8 thoughts on “A New Space-Settlement Initiative”

  1. They don’t need a new model, they just need to go to the days before the O’Neill movement side tracked space settlement into L-5 utopias to the Macrolife model Danridge Cole introduced in the early 1960’s. Pity he died so young and had his ideas marginalized by the O’Neillians…

      1. Connecting the dots is hard. Although 25 cents a square meter gets you there that doesn’t mean you can get 25 cents. I’m giving some thought to a penny auction like quibids and others.

        I really do think that Mars One is only likely to raise about 25% of their funding, but that presents an opportunity. They intend to be a media company. Just what the sale of real estate requires. It’s too early to approach them but it’s one of the things I will discuss with the trust attorney.

        If Musk can’t meet his goal of $500k but can meet $5m/colonist. that reduces 25 cents to less than a penny. making a half acre plot only $20. That can be sold (since worthless novelty deeds already sell for more than that.)

        Time is on our side.

      1. Jon,

        Glad to. His work should be far better known. He truly had a great vision, and plan, for human expansion throughout the Solar System.

        George Zebrowski wrote a novel on it in 1979. The plot is a bit thin, but as in “Atlas Shrugged,” the philosophical discussions and ideas that frame the second half of the book make up for it.

        http://www.amazon.com/Macrolife-Mobile-Utopia-George-Zebrowski/dp/1591023416

        Used copies are cheap on Amazon and worth the read.

  2. Edward Wright: “530,000 people attended Maker Faires last year. Citizen-science projects and hackerspaces are springing up all over the country. Space advocacy organizations must tap into that community to a create a Do It Yourself space movement.”

    This dovetails with something Dennis Wingo wrote about ISEE-3: “If we can do this, we will have an open source, publically accessible satellite data stream of the first open source satellite above Low Earth Orbit. ”

    I have said in the past that the space industry needed to go through a revolution much like the computer industry of the 1980s. In order for the public to find space relevant, it has to be in their hands. I view nanosatellites as the Heathkit H11 of the space age – one step away from the boom.

    1. They seem a bit too timid, but that’s understandable since they really don’t have the funding.

      We will outline a path for incremental development, beginning with low-cost suborbital spacecraft that are already under construction, followed by practical, achievable steps, leading ultimately to space settlement.

      While I wish suborbitals well I think they are not the fast track. Suborbitals look to at least two profit paths. Tourism and small research payloads which may be sent orbital.

      To me the more direct route is put a reusable, orbit to orbit, ship in orbit and charge tourists and other agencies to rent time aboard until you have funds to fuel it for other destinations (then sell tickets for that.)

      This leaves out a lot of smaller investors but there are other plans for that (starting at $35)

  3. The term “citizen-science” always seemed dumb and disrespectful to me. Does it mean professional scientists are not citizens? And what is an American citizen who does science work in another country? Are they now immigrate scientists?

    For the generations the term amateur was use with pride for those who pursed science not for monetary gain or to support themselves, but for the pure love of science. Why has it become so out of fashion? Why were these individuals “demoted” into sounding like what they do is merely a civic duty, like voting or serving on jury, rather than a passion?

    Many fields, like astronomy, geology, paleontology, meteorology, mineralogy, herpetology, ornithology, entomology, and botany are built on a foundation based on the work of amateurs, many of who were recognized as having more knowledge of specific areas than professional researchers. These same amateurs have written many of the most popular and useful books in their fields. Although amateurs still make numerous important contributions to these fields it seems that in the past their efforts were far more rewarded with respected by professions.

    So why has the new science generation decided to demean them with such a horrible term? Or to channel their passion into dull mindless projects like running data files on their computers at home? It seems that ever since the government started big money funding of science at the end World War II respect for amateurs has been declining among the professional scientists. No wonder fewer and fewer kids are interested in science. Why would anyone be interested in it when it now sounds like some kind of civic duty?

    Really, the mere fact that this new space settlement endeavor is going to be based on “citizen science” will probably doom it to failure by detouring it into the ghetto of school required science classes where students will do the minimum to get a grade and then move on.

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