Book Review: "Beyond: Our Future in Space" by Chris Impey

This is an overview of space exploration, past, present, and future. This is not a textbook, nor is it a book on space technology or business. It isn’t meant to be. What it is is to give you a view on space from a historical and realistic point of view, the dreams of space exploration from our earliest times, in a positive manner that is hopefully to be our next step in our evolution of civilized man. It will not progress in a straight line, and there will be setbacks as well as unexpected obstacles in setting out on this new endeavor. It will not be progressive as computer technology, where, one buys the latest computer, and a few years later it becomes obsolete because of a fast paced technology. Space technology, as we have learn since Sputnik, back in 1957, is not fast paced, and it never has been. In many cases, we, being not only the U.S. but Russia as well, are still using 1960s technology.
In a manner of speaking, this book tells you why, and it is not the fault of any country or entity such as NASA. We went on a fast paced race to the Moon from President Kennedy’s announcement in 1961 to the landing in 1969, and continued to pursue it until 1972, and then stopped, in pursuit of other space projects; Skylab, the space shuttle. We slowed down because our interest waned, as any new venture does with the public at large. Privatization, in the launching business, and set to expand in other industries.
Chris Impey’s Beyond is divided into four sections, each beginning with part of a fictitious tale, all being one story, of an adventurer setting out on the frontier a century or more from now, ending, in the last section, of landing on a planet orbiting another star. The first three sections deal in the past, present, and future, and the fourth covers a century or two from now when we may set out for the stars (titled “Beyond”).
When man set out from his birthplace in Africa to wander Asia, Europe, and then the Americas in the span of over one hundred thousand years, to a tale of a Chinese government official, Wan Hu, tying rockets (fireworks) to his chair to launch himself into space. They never found him, but there were explosions in the sky, to the 20th century with a brief summery on the launch of Sputnik, the Apollo Moon landings, and the space shuttle.
It is in the second section, justifiably called “present,” that gives the run-down on what is happening now, with Chapter 4 optimistically called, “Revolution is Coming.” This section first describe NASA’s low period after the Moon landings ended, to how and why its budget fell from five percent to 0.5% of the federal budget, and what NASA subsequently did. The history of airplane and space flight is covered here, and then fast forwards to the present, with the advent of space tourism, and what is required to participate.
The entrepreneurs, from Burt Rutan of Virgin Galactic to Elon Musk of Space X are all here, along with the financial problems and solutions of setting up one’s business.
Many little known facts, of all aspects of space travel are mentioned, from space sickness to government red tape (regulations, and fees) in setting up your own business. If one can handle all this, the next challenge would be to figure out how to deal with the space frontier itself, i.e. how much fuel is required to get to a satellite or space station in low Earth orbit, how much will it cost, how cheap can you make it and still turn out a profit. Note, this does not necessarily point out what space has to offer for you to make money. The book merely states the complexities of doing so; what is required, how much will it cost, what are the risks. Space technology is compared to other high tech industries, but also points out that it is not progressing at the same speed.
Many experiments have been mentioned, such as Biosphere 2, where the media hyped it, but turned out to be a failure because oxygen ran down and had to be resupplied from outside, but it also covered on what has succeeded in that experiment, and how one can correct the mistakes and capitalize on its successes.
Of course, there has also been a lot of government waste (of money) in the space program, which was why the entrepreneurs are now coming in and picking up the slack. A shuttle launch costed $1.5 billion. A SpaceX launch costs $10 million, and decreasing.
There is the future. China, of course, will be a participant. Settlements on the Moon, colonies on Mars, and what has been proposed has been covered. Will it be that simple? Mars One is a project to put people on Mars permanently. What will be the psychological effects?
New propulsion systems such as solar sailing, and it various types, are explained.
Lastly, we hope to go to the stars. But, complex technology is involved, requiring energy at least 10 times as much as the entire Earth presently produces in order to travel one tenth the speed of light.
The writings of visionaries are featured, from Gerard O’Neill’s space habitats to Freeman Dyson’s “Dyson Sphere,” along with honorable mentions from prominent science fiction writers.
This is a book that covers man’s history of wandering the Earth, his dreams of traveling to space since the Middle Ages, the present accomplishments, and what is being done now from both governments and entrepreneurs, and what is required to finally achieve this dream. It is possible, but not with risks and dangers, new advances in technologies, the travelers who are able to physically and psychologically handle the venture, and, of course, lots of money.

