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		<title><![CDATA[High Frontier Forums - Real Space]]></title>
		<link>http://highfrontier.com/forum/</link>
		<description><![CDATA[High Frontier Forums - http://highfrontier.com/forum]]></description>
		<pubDate>Fri, 17 Jul 2026 03:32:53 +0000</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[The High Frontier: An Easier Way]]></title>
			<link>http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=250</link>
			<pubDate>Wed, 01 Aug 2018 12:50:20 -0700</pubDate>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=250</guid>
			<description><![CDATA[Al Globus, perhaps one of the most active writers and researchers in the large scale human settlement of space, has written a new book entitled, "The High Frontier: An Easier Way", available on Amazon.  (In the UK's part of Amazon, for instance, here: <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/High-Frontier-Easier-Way-ebook/dp/B07FYWM41W/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1533151651&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.co.uk/High-Frontier-Easier-Way-ebook/dp/B07FYWM41W/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1533151651&amp;sr=1-1</a>)<br />
<br />
One of his main themes in recent years is that humans can adapt to rotating space structures faster than many people thought possible.  <br />
<br />
Looking forward to having a read!<br />
Adam]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Al Globus, perhaps one of the most active writers and researchers in the large scale human settlement of space, has written a new book entitled, "The High Frontier: An Easier Way", available on Amazon.  (In the UK's part of Amazon, for instance, here: <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/High-Frontier-Easier-Way-ebook/dp/B07FYWM41W/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1533151651&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.co.uk/High-Frontier-Easier-Way-ebook/dp/B07FYWM41W/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1533151651&amp;sr=1-1</a>)<br />
<br />
One of his main themes in recent years is that humans can adapt to rotating space structures faster than many people thought possible.  <br />
<br />
Looking forward to having a read!<br />
Adam]]></content:encoded>
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			<title><![CDATA[The "G-Lab Hotel"]]></title>
			<link>http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=218</link>
			<pubDate>Mon, 15 May 2017 20:47:19 -0700</pubDate>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=218</guid>
			<description><![CDATA[High Frontier user Bob Brodbeck has been using the game, not so much as a game, but as a tool to aid in designing real-world space stations.  He's just published an article about his design, "<a href="http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3239" target="_blank">The G-Hab Hotel</a>" over at the well-respected online publication The Space Review.<br />
<br />
<img src="http://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3239a.jpg" border="0" alt="[Image: 3239a.jpg]" /><br />
<br />
He writes:<br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote><cite>Quote:</cite>Partial artificial gravity most importantly improves crew and guest health. The system will mitigate the negative effects of zero-g on human health and productivity, both in-space and after Earth return.</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
Great stuff!  Please go over to The Space Review and <a href="http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3239" target="_blank">check it out</a>!]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[High Frontier user Bob Brodbeck has been using the game, not so much as a game, but as a tool to aid in designing real-world space stations.  He's just published an article about his design, "<a href="http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3239" target="_blank">The G-Hab Hotel</a>" over at the well-respected online publication The Space Review.<br />
<br />
<img src="http://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3239a.jpg" border="0" alt="[Image: 3239a.jpg]" /><br />
<br />
He writes:<br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote><cite>Quote:</cite>Partial artificial gravity most importantly improves crew and guest health. The system will mitigate the negative effects of zero-g on human health and productivity, both in-space and after Earth return.</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
Great stuff!  Please go over to The Space Review and <a href="http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3239" target="_blank">check it out</a>!]]></content:encoded>
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			<title><![CDATA[Software from NASA]]></title>
			<link>http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=205</link>
			<pubDate>Thu, 16 Mar 2017 22:53:39 -0700</pubDate>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=205</guid>
			<description><![CDATA[<a href="https://software.nasa.gov/" target="_blank">https://software.nasa.gov/</a><br />
<br />
One that stands out being of likely interest here <a href="https://software.nasa.gov/software/GSC-16824-1" target="_blank">https://software.nasa.gov/software/GSC-16824-1</a><br />
<blockquote><cite>Quote:</cite>Evolutionary Mission Trajectory Generator (EMTG)<br />
<br />
EMTG is a global trajectory optimization tool intended for interplanetary mission design. The technology automatically searches for the optimal sequence of planetary flybys and propulsive maneuvers for maximizing payload delivery at a destination. Designed for minimal user oversight, EMTG requires only start location, destination, allowable launch-date range, allowable flight time, and minimal spacecraft hardware information.</blockquote>
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<a href="https://software.nasa.gov/" target="_blank">https://software.nasa.gov/</a><br />
<br />
One that stands out being of likely interest here <a href="https://software.nasa.gov/software/GSC-16824-1" target="_blank">https://software.nasa.gov/software/GSC-16824-1</a><br />
<blockquote><cite>Quote:</cite>Evolutionary Mission Trajectory Generator (EMTG)<br />
<br />
EMTG is a global trajectory optimization tool intended for interplanetary mission design. The technology automatically searches for the optimal sequence of planetary flybys and propulsive maneuvers for maximizing payload delivery at a destination. Designed for minimal user oversight, EMTG requires only start location, destination, allowable launch-date range, allowable flight time, and minimal spacecraft hardware information.</blockquote>
]]></content:encoded>
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			<title><![CDATA[Blue Origin's "Blue Moon" cargo delivery service]]></title>
			<link>http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=202</link>
			<pubDate>Fri, 03 Mar 2017 06:34:02 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=202</guid>
			<description><![CDATA[Blue Origin has been circulating a white paper at NASA about a proposal called "Blue Moon" to deliver tons of cargo to and from the Moon in the near future.  This would use their existing New Shepard VTVL rocket, launched into orbit on top of an Atlas V, SLS, or their own New Glenn booster.<br />
<br />
Read all about it in this <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/03/02/an-exclusive-look-at-jeff-bezos-plan-to-set-up-amazon-like-delivery-for-future-human-settlement-of-the-moon/?utm_term=.e5f725ce0ad0" target="_blank">Washington Post article</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
This is <span style="font-weight: bold;">seriously exciting stuff</span>.  In just the last week we've learned that SpaceX will be taking <a href="http://www.geekwire.com/2017/elon-musk-spacex-dragon-moon/" target="_blank">people around the Moon</a> as soon as next year; Bigelow Aerospace is ready to build roomy <a href="http://floridapolitics.com/archives/233013-robert-bigelow-stand-ready-send-station-moon" target="_blank">space stations in Lunar orbit</a>, or even on the surface; and now Blue Origin is prepared to provide cheap, reliable cargo delivery to and from the Moon.<br />
<br />
Mars is great, but it's not the next step in the technology tree.  The Moon is, and it looks like all the major space players are now turning there attention there.  We could see some major progress in the next 5-10 years!<br />
<br />
<br />
Oh yeah, and here's a video of Bezos explaining why it's important that we expand out into the solar system... no news to High Frontier players, but it's great to see these ideas gaining traction!<br />
<br />
<!-- start: video_youtube_embed --><br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tjz2vP3zPhE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<!-- end: video_youtube_embed -->]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Blue Origin has been circulating a white paper at NASA about a proposal called "Blue Moon" to deliver tons of cargo to and from the Moon in the near future.  This would use their existing New Shepard VTVL rocket, launched into orbit on top of an Atlas V, SLS, or their own New Glenn booster.<br />
