss During Launch (pounds)
From NASA Apollo 11 Press Kit
24Mo Mf exp(Delta_V/(Isp g))
- Imprisoned by the tyranny of the rocket equation,
an unfavorable exponential - There is an antidote
25Compound Interest!
- P C exp( rt )
- Here the exponential is working in our favor
instead of against us - Biological systems exploit this
26Biological Growth
27Biological Growth Plot
28Biological Growth Log Plot
29Von Neumann with the first Institute computer
Photograph by Alan Richards, courtesy of the
Archives of the Institute for Advanced Study
http//www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/P
ictDisplay/Von_Neumann.html
30Self Replicating Factory
Robert A. Freitas, Jr. and William P.
GilbreathProceedings of the 1980 NASA/ASEE
Summer Study NASA Conference Publication 2255
-http//www.islandone.org/MMSG/aasm/chapter5.htm
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32Ingredients for Self Replication
- Energy (In situ solar systems)
- Raw Material (Regolith and minerals)
- Information (Telepresence/Autonomy)
- Enough machinery to get started
- Critical nutrients (Resupply from earth)
33Bacteria Close Up
http//www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/bacteria/bacteriatem.
gif
34Machinery to get started
- Bacteria need 10 picograms
- Can we get by with 1000 kg?
- Solar power
- Telepresence and mining
- Iron reduction and ceramics
- Fabrication and assembly, largely with iron
- Produce more telepresence and mining
- A spiral plan to eliminate earth dependencies
35Initial Production
- Focus on iron reduction
- Most versatile metal
- Easiest to get energetically
- Exploit magnetic properties
- Defer oxygen to a later spiral
- Work on kilogram-kilowatt scales
- Apply casting, powder metallurgy, rolling, light
machining, dies, jigs and fixtures - Produce standardized parts plates, fasteners,
chain, sprockets, gears, solenoids, struts
36Assemble and Spiral
- Assemble kits of parts with telepresence
- Cameras and electronics from Earth
- Strive for lunar content everywhere else
- Produce more mining and telepresence capability
to realize compound interest - Re-supply missions provide critical items you
cant make yet in-situ - Spiral up to larger scales and masses
- Access more elements
- Reduce telepresence per kilogram
- Diversify to specialized niche production
facilities - Gain and apply pragmatic experience to eliminate
Earth dependencies
37Telepresence
- Abundant telepresence is critical
- Enables biological growth rates
- Provides flexibility to overcome obstacles
- Allows re-direction of emerging industrial base
to any desired application - Has tremendous intangibles outreach,
commercialization, internationalization,
entrepreneur and public participation
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39Bottom Line
- We have to master ISRU if we want more than a
transient presence in space - Lets devise an ISRU strategy scaled to launch
vehicles that are available now at funding levels
we can get - If our 1000 kg seed can replicate 114 grams an
hour, it doubles every year - The seed becomes a million kilograms of lunar
industrial capability after ten years
40Biological Growth Log Plot
41Credits
- Dreams of Space - Childrens Space Art John
Sisson - http//sun3.lib.uci.edu/jsisson/john.htm
- Biological Growth Dr. Alan Cann
- http//www-micro.msb.le.ac.uk/LabWork
- Bacteria Close-Up
- http//www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/bacteria/bacteriatem.
gif - Self Replicating Systems
- Robert A. Freitas, Jr. and William P.
GilbreathProceedings of the 1980 NASA/ASEE
Summer Study NASA Conference Publication 2255 - -http//www.islandone.org/MMSG/aasm/chapter5.htm
42LM-5 (flown on the Apollo 11) mission weight
breakdown
43Bacterium
NY State Dept of Health http//www.wadsworth.org/d
atabank/ecoli.htm
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45Complexity of self replicating systems (bits)
From Nanotechnology by Dr. Ralph
Merkle http//www.zyvex.com/nanotech/selfRep.html
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