Alastair Browne

There's Big Money in Space!

“You have to spend money to make money.”

-What the owner of a pizza place 

once told me back in 1970

During the Apollo-Shuttle Era, no one business could invest in space because little was known about the opportunities there, and the transportation costs were too high.  There has been talk about “cheap access to space” meaning the government (NASA) should build cheaper rockets, but the reality is they are not in the business of doing so.  Not only that, they can’t, no matter how hard they try.  

For decades, there has been talk about private enterprise moving in, and now, with the shuttle gone, they are finally doing so, and not just with transportation, but with space tourism, asteroid mining, insurance, and the stock market.  Many other industries will soon come in, industries doing tasks we have never before imagined.

The communications industry, incidentally has had private satellites since the 1960s (ComSat, etc.), but this is about to expand, big time.

Before going any further, I would like to state loudly and clearly that, despite the title of this essay, you must know, and let this sink in, that no industry will invest in the space field unless they know they can turn a profit.  Without profits, there will be no incentive to go up there and invest.  When a business, any business, loses money, it folds.  Do not forget this!

This is why businesses didn’t invest in space in the past, unless it was by way of government contracts.  There, with the Moon landings and later, the shuttle, along with military rockets and satellites, profits are guaranteed, even if the project fails or is cancelled.

With the exception of the military, those days are gone.  NASA and the government will have major roles to play in the future, but not the same role as they played in the past.

Before the tourism and mining industries, before we get to settle into space, on the Moon, and eventually to Mars and beyond, we must have cheap and reliable transportation.  NASA is unable to provide this (a space shuttle launch costed $1.5 billion), but now, private industry in stepping in with SpaceX, Orbital ATK, and Boeing, and others are quickly joining the launch industry.

When it was solely NASA’s job to launch rockets, be they Delta, or Atlas, or any other class of rockets, launch costs varied, from $3000 to $6000 per pound of cargo.  To launch on the space shuttle, one had to pay about $10,000 per pound (costs are projected in 2005 dollars).  This was only to low Earth orbit.

In order to launch to geosynchronous Earth orbit, 22,300 miles up, where the satellite is above a fixed point on Earth at all times, the costs increased.  These costs varied, from $10,000 to $18,000 per pound.  Russia advertised lower costs, but these were subsidized by their government.  Real launch costs in Russia, China, and Europe are not much better.

Then came SpaceX.  SpaceX, with their Falcon Heavy, has broken the $1000 per pound launch cost barrier, and costs are projected to decrease further.  This is 10% of that of the shuttle, and the Chinese themselves have stated that they couldn’t compete with that.  This is due to 1) low manufacturing costs, where the entire rocket is built in one factory, as opposed to different stages of the rocket being built by different companies and transporting them for assembly;  2) low operations costs, efficiency and fewer man-hours required to launch and 3) high-efficiency performance.  Time is reduced, from manufacturing engines to fueling up the rocket itself.

Other private launch companies are up and coming.  Among them are XCOR, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, Sierra Nevada, Boeing, and the list continues to increase as of this writing.  All of them have their own unique way of lowering costs, from hypersonics to shuttle like designed space planes, and they will complete fiercely with SpaceX for cost.  

With lower launch costs come an increase in demand from customers, doing various projects, from near zero gravity experiments to building new and privately owned space stations, space factories, a needed space infrastructure, and mining the asteroids for minerals that will be in great demand, starting with water ice.