<br />
Read all about it in this <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/03/02/an-exclusive-look-at-jeff-bezos-plan-to-set-up-amazon-like-delivery-for-future-human-settlement-of-the-moon/?utm_term=.e5f725ce0ad0" target="_blank">Washington Post article</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
This is <span style="font-weight: bold;">seriously exciting stuff</span>.  In just the last week we've learned that SpaceX will be taking <a href="http://www.geekwire.com/2017/elon-musk-spacex-dragon-moon/" target="_blank">people around the Moon</a> as soon as next year; Bigelow Aerospace is ready to build roomy <a href="http://floridapolitics.com/archives/233013-robert-bigelow-stand-ready-send-station-moon" target="_blank">space stations in Lunar orbit</a>, or even on the surface; and now Blue Origin is prepared to provide cheap, reliable cargo delivery to and from the Moon.<br />
<br />
Mars is great, but it's not the next step in the technology tree.  The Moon is, and it looks like all the major space players are now turning there attention there.  We could see some major progress in the next 5-10 years!<br />
<br />
<br />
Oh yeah, and here's a video of Bezos explaining why it's important that we expand out into the solar system... no news to High Frontier players, but it's great to see these ideas gaining traction!<br />
<br />
<!-- start: video_youtube_embed --><br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tjz2vP3zPhE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<!-- end: video_youtube_embed -->]]></content:encoded>
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			<title><![CDATA[SpaceX says it can beat NASA to the Moon]]></title>
			<link>http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=201</link>
			<pubDate>Tue, 28 Feb 2017 06:23:58 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=201</guid>
			<description><![CDATA[From AviationWeek (free registration required):<br />
<br />
<a href="http://aviationweek.com/space/spacex-says-it-can-beat-nasa-moon" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: bold;">SpaceX Says It Can Beat NASA to the Moon</span></a><br />
<br />
Short version: SpaceX has two paying customers who have put a substantial deposit on a lunar fly-around, which it says it can pull off by the end of 2018.  This is ahead of even NASA's most nail-biting, aggressive estimates of when they might be able to do the same thing with SLS and Orion.<br />
<br />
Moreover, Musk said that SpaceX hopes to conduct more commercial lunar flights, and predicted that eventually they could account for 20% of company revenues.<br />
<br />
This is really fantastic news.  I've been cheering SpaceX for their innovative hardware and lean operation for years, while at the same time being disappointed at its sole focus on Mars, which is much too far away to be a sensible next step.  But I've hoped all along that once business starts developing around the Moon, SpaceX would surely not turn it down.  Now we see that's the case.  People are going to the Moon, and SpaceX will take them there.<br />
<br />
Now we just need Blue Origin to step up its game a bit, and get into the race as well... and we will truly have a virtuous cycle that drives costs down and services up.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[From AviationWeek (free registration required):<br />
<br />
<a href="http://aviationweek.com/space/spacex-says-it-can-beat-nasa-moon" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: bold;">SpaceX Says It Can Beat NASA to the Moon</span></a><br />
<br />
Short version: SpaceX has two paying customers who have put a substantial deposit on a lunar fly-around, which it says it can pull off by the end of 2018.  This is ahead of even NASA's most nail-biting, aggressive estimates of when they might be able to do the same thing with SLS and Orion.<br />
<br />
Moreover, Musk said that SpaceX hopes to conduct more commercial lunar flights, and predicted that eventually they could account for 20% of company revenues.<br />
<br />
This is really fantastic news.  I've been cheering SpaceX for their innovative hardware and lean operation for years, while at the same time being disappointed at its sole focus on Mars, which is much too far away to be a sensible next step.  But I've hoped all along that once business starts developing around the Moon, SpaceX would surely not turn it down.  Now we see that's the case.  People are going to the Moon, and SpaceX will take them there.<br />
<br />
Now we just need Blue Origin to step up its game a bit, and get into the race as well... and we will truly have a virtuous cycle that drives costs down and services up.]]></content:encoded>
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			<title><![CDATA[The TRAPPIST-1 solar system (and what it means to us)]]></title>
			<link>http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=199</link>
			<pubDate>Thu, 23 Feb 2017 14:42:47 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=199</guid>
			<description><![CDATA[You've probably all seen this already — researchers this week <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/dwarf-star-hosts-seven-possibly-habitable-planets" target="_blank">announced</a> the finding of four more Earth-sized planets in the TRAPPIST-1 solar system, about 40 light years from here.  That brings the total to seven; three of these are clearly in the habitable zone, and all seven might have liquid water in some locations, depending on their atmospheres.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<img src="https://cosmos-magazine.imgix.net/file/spina/photo/9696/230217_trappist_1a.jpg?fit=clip&amp;w=835" width="721" height="511" border="0" alt="[Image: 230217_trappist_1a.jpg?fit=clip&amp;w=835]" /><br />
<br />
TRAPPIST-1 is a dwarf star, like most of the stars in the galaxy.  That means these planets orbit very close, with orbital periods all under 13 Earth days.  They're almost certainly tidally locked to the star, with one side always facing the sun and the other side always dark.  And, such close-in planets tend to lose their atmospheres, unless they happen to have a very strong magnetic field.<br />
<br />
But still.  We keep turning up more and more of these Earth-sized planets at the right distance from their suns to have liquid water.  If these planets don't have life already, they could probably be terraformed to support Earth life without too much trouble (by the time we'd be able to get to them anyway).<br />
<br />
Of course, by the time we can get to even Alpha Centauri, we won't need planets to live on anymore — most of humanity will be living in thousands (millions?) of orbital space colonies, throughout the solar system.  Planets will seem passé.<br />
<br />
But...  The bigger an ecosystem is, the more stable it is.  Space colonies will require active maintenance, and if some disaster ever strikes down all the people, the plants and animals won't survive long without them.  That's an extremely unlikely scenario, I know, but still... there's something viscerally appealing about seeding the galaxy with rich ecosystems, wherever we find a planet that's habitable (or can be made habitable) and not already alive.  These living green planets could act as reservoirs of life that could even outlast humanity, possibly evolving new civilizations someday.<br />
<br />
Or maybe I'm just dreaming.  What do you think?]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[You've probably all seen this already — researchers this week <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/dwarf-star-hosts-seven-possibly-habitable-planets" target="_blank">announced</a> the finding of four more Earth-sized planets in the TRAPPIST-1 solar system, about 40 light years from here.  That brings the total to seven; three of these are clearly in the habitable zone, and all seven might have liquid water in some locations, depending on their atmospheres.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<img src="https://cosmos-magazine.imgix.net/file/spina/photo/9696/230217_trappist_1a.jpg?fit=clip&amp;w=835" width="721" height="511" border="0" alt="[Image: 230217_trappist_1a.jpg?fit=clip&amp;w=835]" /><br />
<br />
TRAPPIST-1 is a dwarf star, like most of the stars in the galaxy.  That means these planets orbit very close, with orbital periods all under 13 Earth days.  They're almost certainly tidally locked to the star, with one side always facing the sun and the other side always dark.  And, such close-in planets tend to lose their atmospheres, unless they happen to have a very strong magnetic field.<br />
<br />
But still.  We keep turning up more and more of these Earth-sized planets at the right distance from their suns to have liquid water.  If these planets don't have life already, they could probably be terraformed to support Earth life without too much trouble (by the time we'd be able to get to them anyway).<br />
<br />
Of course, by the time we can get to even Alpha Centauri, we won't need planets to live on anymore — most of humanity will be living in thousands (millions?) of orbital space colonies, throughout the solar system.  Planets will seem passé.<br />
