We Commit To The Moon-Mars Mission - The True Spark for Changing the Culture - Report - Page 8
nologies deng fields of
mistry. The
provide corays, visible
netic radiae spectrum,
directly to
processing,
he fusion ren a “fusion
break rocks
r constituent
essing withemperatures,
ving parts,
ntermediate
nity into the
ls-refining.
freeing us from the immense limitation of needing to lift
all space mission requirements from the Earth’s surface.
(Note that 90% of the weight of the Saturn V rocket that
took mankind to the Moon was simply fuel.)
Additional priority lunar resources include helium-3
for fusion (discussed below) and rare-earth metals. Further resources available in abundance on the Moon include silicon, aluminum, magnesium, iron, and titanium
(with many additional resources available in varying
abundances).
Compact, advanced nuclear fission systems can power
the first lunar mining and manufacturing capabilities,
while more advanced capabilities will come with the
development of fusion technologies. As stated in a 1987
study3 of Lyndon LaRouche’s Moon-Mars program:
3. Executive Intelligence Review Quarterly
Quarter 1987, page 122.
TABLE 1
Type of Space
Operation
Supported
Specific Products or
Services Provided by
Space Operations
Information
Communications,
monitoring,
navigation, etc.
Transportation
Cargo and passenger
flights between Earth
orbits and lunar orbits
Manufacturing
Pharmaceuticals,
electronic and optical
products, solar
panels, alloys, parts,
components
Space stations
port entirely new capabilities
8
needed for mining
and prources on the Moon—and the
manufacturing in space envi-
Manufacturing,
medical and
recreational facilities,
food production, exourban habitats
The breakthrough in materials-separation and processing, however, will be the application of directed
energy, rather than conventional gross heat, through
the technologies developed in the emerging fields of laser and plasma chemistry. The fusion power plant can
provide coherent microwaves, x-rays, visible light, and
electromagnetic radiation from the entire spectrum,
which can be applied directly to materials. Plasma processing, using by-products of the fusion reaction, can
be used in a “fusion torch” or furnace, to break rocks
and soil down into their constituent elements directly. Processing without chemicals, high temperatures,
equipment with moving parts, holding vats, or other
intermediate steps, will bring humanity into the era of
one-step materials-refining.
Not only will this support entirely new capabilities
in space, the technologies needed for mining and processing the dispersed resources on the Moon—and the
technologies required for manufacturing in space environments (with an emphasis on increasingly automated
systems)—will create the largest levels of economic payback on Earth (as discussed below).
As much as possible, the large components for space
stations, spacecraft, and other space infrastructure
should increasingly be constructed from lunar and other
near-Earth resources, with facilities on the Moon and
in lunar and Earth orbits. Table 1, adapted from a 1983
study by Ehricke, illustrates how resources and prodEconomic Report, First
ucts developed from the Moon will be used to support
various Earth-Moon space operations.4
In the mid-1980s, Lyndon LaContributions from
Delivery Location for
Lunar industries &
Lunar Products or
Rouche, picking up on Ehricke’s
Infrastructure
Services
work, proposed that the fusionpowered spacecraft used for
Servicing/repair of
Primarily
satellites in
manned Mars missions should be
geosynchronous orbit
geostationary orbit.
largely manufactured from lunar
Refueling stations in
Lunar liquid oxygen,
resources—integrating the suclunar orbit, distant
lunar hydrogen,
cess of a Mars colonization misEarth orbit,
propellant containers,
geostationary, and low
sion with the requirements of
heat shields
Earth orbit.
lunar industrialization and fusion
propulsion technologies.
Raw materials,
semi-finished
products
Oxygen for air, water,
components,
subsystems, and
entire modules
Near Earth orbit
Near Earth orbit
geostationary, and
other orbits
Lunar Helium-3 for Fusion Propulsion
4. “Profitability of Manufacturing in
Space in View of Lunar Industrial Development and Geo-Socio-Economic
Benefit” (presented to ASME Winter
Meeting—Manufacturing in Space,
Boston, Nov. 17-18, 1983). Published in
L. Kops, ed., Manufacturing in Space, PED
Vol. 11 (NY: ASME, 1983), pp.183-198).
Develop advanced fusion propulsion spacecraft,We Commit to the Moon-Mars Mission
fueled by the helium-3 resources on the Moon—enabling safe and rapid human travel to Mars and other
