The Kingdon of Tycho

It’s a very busy time at the Moon these days. Not since the dawn of the space age, with the space race between the USSR and USA have so many probes been sent to the Moon in so short a time. But this time it is not only the USA(LRO, LCROSS) and Russia(Luna-Glob) that are sending probes, but China(Chang’e), Japan(Selene) and India(Chandrayaan), and even Europe(Aurora), have joined the race. Add in the Google Liner X-Prize and there is one busy time in Lunar orbit.

We may have to introduce some form of space traffic control.

Environmentalism is not really about saving the planet. The Earth was here long before mankind came into being and if we wipe ourselves out the planet will continue along just fine without us. There are five mass extinctions in Earth’s fossil record. Mass extinctions that wiped out as many as 90% of living species. So even if mankind were to take most of the species now living with us in some environmental disaster the Earth will survive and life will recover and get along just fine without us. So when I talk about environmentalism and “green issues” I am not talking about saving the planet, I am talking about saving ourselves. The planet does not need us to save it.

I believe space development and settlement is the only way forward for mankind. The Earth is too small. There are not enough resources for us here and there are an infinite amount of resources waiting for us to exploit in outer space. If we are to continue to grow and develop then we have no choice but to expand into space. If we stay on Earth we won’t kill the planet, but we will kill ourselves.

Having said that environmentalism and “green issues” will play an important part of our future in space. In small enclosed ecosystems we will have no option but to reduce, reuse and recycle almost everything. The green technology developed on earth will find practical application off planet and the technology developed for space settlement will find good use back on Earth. An example of this is my post on Bioplastics and Desktop Manufacturing, where technology not specifically developed for space can be extremely useful to us.

I consider myself an environmentalist not because I want to save the Earth but because I want to save mankind. I believe in a future where all heavy manufacturing will be moved off Earth and into space, leaving the Earth as a type of natural park. A greener, cleaner Earth is only possible by settling space. The development and utilization of space resources is the only way to satisfy the legitimate desire of the developing world for the affluent lifestyles of western countries. And giving the developing world the same material success as western countries enjoy is the only way to prevent World War III.

So I urge you all to join with The Kingdon of Tycho in opening the last frontier, that of space, and give mankind the room it needs to grow and develop. Don’t do it for the good of the planet, do it to save your own arse and to make a brighter future for your children and grandchildren.

I have just read over on the Space.com website that Bigelow Aerospace Genesis 1 has completed over 10,000 orbits.

On behalf of The Kingdom of Tycho I would like to extend my congratulations to Bigelow Aerospace and wish them every continued sucess.

Salvage 1 is a 1979 made for TV movie. It served as a pilot for a TV series. I know I watched the series, but I don’t remember it. However I do remember the movie. It is the inspirational story of a junk man who uses surplus parts to assemble a rocket and fly to the moon.

The Salvage 1 team had two main things working for them:

• Firstly they had a brilliant new fuel that was so powerful it could fly a small rocket to the moon (think of the rocket ship from the 1930’s Flash Gorden serials) so they wouldn’t have to build a huge Saturn 5 or space shuttle.
• And secondly they were prepared to take more risks, rather having backups to backups with more backups added for safety like NASA, they designed a simpler and cheaper system.

At the time I thought it was great fun, but we didn’t need to build our own rockets out of scrap/surplus because the Space Shuttle was just around the corner and was going to give us regularly scheduled flights into orbit ever two weeks, or maybe even more frequently!

Around the same time I saw a documentary on TV about a guy who had a similar plan. He was going to fly himself into space using surplus  rocket parts. I didn’t remember his name or know what became of him. Obviously he didn’t succeed in building his rocket – but the Space Shuttle is not going to fly me to the Moon so maybe I will have to search for some rocket scientists to build me my own rocket.

In the meantime here is a YouTube video of some Salvage 1 clips set to “Space Cowboy” by NSYNC.

Don’t you just love those cheap 1970’s TV special effects

Here is an article I came across on the Universe Today websit considering the hazards and construction techniques for building a Moon base.