<br />
But...  The bigger an ecosystem is, the more stable it is.  Space colonies will require active maintenance, and if some disaster ever strikes down all the people, the plants and animals won't survive long without them.  That's an extremely unlikely scenario, I know, but still... there's something viscerally appealing about seeding the galaxy with rich ecosystems, wherever we find a planet that's habitable (or can be made habitable) and not already alive.  These living green planets could act as reservoirs of life that could even outlast humanity, possibly evolving new civilizations someday.<br />
<br />
Or maybe I'm just dreaming.  What do you think?]]></content:encoded>
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			<title><![CDATA[How to return to the Moon (to stay!) within a few years]]></title>
			<link>http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=198</link>
			<pubDate>Thu, 23 Feb 2017 14:28:12 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=198</guid>
			<description><![CDATA[Great essay by Howard Bloom, one of the governors of the National Space Society:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/how-to-get-back-to-the-moon-in-4-years-this-time-to-stay/" target="_blank">How to Get Back to the Moon in 4 Years--This Time to Stay</a><br />
<br />
I think he's spot-on here.  If NASA's purpose really is to advance the settlement of space, rather than to provide jobs in key congressional districts, then we really should scrap SLS and Orion, and leverage these innovative space companies.  SpaceX and Blue Origin for transportation, and Bigelow Aerospace for habitation — that frees NASA to focus on infrastructure and innovative techs like lunar mining, power, agriculture, etc.<br />
<br />
But that's just me... what do you all think about it?]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Great essay by Howard Bloom, one of the governors of the National Space Society:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/how-to-get-back-to-the-moon-in-4-years-this-time-to-stay/" target="_blank">How to Get Back to the Moon in 4 Years--This Time to Stay</a><br />
<br />
I think he's spot-on here.  If NASA's purpose really is to advance the settlement of space, rather than to provide jobs in key congressional districts, then we really should scrap SLS and Orion, and leverage these innovative space companies.  SpaceX and Blue Origin for transportation, and Bigelow Aerospace for habitation — that frees NASA to focus on infrastructure and innovative techs like lunar mining, power, agriculture, etc.<br />
<br />
But that's just me... what do you all think about it?]]></content:encoded>
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			<title><![CDATA[Space Based Solar Power]]></title>
			<link>http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=191</link>
			<pubDate>Tue, 06 Dec 2016 14:09:16 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=191</guid>
			<description><![CDATA[A new article of mine about Space Based Solar Power:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://blog.the-brights.net/2016/12/05/space-based-solar-power-the-key-to-a-bright-future/#sthash.GdbIzHcQ.dpbs" target="_blank">http://blog.the-brights.net/2016/12/05/space-based-solar-power-the-key-to-a-bright-future/#sthash.GdbIzHcQ.dpbs</a><br />
<br />
Thanks,<br />
Adam]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[A new article of mine about Space Based Solar Power:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://blog.the-brights.net/2016/12/05/space-based-solar-power-the-key-to-a-bright-future/#sthash.GdbIzHcQ.dpbs" target="_blank">http://blog.the-brights.net/2016/12/05/space-based-solar-power-the-key-to-a-bright-future/#sthash.GdbIzHcQ.dpbs</a><br />
<br />
Thanks,<br />
Adam]]></content:encoded>
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			<title><![CDATA[recent advancements in solar cells]]></title>
			<link>http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=190</link>
			<pubDate>Thu, 01 Dec 2016 07:26:30 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=190</guid>
			<description><![CDATA[IEEE has gathered together a whole bunch of hard data on solar cell efficiency over the last decade into one cool, interactive chart.<br />
<br />
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/PzqVS1b.png" width="405" height="248" border="0" alt="[Image: PzqVS1b.png]" /><br />
<br />
Click <a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/static/interactive-record-breaking-pv-cells" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: bold;">here</span></a> for the full interactive chart, and links to deeper analysis.<br />
<br />
For space colonization, the rapid increases in solar cell efficiency are good news.  Sure, a nuclear plant would be great, but politically, solar panels are a much easier sell.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, as terrestrial solar gets better and cheaper, it chips away at the economic advantage of space-based solar power.  So we may need to find other anchor industries to support the initial space-based economy.  My bet's on tourism and video production.  But what do you think?]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[IEEE has gathered together a whole bunch of hard data on solar cell efficiency over the last decade into one cool, interactive chart.<br />
<br />
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/PzqVS1b.png" width="405" height="248" border="0" alt="[Image: PzqVS1b.png]" /><br />
<br />
Click <a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/static/interactive-record-breaking-pv-cells" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: bold;">here</span></a> for the full interactive chart, and links to deeper analysis.<br />
<br />
For space colonization, the rapid increases in solar cell efficiency are good news.  Sure, a nuclear plant would be great, but politically, solar panels are a much easier sell.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, as terrestrial solar gets better and cheaper, it chips away at the economic advantage of space-based solar power.  So we may need to find other anchor industries to support the initial space-based economy.  My bet's on tourism and video production.  But what do you think?]]></content:encoded>
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			<title><![CDATA[Multi-deck design I've been dreaming about]]></title>
			<link>http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=183</link>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Nov 2016 13:45:21 -0700</pubDate>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=183</guid>
			<description><![CDATA[Here's a little something that's been rolling around in my head for a while...<br />
<br />
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/8rx5Qam.png" width="598" height="400" border="0" alt="[Image: 8rx5Qam.png]" /><br />
(Right-click and select "View Image" to see the full-sized version.)<br />
<br />
This is in fact a blueprint of the colony design that appears in that "<a href="http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=170" target="_blank">Ball falling in a space colony</a>" simulation I posted a while back.  I keep coming back to this design because it strikes me as a very practical, achievable near-term space colony.  Spinning at 2 RPM, we get over 350 thousand square meters of 1-G living space in the outer deck.  But I'm very fond of the martian and lunar decks too, which provide good amounts of space at the gravity level of those bodies.<br />
<br />
And then we have the zero-G deck in the center.  It's only 40 m across, but that's still a pretty huge space.  If we counter-rotate it, or in other words make that deck <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> rotate, then it would be 260 thousand cubic meters of true zero-G environment.<br />
<br />
So what would we do with all that?  Well, the Mars and Moon decks would be ideal for training for operations (I don't like "missions" because they imply short-term visits) on those planets.  I can imagine all sorts of recreation and tourism, too.  A station like this, in equatorial low-Earth orbit, would be only a few minutes from the surface of the Earth; much easier and cheaper to reach than the actual Moon, and <span style="font-style: italic;">way</span> easier than Mars.<br />
<br />
For the same reasons, movie studios might want to rent out large spaces for filming; even with all our modern special effects, it's really hard to properly fake low gravity.  (<span style="font-style: italic;">The Martian</span>, for example, didn't even try, despite being a fantastic movie in all other respects.)<br />
<br />
I also suspect that the Mars and Moon decks might be reasonable places for adults to live and work.  Children would probably want to stay on the Earth deck most of the time, so their bones and muscles develop normally.  (Though the occasional visit to the lunar deck aviary, to strap on wings and fly around like a bird, would probably be a great form of exercise.)<br />
<br />
