In situ resource utilization

Somehow this executive order from 2 weeks ago flew under my radar. The emphasis is mine.

Section 1. Policy. Space Policy Directive-1 of December 11, 2017 (Reinvigorating America’s Human Space Exploration Program), provides that commercial partners will participate in an “innovative and sustainable program” headed by the United States to “lead the return of humans to the Moon for long-term exploration and utilization, followed by human missions to Mars and other destinations.” Successful long-term exploration and scientific discovery of the Moon, Mars, and other celestial bodies will require partnership with commercial entities to recover and use resources, including water and certain minerals, in outer space.

Uncertainty regarding the right to recover and use space resources, including the extension of the right to commercial recovery and use of lunar resources, however, has discouraged some commercial entities from participating in this enterprise. Questions as to whether the 1979 Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (the “Moon Agreement”) establishes the legal framework for nation states concerning the recovery and use of space resources have deepened this uncertainty, particularly because the United States has neither signed nor ratified the Moon Agreement. In fact, only 18 countries have ratified the Moon Agreement, including just 17 of the 95 Member States of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Moreover, differences between the Moon Agreement and the 1967 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies — which the United States and 108 other countries have joined — also contribute to uncertainty regarding the right to recover and use space resources.

Americans should have the right to engage in commercial exploration, recovery, and use of resources in outer space, consistent with applicable law. Outer space is a legally and physically unique domain of human activity, and the United States does not view it as a global commons. Accordingly, it shall be the policy of the United States to encourage international support for the public and private recovery and use of resources in outer space, consistent with applicable law.

The timing of this announcement in the midst of an epidemic could be a coincidence. Or it could be that there's no more effective quarantine than thousands of miles of space.

Regardless, it's good to know the civil authorities are at least thinking about these things. That's about as much you can hope for. I have no confidence in NASA's manned spaceflight proposals. They're the ones who abandoned the Moon, abandoned Skylab, and still haven't developed an American rocket to send American astronauts into space on since they retired the Space Shuttle.

What NASA is very good at is talking about lofty goals just over the horizon, but the horizon never gets any closer. They're a play-it-safe bureaucracy, and manned spacelight out of low Earth orbit entails big risk. I'm no Elon Musk fan, but his kind of crazy is what it takes to push people past the envelope.

Let's look back to a time when this wasn't the case. When NASA had some balls.

From July 1969 to December 1972, the Apollo program sent seven missions to land on the Moon. Six succeeded. The Apollo spacecraft weighed 100,000 pounds. Getting it to the Moon took a single-use Saturn V rocket, the most powerful machine ever built. It burned 6 million pounds of fuel and oxidizer, and cost $1.23 billion per launch in 2019 dollars. That comes out to 60 pounds of fuel and oxidizer and $12,300 per pound of payload.

The less you take into space, the more affordable space travel is. That's why in situ resource utilization (ISRU) is key to the future of space travel. ISRU represents the biggest opportunity to save costs and establish viable communities beyond Earth's atmosphere. What you can make, grow, or mine at your destination is one less thing that has to be sent up from Earth.

As I was researching for my first book, Tendrils to the Moon, I learned some fascinating things. I had long assumed the lunar regolith, or dirt, is useless. It's not. You can use it as a growth medium for crops. You can use it to mix concrete. You can cook it to separate oxygen from the silicates that make up the dirt.

The technology for the latter process exists today. When I found out about it, I knew I had to include it in the book. I went so far as to base the description of the technology on the Lunar Volatile Extractor's (LVE) actual schematic.

It's those details that give hard sci-fi tangibility and grit. People have told me they liked Tendrils for that reason.

You're welcome to see for yourself. I've made the first three chapters of Tendrils to the Moon available for free. If it piques your interest, you can read the rest for only a buck, or by signing up for my mailing list. I appreciate the support!