The Kingdon of Tycho

Here is a NASA animation about the constellation program that I just found on YouTube.

This is stirring stuff, and a great use of American tax money . And while I agree whole heartedly with the sentiment, I have my doubts that NASA will fly anything like what is depicted in this video to the Moon. I am more sure now than ever that if we want to go back to the moon then we will have use our own resources to get ourselves there.

I thought I would give you some links to a couple of very interesting sites relating to my post on  Desktop Manufacturing.

The first is Fab @ Home which seeks to make a low cost freeform fabrication systems.

The second is RepRap which is making a fabricator that can make all the parts needed to make a new fabricator! Can anyone say Von Neumann machine

Desktop Manufacturing, Fab @ Home, RepRap offer us the ability to make what we need without having to import everything from Earth. They also have the potential to revolutionize manufacturing here on Earth.

Desktop Manufacturing is the logical development of rapid prototyping technology and provides the ideal solution to one of the key problems of any Moon Base, the storage of spare parts.

Any Moon Base is going to need a lot of machinery to run it. Machinery that is essential to the health and well being of of the people such as essential life support equipment, as well as as host of other equipment ranging from communications to personal entertainment. All this machinery and equipment is going to have to be maintained and repaired. The cost of transportation from Earth of replacement parts and new equipment is going to remain astronomically high for the foreseeable future so one of the key decisions affecting the success of any Moon Base is going to be the list of spare parts that are brought along.

On a finite budget we will not be able to bring a replacement for every part of every machine to the Moon. And while we will be bringing sturdy and robust equipment with us we do not know what will break until it breaks. But by designing our equipment to be made from parts that can be replicated by a Desktop Manufacturing system we eliminate the need to, and the expense of, bringing every spare part for every machine from Earth. Instead of shipping completed spare parts from Earth we can ship the materials needed to manufacture which ever spare part needs to be made. We will need to bring essential parts that can not be manufactured on the Moon. And we will need a store of spare parts that will need to be replaced immediately upon failure, as it can take some time to manufacture spare parts using Desktop Manufacturing techniques.
However by designing our equipment using parts that can be manufactured on the Moon by DeskTop Manufacturing equipment we will eliminate the need to ship parts from Earth and also enhance the security of the Moon Base, most especially in it’s early days.

As the first step in my prototype moon base I purchased a wormery. I bought it one month ago and set up as per the instructions. However I have made what is apparently the most common mistake with new wormery owners, I have over fed the worms and so the first month’s kitchen waste is now rotting and not composting(there is a difference) So I am one month, and one tray of compost, down.

I am going to use the first tray of waste to start a more traditional compost heap in my back garden/yard.

When I first founded TKoT(The Kingdom of Tycho) I envisioned myself learning about, experimenting with and developing the technologies needed to live on the moon. But I got side tracked by information over load and the shear enormity of developing a new country project. It has been a steep learning curve. For instance before founding TKoT I had no idea that Micronations and new country projects existed.

So in a way I have lost six years of development of the technologies needed to live on the moon, but I have gained a wealth of knowledge of other aspects of new country projects, business development and on a personal note became the farther of three beautiful children. So while on the surface the development of TKoT may seem to be nonexistent, underneath the foundations have been laid for future development.

However I have reached the point where something more concrete than the ideas behind TKoT needs to be developed. With that in mind there will soon be things to buy from TKoT. So watch this space.

I will also be launching Moon Base Verda a Prototype moon base to experiment and develop technologies needed to settle the Moon.