Note that <a href="http://highfrontier.com" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: bold;">High Frontier</span></a> does not currently allow nested decks like this one, alas.  Maybe someday!  In the meantime, you can at least simulate the colony with the outer deck, plus all the other parts not shown here — docking ports, power plant, radiators, etc.  I used it initially to plan the overall shape and stability, and when it comes time to pursue this design more seriously, I'll probably use it again to calculate mass, thermal balance, and so on.<br />
<br />
OK, that's it.  This idea has been trying to barrel its way out of my skull for weeks, so now that it's finally out, maybe I can get some peace.  <img src="http://highfrontier.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.png" alt="Smile" title="Smile" class="smilie smilie_1" />  Any feedback is very welcome!]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Here's a little something that's been rolling around in my head for a while...<br />
<br />
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/8rx5Qam.png" width="598" height="400" border="0" alt="[Image: 8rx5Qam.png]" /><br />
(Right-click and select "View Image" to see the full-sized version.)<br />
<br />
This is in fact a blueprint of the colony design that appears in that "<a href="http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=170" target="_blank">Ball falling in a space colony</a>" simulation I posted a while back.  I keep coming back to this design because it strikes me as a very practical, achievable near-term space colony.  Spinning at 2 RPM, we get over 350 thousand square meters of 1-G living space in the outer deck.  But I'm very fond of the martian and lunar decks too, which provide good amounts of space at the gravity level of those bodies.<br />
<br />
And then we have the zero-G deck in the center.  It's only 40 m across, but that's still a pretty huge space.  If we counter-rotate it, or in other words make that deck <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> rotate, then it would be 260 thousand cubic meters of true zero-G environment.<br />
<br />
So what would we do with all that?  Well, the Mars and Moon decks would be ideal for training for operations (I don't like "missions" because they imply short-term visits) on those planets.  I can imagine all sorts of recreation and tourism, too.  A station like this, in equatorial low-Earth orbit, would be only a few minutes from the surface of the Earth; much easier and cheaper to reach than the actual Moon, and <span style="font-style: italic;">way</span> easier than Mars.<br />
<br />
For the same reasons, movie studios might want to rent out large spaces for filming; even with all our modern special effects, it's really hard to properly fake low gravity.  (<span style="font-style: italic;">The Martian</span>, for example, didn't even try, despite being a fantastic movie in all other respects.)<br />
<br />
I also suspect that the Mars and Moon decks might be reasonable places for adults to live and work.  Children would probably want to stay on the Earth deck most of the time, so their bones and muscles develop normally.  (Though the occasional visit to the lunar deck aviary, to strap on wings and fly around like a bird, would probably be a great form of exercise.)<br />
<br />
Note that <a href="http://highfrontier.com" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: bold;">High Frontier</span></a> does not currently allow nested decks like this one, alas.  Maybe someday!  In the meantime, you can at least simulate the colony with the outer deck, plus all the other parts not shown here — docking ports, power plant, radiators, etc.  I used it initially to plan the overall shape and stability, and when it comes time to pursue this design more seriously, I'll probably use it again to calculate mass, thermal balance, and so on.<br />
<br />
OK, that's it.  This idea has been trying to barrel its way out of my skull for weeks, so now that it's finally out, maybe I can get some peace.  <img src="http://highfrontier.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.png" alt="Smile" title="Smile" class="smilie smilie_1" />  Any feedback is very welcome!]]></content:encoded>
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			<title><![CDATA[Jeff Bezos wants humanity to build orbital space colonies!]]></title>
			<link>http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=180</link>
			<pubDate>Sat, 29 Oct 2016 12:07:35 -0700</pubDate>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=180</guid>
			<description><![CDATA[Now <span style="font-style: italic;">here's</span> a guy who's got his head on straight!<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.geekwire.com/2016/jeff-bezos-space-colonies-oneill/?utm_source=GeekWire+Newsletters&amp;utm_campaign=ead3d95b3f-daily-digest-email&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_4e93fc7dfd-ead3d95b3f-234367617&amp;mc_cid=ead3d95b3f&amp;mc_eid=bfae680f85" target="_blank"><a href="http://www.geekwire.com/2016/jeff-bezos-space-colonies-oneill/" target="_blank">Where does Jeff Bezos see putting space colonists?</a></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Now <span style="font-style: italic;">here's</span> a guy who's got his head on straight!<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.geekwire.com/2016/jeff-bezos-space-colonies-oneill/?utm_source=GeekWire+Newsletters&amp;utm_campaign=ead3d95b3f-daily-digest-email&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_4e93fc7dfd-ead3d95b3f-234367617&amp;mc_cid=ead3d95b3f&amp;mc_eid=bfae680f85" target="_blank"><a href="http://www.geekwire.com/2016/jeff-bezos-space-colonies-oneill/" target="_blank">Where does Jeff Bezos see putting space colonists?</a></a>]]></content:encoded>
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			<title><![CDATA[Io's atmosphere freezes out every 42 hours]]></title>
			<link>http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=179</link>
			<pubDate>Thu, 27 Oct 2016 08:06:33 -0700</pubDate>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=179</guid>
			<description><![CDATA[We're trying to wrap up all these new orbits in the outer solar system (we've more than doubled the number of available orbits in the game!).  One of the things we have to work out is how much each one is hidden from the Sun.<br />
<br />
That led to this fun fact: <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/jupiter-s-shadow-turns-io-s-atmosphere-frost-once-every-42-hours" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Jupiter’s shadow turns Io’s atmosphere to frost once every 42 hours</span></a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://aspokastorias.yolasite.com/resources/planets/%CE%94%CE%99%CE%91%CE%A3/IO/Io-Jupiter_made%20with%20Celestia.jpg" width="512" height="320" border="0" alt="[Image: Io-Jupiter_made%20with%20Celestia.jpg]" /></div>
<br />
2 hours out of every 42-hour orbital period, Io passes behind Jupiter, and 80% of its atmosphere freezes out.  Neat, huh?]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[We're trying to wrap up all these new orbits in the outer solar system (we've more than doubled the number of available orbits in the game!).  One of the things we have to work out is how much each one is hidden from the Sun.<br />
<br />
That led to this fun fact: <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/jupiter-s-shadow-turns-io-s-atmosphere-frost-once-every-42-hours" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Jupiter’s shadow turns Io’s atmosphere to frost once every 42 hours</span></a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://aspokastorias.yolasite.com/resources/planets/%CE%94%CE%99%CE%91%CE%A3/IO/Io-Jupiter_made%20with%20Celestia.jpg" width="512" height="320" border="0" alt="[Image: Io-Jupiter_made%20with%20Celestia.jpg]" /></div>
<br />
2 hours out of every 42-hour orbital period, Io passes behind Jupiter, and 80% of its atmosphere freezes out.  Neat, huh?]]></content:encoded>
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			<title><![CDATA[living among the centaurs]]></title>
			<link>http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=174</link>
			<pubDate>Fri, 07 Oct 2016 10:07:45 -0700</pubDate>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=174</guid>
			<description><![CDATA[Recently I've been working on adding the outer solar system to <a href="http://HighFrontier.com" target="_blank">High Frontier</a>.  That, along with <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-10/ku-oom100616.php" target="_blank">this recent news</a> story, has got me thinking about a population of minor planets in the outer solar system known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaur_(minor_planet)" target="_blank">centaurs</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
Centaurs are small bodies that orbit somewhere out between Jupiter and Neptune.  But they're not <span style="font-style: italic;">that</span> small; the largest known, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10199_Chariklo" target="_blank">Chariklo</a>, has a diameter of about 250 km.  Many centaurs (including Chariklo) have a system of rings, as shown in this artist's concept.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/asteroid_ring-580x379.jpg" width="580" height="379" border="0" alt="[Image: asteroid_ring-580x379.jpg]" /></div>
