Human Expansion Triway into Space
• There are three principal human space expansion pathways, each focused on one of three principal imperatives in which space is key to the ultimate challenge facing humanity. Survival!

Human Expansion Triway into Space
• 1. Planetary Defense of our home world from potential impactors (Near Earth
Asteroids)
• 2. Establishing a viable exclave of human civilization on another world (Mars) to guarantee human survival should civilization on Earth be wiped out by an impact or other natural disaster, or implode through humancaused environmental degradation.
• 3. Using Space Resources to halt, and ultimately reverse environmental degradation on Earth through overuse of fossil fuels, and to create a more equitable global economy (The Moon)

Human Expansion Triway into Space
1. The danger of asteroid impacts

Human Expansion Triway into Space
1. Major Natural Threats beside Asteroids

Human Expansion Triway into Space
A Sensible Approach
• Before we can design a suite of astrochunck orbit adjustment method, we need to
1) identify all the possible impactors out there, and then
2) tag them with transponders so that we can keep ultra-accurate track of them and
3) characterize each as to internal cohesiveness and structure, then
4) on the basis of which population group poses the greatest threat, prioritize development and testing of methods of deflection
• Given the relative likelihood of different size impacts over time, the first things first, one step at a time plan sketched at right offers the best cost benefit ratio.
• We have to keep in mind that the odds of disaster from impact are less than the odds of a supervolcano eruption, or of a supertsunami event, or of a next ice age, any of which could devastate
Earth on a continental scale.
Asteroids are not the only natural threat we face. But they are the threat that we can do the most about.

Human Expansion Triway into Space
I. Changing Orbits of Threatening Astrochunks
• We are learning that asteroids come not only in many sizes and with serveral kinds of mineralogy, but that they have several kinds of complex rotations and several degrees of internal cohesiveness.
• Punch a bean bag, and it doesn’t fly away from you, it just rearranges itself around the impact point
• Giving an asteroid with a complex wobble a push in the desired direction can be very tricky.
• No one strategy fits every case

Human Expansion Triway into Space
1.
Other benefitfs of Asteroid identification & tracking
• Near Earth Asteroids & Comets are not only possible threats, they are reserves of raw materials that may be essential to our growing material needs:
√ iron, nickel, and other “engineering metals
√ precious metals: gold, silver, platinum - Platinum is now involved in over 25% of all modern industrial processes. It is most needed for the fuel cells that could usher in the “Hydrogen Economy
√ volatiles: water-ice, hydrocarbons, carbon and nitrogen ices - these may be vital imports for a lunar economy. Water-ice rich comets, comet hulks, and carbonaceous chondrite asteroids may be of use in the terraforming (or rejuvenation) of Mars

Human Expansion Triway into Space
2. Establishing a Viable Human Colony on Mars
• Mars is in many ways the most
“Earth-like” planet in our solar system.
1) total land surface of Mars is equal to total land surface of Earth
2)
Mars day is just a bit longer than ours. Mars has four seasons.
3)
Mars has a thin atmosphere and apparently a lot of water locked up in underground aquifers
4)
A Mars colony could someday survive cutoff of support from Earth
5)
We may be able to restore the warmer, wetter climate of early Mars

Human Expansion Triway into Space
2. Establishing a Viable Human Colony on Mars
• Stephen Hawking warned,
"the survival of the human race is at risk as long as it is confined to a single planet. Sooner or later, disasters such as an asteroid collision or nuclear war could wipe us all out."

Human Expansion Triway into Space
Synergies between Highways 1 & 2
• Mars could provide a valuable vantage point for identifying and tracking Earth approaching astrochunks that also approach Mars
• Some of these asteroids are sure to contain resources that will be of value on Mars and contribute to faster and more diversified industrialization
• Early civilization on Mars could also be threatened by asteroid impacts
• Some of the techniques developed to redirct Earth-approaching asteroids might also be used to direct comets into collision course with
Mars if this would prove useful in adding to Mars water reserves

Human Expansion Triway into Space
3. Using the Moon to Save Earth from Ourselves:
Consequences of Greenhouse Gas Overproduction (A)

Human Expansion Triway into Space
3. Using the Moon to Save Earth from Ourselves:
Consequences of Greenhouse Gas Overproduction (B)

Human Expansion Triway into Space
3. Using the Moon to Save Earth from Ourselves:
Consequences of Greenhouse Gas Overproduction (C)

Human Expansion Triway into Space
3. Using the Moon to Save Earth from Ourselves:
√ Solar Power Satellites made from Lunar Materials
• Solar Power Satellites receive more intense sunlight 24/7 and can beam the power to rectennas on Earth by microwaves or lasers
• A lot of material will be needed to build them, and it will cost 1/20th of the fuel to source the needed materials from the Moon as from Earth because of the Moon’s lighter gravity
• A solar satellite can be built of 92% lunar materials at only an 8% weight penalty
• Solar Power Satellites are an ideal solution for coal-burning China and
India and other 3rd World Nations

Human Expansion Triway into Space
3. Using the Moon to Save Earth from Ourselves:
√ Solar Power Arrays on the Moon itself
• Extensive farms of solar panels along the east and west limbs of the Moon would beam power direct to Earth or via orbiting relays
• When one limb is in darkness, the other will be in sunlight , guaranteeing around the month coverage
• Solar arrays would be far cheaper to build on the Moon itself , but the challenge for beaming power over a distance 10 times as great may be a problem.