Many of these asteroids are partly composed of water ice, and they are very easy to find.  Planetary Resources, one of two asteroid mining companies, have expressed great interest in mining these asteroids of ice, to be melted into water and used and fuel, and there is a market for it that already exists.

You might ask, “how can water be used for fuel?”  Water, H₂0, from the symbol is composed of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen.  Through a process of electrolysis (the use of electricity, which can be obtained by using solar energy in space), you can separate these into hydrogen and oxygen.  When you fuel both into a rocket, or in this case, a satellite, it creates a reaction that will propel the rocket or satellite into its desired orbit. 

This is a market that is needed right now!  There are over 400 satellites that need refueling in order for them to remain in their proper orbits, or else their orbits will deteriorate and fall back into the Earth’s atmosphere, where they will burn.  Should this happen, and it does, all the time, the company will have to replace the satellite, with building a new one, along with the cost of launching it, which means, they will have to spend a lot of money in order to replace it.  This is just one satellite.  Think of how much it would cost to replace several, or a whole network, being 50 or more.

Should these satellites be refueled, they can propel themselves back into their proper orbits, adding years, perhaps decades, of use, thus saving the companies who own them millions, billions of dollars.

The market for fuel will be huge.   How much will these companies pay for these fuels, to keep their satellites in orbit?  Gold, as of this writing, is said to be worth $18,000 per pound.  Water, in space is said to be worth $23,000 per pound.  In space, water is worth more than gold.  

It is estimated that it would cost $50 million to fuel one satellite per year.  The price may sound steep, but think about the cost of building a new satellite plus the cost of launching it.  With 400 satellites needing fuel to stay in orbit, we are looking at a $20 billion a year market, just with water from asteroids alone.  

Later, we can build fueling depots in space, not just for satellites, but with any rocket launched from Earth needing to venture further than low Earth orbit (200 miles up).  This could lessen the need for heavy lift launch vehicle from Earth (i.e. the proposed Space Launch System).  Space stations also need refueling, for the same reason as satellites. 

Water would be a fuel, but would also be for traditional uses:  sustenance for humans and plants (agriculture).  One little known fact is that water can also be used for radiation shielding.  One cubic meter of water can shield all radiation, especially in the event of solar flares.

Water will be the first extraterrestrial element to be harvest from asteroids, and it won’t be the last.  Asteroids are also composed of other elements, among them being Platinum Group Metals (PGMs), for computers, components in solar power satellites, and, of course, jewelry.  Other metals will be mined for construction materials for space stations, habitats, factories, and settlements on the Moon.  Wealth will come from all these elements, along with the process of manufacturing materials needed for construction of space colonies.  Mostly, whatever is mined in space will be used in space.  

Factories in zero gravity will produce pure crystals, alloys, and medicines, chemical mixtures and compounds that cannot be mixed on Earth because of its gravity.  New cures for diseases can be found, and its being done on the International Space Station right now.  Of course, mass producing all this will bring in profits.

Space tourism, the first money making venture on the list, will become popular as costs decrease, with orbital flights, stays in orbiting hotels, and eventually, on the Moon.

Transportation will play a large part in all this, and what will be needed is fuel.  This will not come from the Earth, but the asteroids near Earth’s orbit.

And so it begins.  Space tourism will come first, then, when we reach an asteroid, we will start to mine it, starting with the most valuable element, water.  This process will then start a chain reaction, a slow one, but a reaction nonetheless, of what will be needed afterwards to either stay in business, and create new businesses.  Many of these will be those that we, at present, can’t even imagine.  

Recently, a new company called “Tethers Unlimited” proposed to build a satellite, or many satellites, that can construct large structure in space by using tethers, generating them and then spinning them, like that of a spider, into whatever shape it pleases.  This process is similar to that of a 3-D printer, which is being used on the International Space Station right now.  This is something I never would have imagined.  

Anyway, once transportation, and then mining of water from asteroids takes off, there will be other industries following in their wake, and space business will start to boom into a multi-trillion dollar economy.  That’s right, trillion!