<br />
What really struck me this week is how <span style="font-style: italic;">many</span> centaurs there are.  Check out this map of the outer solar system.  Only known objects are plotted on the map, but the estimated total number of objects is shown in in the key below.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://imgur.com/KP6cIZC.png" width="377" height="534" border="0" alt="[Image: KP6cIZC.png]" /></div>
<br />
That's right -- there are an estimated 44 <span style="font-style: italic;">thousand</span> centaurs at least 1 km in diameter.  They're a very interesting and diverse bunch of objects too, with characteristics of both comets and asteroids, and a variety of colors that suggest complex composition.  In short, they look like great places to build space colonies and make a home.<br />
<br />
So how many people could do that?  Let's run some numbers.<br />
<br />
First, since most of the centaurs are still unknown, let's estimate how many there are of various sizes.  Like most things in nature, they probably follow a power law, with many more small objects than large ones.  Here's a possible distribution that totals about 44,000 objects.  (Note that quantity is a log scale.)<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/NJkvyXe.png" width="586" height="259" border="0" alt="[Image: NJkvyXe.png]" /></div>
<br />
<br />
Now, doing some simple geometry, approximating each object as a sphere and assuming a typical density of 2 gm/cm^3, here's a table showing volume and mass.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/LDh2ABx.png" width="313" height="651" border="0" alt="[Image: LDh2ABx.png]" /></div>
6.6x10^22 sounds like a lot of mass, and it is.  It's about the same mass as our Moon.  But unlike the Moon, this mass is distributed in convenient, bite-sized pieces, most of them only a few kilometers in diameter.  Also unlike the Moon, this mass is rich in volatiles like water, as well as heavier stuff (carbon, iron, titanium, etc.) for building with.  For an experienced spacefaring civilization (say, us a thousand or so years from now), these centaurs would be very accessible sources of material for turning into deep-space colonies.<br />
<br />
While those colonies will no doubt come in an amazing variety of shapes and sizes, for the sake of argument, let's suppose they look like this.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/muae0CI.png" width="574" height="442" border="0" alt="[Image: muae0CI.png]" /></div>
<br />
This is a cylinder 1 km in radius and 1 km long, with <a href="http://highfrontier.com/2014/08/invented-endcaps-are-better/" target="_blank">inverted endcaps</a> for stability.  It rotates at a little under 1 RPM, producing Earth-like gravity for 6.3 km^2 of living area inside.  At a population density of 1500 people per km -- comparable to a typical American small town -- each habitat would house about 10,000 people.  Power is provided by a nuclear (fission or fusion) plant on the other end, not visible in this view.  The mass of this habitat works out to 150 Mt (1.5x10^11 kg).<br />
<br />
So, assuming only half the mass of each centaur is useful for building, and plugging that back into our table, what do we get?<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/shaofzn.png" width="606" height="647" border="0" alt="[Image: shaofzn.png]" /></div>
<br />
Yep, that's right.  We're looking at over 200 million habitats, housing 2 <span style="font-style: italic;">quadrillion</span> people, all living comfortably in small towns of 10,000 people each.  The total area of these habitats is nearly 3000 times the surface area of Earth, <span style="font-style: italic;">including the oceans</span>.  If you compare to just the land area of Earth, it's nearly 10,000 times greater.<br />
<br />
And this is just the centaurs.  There are other many collections of useful stuff in the solar system, including the main asteroid belt, the trojan asteroids co-orbiting with each of the gas giants, the Kuiper belt, and eventually the Oort cloud.<br />
<br />
The solar system is friggin' huge.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Recently I've been working on adding the outer solar system to <a href="http://HighFrontier.com" target="_blank">High Frontier</a>.  That, along with <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-10/ku-oom100616.php" target="_blank">this recent news</a> story, has got me thinking about a population of minor planets in the outer solar system known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaur_(minor_planet)" target="_blank">centaurs</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
Centaurs are small bodies that orbit somewhere out between Jupiter and Neptune.  But they're not <span style="font-style: italic;">that</span> small; the largest known, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10199_Chariklo" target="_blank">Chariklo</a>, has a diameter of about 250 km.  Many centaurs (including Chariklo) have a system of rings, as shown in this artist's concept.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/asteroid_ring-580x379.jpg" width="580" height="379" border="0" alt="[Image: asteroid_ring-580x379.jpg]" /></div>
<br />
What really struck me this week is how <span style="font-style: italic;">many</span> centaurs there are.  Check out this map of the outer solar system.  Only known objects are plotted on the map, but the estimated total number of objects is shown in in the key below.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://imgur.com/KP6cIZC.png" width="377" height="534" border="0" alt="[Image: KP6cIZC.png]" /></div>
<br />
That's right -- there are an estimated 44 <span style="font-style: italic;">thousand</span> centaurs at least 1 km in diameter.  They're a very interesting and diverse bunch of objects too, with characteristics of both comets and asteroids, and a variety of colors that suggest complex composition.  In short, they look like great places to build space colonies and make a home.<br />
<br />
So how many people could do that?  Let's run some numbers.<br />
<br />
First, since most of the centaurs are still unknown, let's estimate how many there are of various sizes.  Like most things in nature, they probably follow a power law, with many more small objects than large ones.  Here's a possible distribution that totals about 44,000 objects.  (Note that quantity is a log scale.)<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/NJkvyXe.png" width="586" height="259" border="0" alt="[Image: NJkvyXe.png]" /></div>
<br />
<br />
Now, doing some simple geometry, approximating each object as a sphere and assuming a typical density of 2 gm/cm^3, here's a table showing volume and mass.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/LDh2ABx.png" width="313" height="651" border="0" alt="[Image: LDh2ABx.png]" /></div>
6.6x10^22 sounds like a lot of mass, and it is.  It's about the same mass as our Moon.  But unlike the Moon, this mass is distributed in convenient, bite-sized pieces, most of them only a few kilometers in diameter.  Also unlike the Moon, this mass is rich in volatiles like water, as well as heavier stuff (carbon, iron, titanium, etc.) for building with.  For an experienced spacefaring civilization (say, us a thousand or so years from now), these centaurs would be very accessible sources of material for turning into deep-space colonies.<br />
<br />
While those colonies will no doubt come in an amazing variety of shapes and sizes, for the sake of argument, let's suppose they look like this.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/muae0CI.png" width="574" height="442" border="0" alt="[Image: muae0CI.png]" /></div>
<br />
This is a cylinder 1 km in radius and 1 km long, with <a href="http://highfrontier.com/2014/08/invented-endcaps-are-better/" target="_blank">inverted endcaps</a> for stability.  It rotates at a little under 1 RPM, producing Earth-like gravity for 6.3 km^2 of living area inside.  At a population density of 1500 people per km -- comparable to a typical American small town -- each habitat would house about 10,000 people.  Power is provided by a nuclear (fission or fusion) plant on the other end, not visible in this view.  The mass of this habitat works out to 150 Mt (1.5x10^11 kg).<br />
<br />
So, assuming only half the mass of each centaur is useful for building, and plugging that back into our table, what do we get?<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/shaofzn.png" width="606" height="647" border="0" alt="[Image: shaofzn.png]" /></div>
<br />
Yep, that's right.  We're looking at over 200 million habitats, housing 2 <span style="font-style: italic;">quadrillion</span> people, all living comfortably in small towns of 10,000 people each.  The total area of these habitats is nearly 3000 times the surface area of Earth, <span style="font-style: italic;">including the oceans</span>.  If you compare to just the land area of Earth, it's nearly 10,000 times greater.<br />
<br />
