ROCKS TO ROBOTS: A BIOLOGICAL GROWTH APPROACH TO RAPID LUNAR INDUSTRIALIZATION OR HOW TO REALIZE VON

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ROCKS 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

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Dreams 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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US Lab Destiny 14,000 kg
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ISS at Mission 5A 101,600 kg
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Caterpillar Model 330C LHydraulic Excavator
35,100 kg
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Lunar Reality Apollo 6900 kg
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Saturn
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Atlas
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Kg to LEO for Launch Systems
http//space.skyrocket.de/
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• 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

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Apollo 11 Mass Loss During Launch (pounds)
From NASA Apollo 11 Press Kit
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Mo Mf exp(Delta_V/(Isp g))

• Imprisoned by the tyranny of the rocket equation,
  an unfavorable exponential
• There is an antidote

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Compound Interest!

• P C exp( rt )
• Here the exponential is working in our favor
  instead of against us
• Biological systems exploit this

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Biological Growth
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Biological Growth Plot
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Biological Growth Log Plot
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Von 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
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Self 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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Ingredients 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)

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Bacteria Close Up
http//www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/bacteria/bacteriatem.
gif
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Machinery 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

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Initial 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

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Assemble 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

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Telepresence

• 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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Bottom 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

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Biological Growth Log Plot
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Credits

• 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

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LM-5 (flown on the Apollo 11) mission weight
breakdown
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Bacterium
NY State Dept of Health http//www.wadsworth.org/d
atabank/ecoli.htm
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Complexity of self replicating systems (bits)
From Nanotechnology by Dr. Ralph
Merkle http//www.zyvex.com/nanotech/selfRep.html
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