A magic Space Station that flies too...

AA Institute wrote:

If 5 asteroids of, say Tunguska proportions each, were to impact the
Earth - one on each continent over the next 5 years - then that might
persuade the world to start thinking about building a safe haven off
this planet!

Since there was no impact crater, the Tunguska event was more likely a
small comet. It exploded well above the ground and was vaporized. The
shock wave flattened the trees in a radial pattern under the air burst.


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starman wrote in message ...
AA Institute wrote:

If 5 asteroids of, say Tunguska proportions each, were to impact the
Earth - one on each continent over the next 5 years - then that might
persuade the world to start thinking about building a safe haven off
this planet!

Since there was no impact crater, the Tunguska event was more likely a
small comet. It exploded well above the ground and was vaporized. The
shock wave flattened the trees in a radial pattern under the air burst.

The damage was still extensive enough to rank as a major world
disaster had it happenend in a populated area.

The lingering thoughts I have on this "magic space station" concept
are not just confined to orbital colonies.

Establishing a correctly balanced 'controlled ecological life support
system' (CELSS) that can function as a self-sustaining cycle with the
minimum of external input will be the "holy grail" that eventually
aids humanity to escape from this planet in a permanent way. Finding
such an *optimum* CELSS model will be absolutely *fundamental* to all
future space colonisation visions, be they within an asteroid interior
space station (like the one I envision here), a base on the Moon or a
base on Mars or, ultimately, on a long duration voyage to the stars
lasting thousands of years.

There is a certain "magic" that exists in the many symbiotic
relationships we see in nature between all the creatures of this
planet. The bees pollenate flowers to help propagate plants. Light
from the Sun photosynthesises the leaves of plants which give off
oxygen and produce food. The microbes act on the minerals contained in
the soil to provide the plants with nutrients for growth. The heat
from the Sun warms the lakes and rivers causing water to evaporate up
into the sky and form clouds. The rains fall from the sky to water the
plants. Humans and animals consume the food and oxygen from plants and
breathe out CO2... and so on.

This global harmony can be modelled on a miniature scale within a
confined enclosure, initially with the aid of artificial recycling,
monitoring and adjustment. We don't necessarily need to excavate an
asteroid over decades, then grab it into orbit around the Earth and
then ferry up hundreds of tons of soil to overlay every inch of its
cylindrical interior to see if the biosphere cycle would work with
plants and animals by way of a 'CELSS' arrangement, as I envision in
my web article. We can do this inside a closed, fully sealed
underground cave or other excavated facility right here on Earth.
Pressurise it to one atmosphere, stick some plants and animals in
there and seal the entrance. Then start adjusting the "levers", use
fans to create winds, use sprinklers to create rain, use light bulbs
to simulate sunshine. Too much CO2? Reduce the number of animals. Too
much oxygen? Get rid of a few plants...etc etc You get the idea?

Through extensive experimentation and 'fine tuning' to get the balance
between all the components just right, it may some day be possible to
arrive at a working model callibrated to the "critical mass"
equilibrium that triggers whatever that "magic" is and the cycle
starts to "take over" running all by itself! With the biosphere
experiments done in the Arizona desert, I don't think the cycle was
engineered properly and the goals were nothing like what I am
describing here.

On the strength of its utterly fundamental importance to all future
off-Earth settlements, I personally wouldn't blink twice even if as
much as 20% of a space agency's fiscal budget were diverted towards a
CELSS program year after year... until we arrive at that optimum "holy
grail" model that is so desperately needed. I'd say *this* is just as
fundamental as building rockets to take us out into space and possibly
just a tiny bit more fundamental than doing microgravity science on
the ISS.


Abdul Ahad