And this is just the centaurs.  There are other many collections of useful stuff in the solar system, including the main asteroid belt, the trojan asteroids co-orbiting with each of the gas giants, the Kuiper belt, and eventually the Oort cloud.<br />
<br />
The solar system is friggin' huge.]]></content:encoded>
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			<title><![CDATA[Congrats to Blue Origin on another successful test!]]></title>
			<link>http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=173</link>
			<pubDate>Wed, 05 Oct 2016 09:01:34 -0700</pubDate>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=173</guid>
			<description><![CDATA[Blue Origin just now conducted another New Shepard test flight — the fifth flight for this booster (something that would have been ridiculous to say a few years ago!).<br />
<br />
In this flight, they purposely triggered the launch abort system about 45 seconds into the flight, at the point of maximum dynamic pressure (i.e. just about the worst possible time to do it).  Everything performed flawlessly — the capsule blasted its way well clear of the booster, and the booster handled the extra stress without breaking a sweat.  The capsule parachuted down to a gentle landing, and the booster continued on up to the edge of space, and then came back down, and landed propulsively right on target.<br />
<br />
<img src="https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=41362.0;attach=1376160;image" border="0" alt="[Image: index.php?action=dlattach;topic=41362.0;...6160;image]" /><br />
<br />
I know this is just a suborbital hop, and I'm eager to see the much bigger New Glenn start flying soon.  But still, in Blue Origin's slow, methodical way, they are making steady progress towards safe, reliable, repeatable flight into space.  In a few years they will be real competition for SpaceX.<br />
<br />
Congratulations, Blue Origin!]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Blue Origin just now conducted another New Shepard test flight — the fifth flight for this booster (something that would have been ridiculous to say a few years ago!).<br />
<br />
In this flight, they purposely triggered the launch abort system about 45 seconds into the flight, at the point of maximum dynamic pressure (i.e. just about the worst possible time to do it).  Everything performed flawlessly — the capsule blasted its way well clear of the booster, and the booster handled the extra stress without breaking a sweat.  The capsule parachuted down to a gentle landing, and the booster continued on up to the edge of space, and then came back down, and landed propulsively right on target.<br />
<br />
<img src="https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=41362.0;attach=1376160;image" border="0" alt="[Image: index.php?action=dlattach;topic=41362.0;...6160;image]" /><br />
<br />
I know this is just a suborbital hop, and I'm eager to see the much bigger New Glenn start flying soon.  But still, in Blue Origin's slow, methodical way, they are making steady progress towards safe, reliable, repeatable flight into space.  In a few years they will be real competition for SpaceX.<br />
<br />
Congratulations, Blue Origin!]]></content:encoded>
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			<title><![CDATA[Blue Origin and SpaceX news at IAC]]></title>
			<link>http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=172</link>
			<pubDate>Tue, 27 Sep 2016 11:26:49 -0700</pubDate>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=172</guid>
			<description><![CDATA[Man, it's hard to concentrate today.<br />
<br />
Rob Myerson, president of <a href="https://www.blueorigin.com/" target="_blank">Blue Origin</a>, just gave a talk this morning at <a href="https://www.iac2016.org/" target="_blank">IAC 2016</a> (Internatinoal Astronautical Congress) in Guadalejara.  There wasn't a lot of new news there, except that it's clear Blue Origin has its eye on the big picture: the Moon, Mars, and "millions of people living and working in space" (which is long the mantra of orbital space settlement enthusiasts).  See <a href="http://www.geekwire.com/2016/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-space-mars-moon/" target="_blank">Alan Boyle's report</a> for more.<br />
<br />
<img src="http://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/150825-bezosblue-620x349.jpg" width="620" height="349" border="0" alt="[Image: 150825-bezosblue-620x349.jpg]" /><br />
<br />
And now, in about 5 minutes, Elon Musk is going to start his presentation, "<a href="http://www.iafastro.org/events/iac/iac2016/plenary-programme/making-humans-a-multiplanetary-species/" target="_blank">Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species</a>."  It's widely reported that he will provide details on his plan to settle Mars, including routine flights ferrying 100 tons (or 100 colonists) every 2 years.  Supposedly this will be <a href="http://www.iafastro.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/IAC-2016-Live-Webcast-of-all-Plenaries-Available.pdf" target="_blank">live streamed</a>, though since early this morning, the stream has shown me nothing but an animated logo.  (Edit: but it's also available on SpaceX's website <a href="http://www.spacex.com/webcast" target="_blank">here</a>.)<br />
<br />
<img src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iQuDev9QclgY/v0/-1x-1.jpg" width="504" height="335" border="0" alt="[Image: -1x-1.jpg]" /><br />
<br />
So, yeah... it's a bit hard to focus today.  <img src="http://highfrontier.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.png" alt="Smile" title="Smile" class="smilie smilie_1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Man, it's hard to concentrate today.<br />
<br />
Rob Myerson, president of <a href="https://www.blueorigin.com/" target="_blank">Blue Origin</a>, just gave a talk this morning at <a href="https://www.iac2016.org/" target="_blank">IAC 2016</a> (Internatinoal Astronautical Congress) in Guadalejara.  There wasn't a lot of new news there, except that it's clear Blue Origin has its eye on the big picture: the Moon, Mars, and "millions of people living and working in space" (which is long the mantra of orbital space settlement enthusiasts).  See <a href="http://www.geekwire.com/2016/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-space-mars-moon/" target="_blank">Alan Boyle's report</a> for more.<br />
<br />
<img src="http://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/150825-bezosblue-620x349.jpg" width="620" height="349" border="0" alt="[Image: 150825-bezosblue-620x349.jpg]" /><br />
<br />
And now, in about 5 minutes, Elon Musk is going to start his presentation, "<a href="http://www.iafastro.org/events/iac/iac2016/plenary-programme/making-humans-a-multiplanetary-species/" target="_blank">Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species</a>."  It's widely reported that he will provide details on his plan to settle Mars, including routine flights ferrying 100 tons (or 100 colonists) every 2 years.  Supposedly this will be <a href="http://www.iafastro.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/IAC-2016-Live-Webcast-of-all-Plenaries-Available.pdf" target="_blank">live streamed</a>, though since early this morning, the stream has shown me nothing but an animated logo.  (Edit: but it's also available on SpaceX's website <a href="http://www.spacex.com/webcast" target="_blank">here</a>.)<br />
<br />
<img src="https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iQuDev9QclgY/v0/-1x-1.jpg" width="504" height="335" border="0" alt="[Image: -1x-1.jpg]" /><br />
<br />
So, yeah... it's a bit hard to focus today.  <img src="http://highfrontier.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.png" alt="Smile" title="Smile" class="smilie smilie_1" />]]></content:encoded>
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			<title><![CDATA[swimming pool on the Moon]]></title>
			<link>http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=171</link>
			<pubDate>Fri, 23 Sep 2016 10:43:34 -0700</pubDate>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=171</guid>
			<description><![CDATA[...or in an orbital colony designed for 1/6 G!<br />
<br />
All beautifully explained in this <a href="https://what-if.xkcd.com/124/" target="_blank">XKCD What-If</a>.<br />
<br />
<img src="https://what-if.xkcd.com/imgs/a/124/dive.png" width="339" height="244" border="0" alt="[Image: dive.png]" /><br />
<br />
We have <span style="font-style: italic;">got</span> to do this in real life!]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[...or in an orbital colony designed for 1/6 G!<br />
<br />
All beautifully explained in this <a href="https://what-if.xkcd.com/124/" target="_blank">XKCD What-If</a>.<br />
<br />
<img src="https://what-if.xkcd.com/imgs/a/124/dive.png" width="339" height="244" border="0" alt="[Image: dive.png]" /><br />
<br />
We have <span style="font-style: italic;">got</span> to do this in real life!]]></content:encoded>
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			<title><![CDATA[ball falling in a space colony]]></title>
			<link>http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=170</link>
