Living off the Land in Space: Green Roads to the Cosmos Book

Foreword     xi
Acknowledgments     xiii
Introduction: Citizens of the Cosmos     1
Further Reading     5
The Old Frontier     9
Paleolithic Migrations     10
Neolithic and Bronze Age Migrants     11
Historical Migrations     12
Further Reading     15
The New Frontier     17
The Moon as a Habitat     18
Living Among the Near-Earth Objects     20
The Lure of Mars     22
Settling the Outer Solar System     24
Interstellar Environments     25
Further Reading     26
The Rocket and Its Limits     29
Rocket Fundamentals     33
Rocket Varieties     36
Electric Rockets     36
Nuclear-Thermal and Solar-Thermal Rockets     37
Rocket Futures     38
Further Reading     38
The First "Green" Space Technologies     41
Aeroassisted Atmospheric Reentry     42
Planetary Gravity Assists     44
Further Reading     47
Probes to the Planets: Where We've Been on Our Journey     51
Robots to the Moon!     52
TheLure of Our Sister Planet     54
Blistering Mercury     55
Tantalizing Mars     56
Distant Giants     60
Small Worlds     63
Further Reading     65
Probes to the Stars: Concept Studies     67
Interstellar H-Bombs     69
A Sanitized Orion     70
Some Wonderful Improbabilities     72
TAU: NASA's First Interstellar Probe Study     73
Star Sailing     74
Further Reading     77
Breaking Out Into Space: Visionary Futures     79
Cylinder Cities     81
Power for the Earth     83
Beyond the Space Cylinders     85
Life in the Space Cities     86
Further Reading     88
Thinking Interstellar     91
Earthly and Understandable Units of Measure     92
Distance in the Solar System and Beyond     93
NASA's Interstellar Initiative and the Interstellar Probe Mission     96
Further Reading     102
Technological Readiness     105
Technology Readiness Levels     107
Basic Principles Observed and Reported     107
Basic Principles Observed and Reported      108
Analytical and Experimental Critical Function and/or Characteristic Proof of Concept     109
Component and/or Breadboard Validation in a Laboratory Environment     110
Component and/or Breadboard Validation in a Relevant Environment     111
System or Subsystem Model or Prototype Demonstration in a Relevant Environment (Ground or Space)     112
System Prototype Demonstration in a Space Environment     115
Actual System Completed and "Flight Qualified" Through Test and Demonstration (Ground or Space)     116
Conclusion     116
Further Reading     116
Space Brakes ("Living Off the Land" by Using a Planetary Atmosphere)     119
Aeroentry     120
Aerobraking     121
Aerocapture     123
Aerocapture Application to Solar-System Resource Surveys     126
Some Aerocapture Issues     127
Aerogravity Assist     128
Further Reading     128
The Ion Trail     131
Ion Drive History     132
Electric-Propulsion Fundamentals     133
Initial Interplanetary Application of Ion Propulsion     135
Possible Ion Propulsion Technology Application to Solar-System Development     137
Further Reading     138
The Orbital Steam Locomotive     141
Solar-Thermal Rocket Fundamentals     142
Near-Term Application of Solar-Thermal Rockets     144
Possible Application of Solar-Thermal Technology to Solar-System Development     146
Further Reading     146
Sky Clippers     149
Photon Sailing History     150
Solar Sailing Fundamentals     151
Current Sail Technology     153
Missions for Near-Term Solar Photon Sails     156
Near-Future Solar-Sail Development Possibilities     158
Solar-Photon Sails and Space Development     159
Further Reading     159
Art or Science?     161
The Message Plaques     162
The Pioneer Plaques     162
The Voyager Plaques     164
A Future Message Plaque Possibility: Holography     165
Further Reading     167
Space Beanstalks     169
Electrodynamic Tethers: Tapping a Planet's Magnetic Field for Power and Propulsion     170
Tethers for Propulsion and Power at Jupiter     176
Momentum Exchange Electrodynamic Reboost (MXER) Tethers     179
Further Reading     183
Chemical Propulsion for Space Exploration: Good for Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow     185
The Moon: A Refueling Depot for Deep-Space Exploration     187
Mars: The Red Planet May Provide Fuel for Round Trip Travel to Earth     188
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune: Our Next Stops     189
Asteroids and Comets: Abundant and Dispersed Gas Stations     190
Human Exploration     193
Aerocapture     195
Solar-Electric Propulsion     196
Solar-Thermal Propulsion     197
Solar Sails     199
Space Tethers     200
Defending the Earth     203
Nuclear Impact-Threat Mitigation     205
Using Space Resources to Mitigate the Threat     206
Further Reading     208
Space Miners     211
Possible Near-Earth Resource Locations     212
Preliminary Exploration     215
Mining the Atens     215
Tapping More Distant Space Mines     217
Further Reading     217
Some Exotic Possibilities     219
Plasma Sails     220
Magnetic Propulsion     222
Antimatter Propulsion     222
Breakthrough Propulsion Physics     225
Replacing the Rocket: Antigravity      226
Replacing the Rocket: Thrust Machines     226
Tapping ZPE and Getting Something for Nothing     227
Hyperspace Shortcuts     227
Instant Earths     228
The Red-Eye Special     229
Further Reading     229
Sights on Centaurus     233
The First Starships     234
The Slow Boat to the Stars     235
Fast Ships     237
Spreading Through the Galaxy     238
Further Reading     239
Afterword     241
Index     243