Alastair Browne

Book Review: John S. Lewis: Asteroid Mining 101 - Wealth For The New Space Economy

This book is for those who have intimate knowledge of the Solar System, and a little knowledge of Geology would also help in understanding this book.  If you have a big interest in space development, I suggest you read one of John S. Lewis’s previous books, either “Mining the Sky,” and/or “Space Resources” before reading this book.

This book is lavishly illustrated, and it is no doubt a textbook for asteroids, and can be used as such in the classroom.

There are 10 chapters, the first bing the Introduction to the subject of asteroids and asteroid mining, and the second chapter summarizing the Solar System in general.

Chapter III is “Breakthroughs in Asteroid Processing,” telling about one of two new asteroid mining companies, Deep Space Industries, and their hopes for scouting near-Earth asteroids (NEAs).  These are asteroids that cross Earth’s orbital path, and there are literally thousands of them.  Dr. Lewis proposes using CubeSats, very small probes, four inches/10 centimeters to one side and weighing 12 to 25 pounds/12 kilograms, presently used in communications.

A dozen of these inexpensive probes can be launched from one rocket and sent out to analyze these NEAs, for future capture and mining whatever elements can be found.  This would be the beginning of the space mining industry.

The next four chapters basically deals with the composition of the asteroids themselves, both near Earth and in the belt between Mars and Jupiter.  This is the science of them, the types of asteroids, along with meteors and comets, their origins, and what they are composed of in order to focus on what asteroids would be of most interest to any future mining industry.  Also, the materials in these asteroids react to each other as well as to the sun and the vacuum.

Probably the most volatile (mineral) rich asteroids are closest to the sun, being the eight groups of carbonaceous asteroids, and of those eight types, the carbonaceous chondrites would be of the most interest, being composed of iron mixed with other elements (oxygen, sulfur, etc.) and rare metals such as platinum group metals, metals that would be easier to mine there than on Earth.  

One big major interest is that 20% of these NEAs are easier to reach than the Moon itself.

The last three chapters finally gets into the details of mining the asteroids themselves.  From the beginning of this process, there are the questions, how do we dock with the asteroid?  They have low gravity, so the ship has to be bolted on it.  How do we mine it?  It can’t be like they mine minerals back on Earth.  There is the process of the separation of the individual elements, using chemicals, heating and filtration, pressurization, and a carbonyl process of pressure using CO, carbon monoxide, to mix with other elements to reach the desired mineral.  How then do we process the minerals?  There have to be factories right in space, Earth orbit or otherwise.

The most important question is, can it turn a profit?  Whatever products the asteroidal minerals are used to make have to be in high demand, on Earth or in space.  One must remember is that no industry will set up a factory in space unless they know they can turn a profit, and that profit has to be huge;  i.e. worth the trouble and expense (transportation costs, etc.) in venturing into space in the first place.

What will mostly be in demand from these asteroids will not be on Earth, but in space.  Silicates will be used for radiation shielding and agriculture in space colonies, ice from these asteroids will be used for drinking, agriculture, and for propellant.  Ferrous metals will be used to structural materials in the construction of large space facilities.  Platinum Group Metals will be in high demand, but they will not be the primary metal to be mined, mainly because they are a lot harder to extract.  They will be a byproduct, however.  There will be many byproducts, such as Nitrogen, Oxygen, Carbon, Phosphates, and Calcium, all needed in agriculture.  

So agriculture and the construction of space habitats, factories, and solar power satellites will become one of the main uses of these asteroidal materials.  These are all barely mentioned at the end of the book (SPS systems I may have added in, but will exist nonetheless), but it makes its point.

This is a short book, with an appendix about the composition of asteroids, what processes will be needed to mine them, and what the materials can be used for if any company participating in this venture wants to turn a profit.  I do recommend that you add this to your space development library, and if you are a college professor in the space field, consider using this book for the classroom.

Alastair Browne