			<pubDate>Sun, 18 Sep 2016 21:17:28 -0700</pubDate>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=170</guid>
			<description><![CDATA[I was playing around this evening with simulating actual physics in a realistic space colony.  (No, this isn't something that's going to go into High Frontier.  It's the weekend, cut me some slack!)<br />
<br />
Here's my first ever virtual space colony "ball drop" experiment.  The little yellow sphere starts out 6 meters above the deck, initially stationary with respect to the rotating colony.  (Imagine it's being held by somebody on a platform, though that somebody, and the platform itself, are invisible.)  Then we drop it, much like Galileo dropping stones from the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  But we get a behavior that Galileo never saw:<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/ZZLq3Tm.gif" width="504" height="666" border="0" alt="[Image: ZZLq3Tm.gif]" /><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
The camera here is lined up for optimal viewing of that slight pull to the left.  In reality, of course, there is no pull to the left... the ball is traveling in a straight line, at a constant velocity from the moment it was released, and the colony is rotating around it.<br />
<br />
Details for the curious: the deck here has a 224-m radius and spins at 2 RPM, simulating 1G.  The white ceiling at the top of the view is about 130 m up. Those deck plates are 2 m squares, though unfortunately they don't line up perfectly with the ball's starting position — but if you can detect a slight bend in the plating, <span style="font-style: italic;">that</span> does align with where the ball starts.  So the ball's apparent sideways motion is about a meter or so, over a 6 meter drop.<br />
<br />
The physics simulation here is pretty simple.  On each physics timestep, we apply the ball's true (Newtonian) velocity to its position.  Then we account for how much the colony rotates around the ball.  But, for computational efficiency, we do this backwards: the colony stays put, so we counter-rotate the ball position and velocity by the same amount.  That's it.<br />
<br />
Finally, note that there is no air here; the ball is falling as in a vacuum.  In a real colony, of course, air would apply a force in the direction of the colony's spin, reducing this Coliolis effect by some amount that depends on the aerodynamics of the object.<br />
</div>
</div>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[I was playing around this evening with simulating actual physics in a realistic space colony.  (No, this isn't something that's going to go into High Frontier.  It's the weekend, cut me some slack!)<br />
<br />
Here's my first ever virtual space colony "ball drop" experiment.  The little yellow sphere starts out 6 meters above the deck, initially stationary with respect to the rotating colony.  (Imagine it's being held by somebody on a platform, though that somebody, and the platform itself, are invisible.)  Then we drop it, much like Galileo dropping stones from the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  But we get a behavior that Galileo never saw:<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/ZZLq3Tm.gif" width="504" height="666" border="0" alt="[Image: ZZLq3Tm.gif]" /><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
The camera here is lined up for optimal viewing of that slight pull to the left.  In reality, of course, there is no pull to the left... the ball is traveling in a straight line, at a constant velocity from the moment it was released, and the colony is rotating around it.<br />
<br />
Details for the curious: the deck here has a 224-m radius and spins at 2 RPM, simulating 1G.  The white ceiling at the top of the view is about 130 m up. Those deck plates are 2 m squares, though unfortunately they don't line up perfectly with the ball's starting position — but if you can detect a slight bend in the plating, <span style="font-style: italic;">that</span> does align with where the ball starts.  So the ball's apparent sideways motion is about a meter or so, over a 6 meter drop.<br />
<br />
The physics simulation here is pretty simple.  On each physics timestep, we apply the ball's true (Newtonian) velocity to its position.  Then we account for how much the colony rotates around the ball.  But, for computational efficiency, we do this backwards: the colony stays put, so we counter-rotate the ball position and velocity by the same amount.  That's it.<br />
<br />
Finally, note that there is no air here; the ball is falling as in a vacuum.  In a real colony, of course, air would apply a force in the direction of the colony's spin, reducing this Coliolis effect by some amount that depends on the aerodynamics of the object.<br />
</div>
</div>]]></content:encoded>
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			<title><![CDATA[new Blue Origin orbital rocket]]></title>
			<link>http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=168</link>
			<pubDate>Thu, 15 Sep 2016 11:55:03 -0700</pubDate>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=168</guid>
			<description><![CDATA[Blue Origin has announced a new rocket they've been working on for several years, called New Glenn.  This one is an orbital launcher, nearly as big as the Saturn V.<br />
<br />
Here's a nice graphic showing how current and near-future offerings stack up (with the Saturn V for reference).<br />
<br />
<img src="https://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/BlueOrigin_NewGlenTA-2-1024x768.jpg" width="768" height="576" border="0" alt="[Image: BlueOrigin_NewGlenTA-2-1024x768.jpg]" /><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.wired.com/2016/09/blue-orgins-new-glenn-rocket/" target="_blank">Wired</a> has a great article about it.  This <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/business/meet-new-glenn-the-blue-origin-rocket-that-may-someday-take-you-to-space.html" target="_blank">New York Times</a> piece is pretty good too, if you can forgive the imperial units.<br />
<br />
Like SpaceX, Blue Origin is planning to land the first stage (probably on a barge) and reuse it on multiple flights.<br />
<br />
This is really exciting news for space development — to drive performance up and costs down, you need a mature industry with some actual competition.  SpaceX has been so far ahead of the "old guard" that they essentially had no competition.  Now they will — I expect to see both companies launching frequently, with prices continuing to drop.  Falling prices will widen the market, enabling customers and applications that weren't possible before.  And a larger market means more flights, which will cause prices to fall further.<br />
<br />
And I also dig Jeff Bezos (leader of Blue Origin)'s attitude about space development.  From what I've read in the past, he has a very practical view, where first we develop cislunar space, and then expand our way outward from there.  This makes a lot more sense than the current obsession with Mars that you see in <span style="font-style: italic;">some</span> circles.  <img src="http://highfrontier.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.png" alt="Smile" title="Smile" class="smilie smilie_1" /><br />
<br />
All in all, very exciting times.  Who knows?  Maybe we will finally start settling the high frontier in the next few decades!]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Blue Origin has announced a new rocket they've been working on for several years, called New Glenn.  This one is an orbital launcher, nearly as big as the Saturn V.<br />
<br />
Here's a nice graphic showing how current and near-future offerings stack up (with the Saturn V for reference).<br />
<br />
<img src="https://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/BlueOrigin_NewGlenTA-2-1024x768.jpg" width="768" height="576" border="0" alt="[Image: BlueOrigin_NewGlenTA-2-1024x768.jpg]" /><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.wired.com/2016/09/blue-orgins-new-glenn-rocket/" target="_blank">Wired</a> has a great article about it.  This <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/business/meet-new-glenn-the-blue-origin-rocket-that-may-someday-take-you-to-space.html" target="_blank">New York Times</a> piece is pretty good too, if you can forgive the imperial units.<br />
<br />
Like SpaceX, Blue Origin is planning to land the first stage (probably on a barge) and reuse it on multiple flights.<br />
<br />
This is really exciting news for space development — to drive performance up and costs down, you need a mature industry with some actual competition.  SpaceX has been so far ahead of the "old guard" that they essentially had no competition.  Now they will — I expect to see both companies launching frequently, with prices continuing to drop.  Falling prices will widen the market, enabling customers and applications that weren't possible before.  And a larger market means more flights, which will cause prices to fall further.<br />
<br />