Human Expansion Triway into Space
3. Using the Moon to Save Earth from Ourselves:
√ Lunar Helium-3 is the ideal Fusion Fuel

Human Expansion Triway into Space
3. Using the Moon to Save Earth from Ourselves:
√ Lunar Helium-3 is the ideal Fusion Fuel

Human Expansion Triway into Space
3. Using the Moon to Save Earth from Ourselves:
√ Lunar Helium-3 is the ideal Fusion Fuel

Human Expansion Triway into Space
3. Using the Moon to Save Earth from Ourselves:
√ Lunar Helium-3 is the ideal Fusion Fuel
• Had we the fusion plants to burn it, one Shuttle External Tank full of liquid Helium-3 would be enough to power the United States for a year.
• There is enough helium -3 in the upper 2 yards/meters of the moondust to bring the whole world up to our standard of living and keep it there for a thousand years
• And then? There’s a lot, lot more in the atmosphere of Uranus
• It’s a great recipe, but first we have to catch that rabbit fusion!

Human Expansion Triway into Space
3. Using the Moon to Save Earth from Ourselves:
The Moon has the resources to support an industrial economy

Human Expansion Triway into Space
3. Using the Moon to Save Earth from Ourselves:
Living Comfortably on the Moon
• We will cover ourselves with a 5 yard/meter thick blanket of moon dust that will provide protection from the cosmic elements and thermal equilibrium
• Heliostats will funnel sunshine inside; periscopic picture windows will connect us to the outdoors
• Graywater system toilets will fill the home with greenery, flowers, and sweet fresh air
• Each home will enter on a pressurized street for shirtsleeve travel anywhere in town

Human Expansion Triway into Space
3. Using the Moon to Save Earth from Ourselves:
Synergies with Planetary Defense from Asteroids
• Remote control telescopes on the Moon will identify more and smaller astrochunks and do a better job of tracking them.
• Lunar industries will be a market for materials mined from asteroids in the process of being shepherded into safer orbits
• A Catch-22 of Orbital Mechanics is that the closer two bodies are in orbital period, the less frequent the launch windows between them. F the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, the Moon will be the preferred staging point and outfitting point for asteroid belt bound missions.
• The Moon itself holds the shattered relics of hundreds of thousands of asteroid impacts

Human Expansion Triway into Space
3. Using the Moon to Save Earth from Ourselves:
Synergies between Highways to Moon and Mars
• The Moon Society can support this long range goal by prioritizing development of technologies useful on both worlds:
√ modular architectures including modular life support biosphere systems;
√ life support technologies
√ space suit development
√ mining, processing, and construction technologies
√ modular factory systems
√small pocket hospitals
√ agricultural and food production systems.
• Identify trade products between Mars and the Moon to support each other’s economy
• The start of a potentially very long list.

Moon <> Mars Trade will increase the economic viability of both frontiers

Human Expansion Triway into Space
Postscript: Lifeboat/Ark/Archives Survival Projects
• Establishing a survivable Human
Settlement on Mars, if it includes a
Bio-bank of Earth’s diverse plant and animal species with representative breeding stock, and an exhaustive archive of human culture and technology is helpful. But there risks being a settlement bias to pick and choose.
• An all inclusive Grand Archives of all Humanity and of Earth in a lava tube on The Moon that has already remained intact for 3.5 billion years or more is the best bet.

Human Expansion Triway into Space
1. Planetary Defense from killer asteroids
B612 Foundation
- Space Frontier Foundation
- National Space Society
- Moon Society
- Space Studies Institute
- The Planetary Society
2. Opening the Mars Frontier
The Mars Society
- Space Frontier Foundation
- National Space Society
- Moon Society
3. Resources on the Moon to Save Earth’s Environment
The Moon Society
- Space Frontier Foundation
- National Space Society

Human Expansion Triway into Space
• There is no reason why each group should not choose its own focus, while recognizing the validity of the others and playing support roles.
• If we do that, people, the media, & Congress will get the message: “We do have our act together!”

Human Expansion Triway into Space
• If you support the Triway into Space, please join one of the following
• National Space Society www.NSS.org
• The Mars Society www.MarsSociety.org
• The Moon Society www.MoonSociety.org
• Space Frontier Society www.space-frontier.org
• The Planetary Society www.planetary.org

www.MoonSociety.org
- Who we are & What we do
• We are a non-profit membership organization
• We do not design, build, purchase hardware or conduct missions
• We work to remove obstacles and lay foundations
• We strive to inspire and encourage those working in academia and in private industry
• We support the VSE in this time of war-induced budget cutbacks by looking for creative ways to tackle the programs that NASA is forced to cut
• How do we do these things?
√ “Spin-up” not “spin-off” We promote the predevelopment of the technologies needed to expand an initial moon base into a true resource-suing industrial settlement, by encour-agting entrepreneurs to do the R&D for any profitable terrestrial applications
√ www.lunarpedia.org
We have begun an open source Moon-focus wiki
√ Moon Miners’ Manifesto Our 20year old newsletter
√ Lunar Analog Research Station
we held a practice exercise at MDRS and are busy planning our own facility