And I also dig Jeff Bezos (leader of Blue Origin)'s attitude about space development.  From what I've read in the past, he has a very practical view, where first we develop cislunar space, and then expand our way outward from there.  This makes a lot more sense than the current obsession with Mars that you see in <span style="font-style: italic;">some</span> circles.  <img src="http://highfrontier.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.png" alt="Smile" title="Smile" class="smilie smilie_1" /><br />
<br />
All in all, very exciting times.  Who knows?  Maybe we will finally start settling the high frontier in the next few decades!]]></content:encoded>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Population density]]></title>
			<link>http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=164</link>
			<pubDate>Fri, 09 Sep 2016 07:20:00 -0700</pubDate>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=164</guid>
			<description><![CDATA[I've been chatting with some friends this week about population density — a very convenient shorthand for working out how many people can comfortably live in a given amount of space (such as a space colony).<br />
<br />
Of course it varies a lot, but it looks like in general, a "small town" has a density of 1000 people per square mile or less, while a major city is much higher — Tokyo is 16,000 people per square mile, and New York is a whopping 27,000 people per square mile.<br />
<br />
Apparently O'Neill himself looked to Italian hill towns as a model of good living — they are widely renowned as beautiful and pleasant places to live.  So I looked some up:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortona" target="_blank">Cortona</a> is apparently one of the most famous such towns, but Wikipedia gives its area as 132 sq mi, and density as 170/sq mi</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perugia" target="_blank">Perugia</a>, the capital of the Umbria province, has an area of 174 sq mi with a density of 970/sq mi.</li>
<li>Montepulciano: 64 sq mi area, 220 people/sq mi.</li>
<li>San Casciano: 42 sq mi area, 400 people/sq mi.</li>
<li>Sorano: 64 sq mi area, 59 people/sq mi. <br />
</li></ul>
What about where you live?  You can probably find your own town in Wikipedia.  What's the population density there?  And as a resident, does that feel too high, too low, or just right?]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[I've been chatting with some friends this week about population density — a very convenient shorthand for working out how many people can comfortably live in a given amount of space (such as a space colony).<br />
<br />
Of course it varies a lot, but it looks like in general, a "small town" has a density of 1000 people per square mile or less, while a major city is much higher — Tokyo is 16,000 people per square mile, and New York is a whopping 27,000 people per square mile.<br />
<br />
Apparently O'Neill himself looked to Italian hill towns as a model of good living — they are widely renowned as beautiful and pleasant places to live.  So I looked some up:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortona" target="_blank">Cortona</a> is apparently one of the most famous such towns, but Wikipedia gives its area as 132 sq mi, and density as 170/sq mi</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perugia" target="_blank">Perugia</a>, the capital of the Umbria province, has an area of 174 sq mi with a density of 970/sq mi.</li>
<li>Montepulciano: 64 sq mi area, 220 people/sq mi.</li>
<li>San Casciano: 42 sq mi area, 400 people/sq mi.</li>
<li>Sorano: 64 sq mi area, 59 people/sq mi. <br />
</li></ul>
What about where you live?  You can probably find your own town in Wikipedia.  What's the population density there?  And as a resident, does that feel too high, too low, or just right?]]></content:encoded>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[transportation in a space colony]]></title>
			<link>http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=163</link>
			<pubDate>Tue, 06 Sep 2016 19:02:51 -0700</pubDate>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=163</guid>
			<description><![CDATA[I've been pondering transportation recently.  Even a small colony, say a radius of 250 m, is about 1.5 km around.  People walk about 5 kph, so that's 9 or 10 minutes to walk from one side to the other.<br />
<br />
That's not <span style="font-style: italic;">awful</span>, but I can easily imagine being in more of a hurry than that.<br />
<br />
But it's short enough that something like a train doesn't seem to make much sense.  If you have to wait 5-10 minutes for the train, it'd often be faster to just walk.<br />
<br />
I looked into moving sidewalks, but most of these today only go about 3 kph, i.e. slower than walking.  Of course if you walk on them, then you're going about 50% faster.  That gets you to the other side in about 6 minutes, which isn't bad, but of course you have to walk to/from the walkway endpoints, so it probably ends up being about a wash.<br />
<br />
In the Toronto airport, they have a cool high-tech moving walkway that actually accelerates at the beginning, and decelerates at the end, by expanding the tiles.<br />
<br />
<!-- start: video_youtube_embed --><br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/RsyC8HRFkrY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<!-- end: video_youtube_embed --><br />
The speed is about 2 kph at the ends, and 7 kph in the middle.  If you walked on it, that'd get you up to 13 kph, which gets you to the other side in about 4 minutes.  Pretty good!  But very complex, and you still have to get to/from the endpoints.<br />
<br />
<br />
At this point, I mentioned all this to my older son, who said: Why not just ride a bike?<br />
<br />
<img src="http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0972/5252/products/state_bicycle_co_fixie_tiburon_1_large.jpg?v=1443572944" width="480" height="320" border="0" alt="[Image: state_bicycle_co_fixie_tiburon_1_large.jpg?v=1443572944]" /><br />
<br />
Duh.  Average bicycle speed is 15.5 kph, and that gets you to the other side of the habitat in 3 minutes flat.  Assuming frequent bike racks, you can take your bike right from wherever you are to wherever you're going; no waiting, and no going to special on/off points.  Easy peasy.<br />
<br />
Not as young as you used to be?  No problem; you could use an electric bike, or take a bike taxi.<br />
<br />
Of course there are other personal transport vehicles these days: Segway (20 kph), so-called hoverboards (~12 kph), etc.  Probably space settlers will use all of these (and others we haven't thought of). But the good old-fashioned bike is hard to beat.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[I've been pondering transportation recently.  Even a small colony, say a radius of 250 m, is about 1.5 km around.  People walk about 5 kph, so that's 9 or 10 minutes to walk from one side to the other.<br />
<br />
That's not <span style="font-style: italic;">awful</span>, but I can easily imagine being in more of a hurry than that.<br />
<br />
But it's short enough that something like a train doesn't seem to make much sense.  If you have to wait 5-10 minutes for the train, it'd often be faster to just walk.<br />
<br />
I looked into moving sidewalks, but most of these today only go about 3 kph, i.e. slower than walking.  Of course if you walk on them, then you're going about 50% faster.  That gets you to the other side in about 6 minutes, which isn't bad, but of course you have to walk to/from the walkway endpoints, so it probably ends up being about a wash.<br />
<br />
In the Toronto airport, they have a cool high-tech moving walkway that actually accelerates at the beginning, and decelerates at the end, by expanding the tiles.<br />
<br />
<!-- start: video_youtube_embed --><br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/RsyC8HRFkrY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<!-- end: video_youtube_embed --><br />
The speed is about 2 kph at the ends, and 7 kph in the middle.  If you walked on it, that'd get you up to 13 kph, which gets you to the other side in about 4 minutes.  Pretty good!  But very complex, and you still have to get to/from the endpoints.<br />
<br />
<br />
At this point, I mentioned all this to my older son, who said: Why not just ride a bike?<br />
<br />
<img src="http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0972/5252/products/state_bicycle_co_fixie_tiburon_1_large.jpg?v=1443572944" width="480" height="320" border="0" alt="[Image: state_bicycle_co_fixie_tiburon_1_large.jpg?v=1443572944]" /><br />
<br />
Duh.  Average bicycle speed is 15.5 kph, and that gets you to the other side of the habitat in 3 minutes flat.  Assuming frequent bike racks, you can take your bike right from wherever you are to wherever you're going; no waiting, and no going to special on/off points.  Easy peasy.<br />
<br />
Not as young as you used to be?  No problem; you could use an electric bike, or take a bike taxi.<br />
<br />
Of course there are other personal transport vehicles these days: Segway (20 kph), so-called hoverboards (~12 kph), etc.  Probably space settlers will use all of these (and others we haven't thought of). But the good old-fashioned bike is hard to beat.]]></content:encoded>
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