Category Archives: Space Settlement

YHABFT: MIT MarsOne Analysis — Alternative Solutions to the Excess O2 Problem

Posted on February 11, 2015 by Jonathan Goff

A few months ago, a group at MIT did an analysis of the MarsOne mission that was fairly critical of the concept, on technical grounds. This week’s FISO telecon featured an update on the analysis they performed, particularly on the … Continue reading →

Posted in ISRU, Space Settlement | 15 Comments

Random Thought: Dragon V2 as an xGRF Platform?

Posted on January 2, 2015 by Jonathan Goff

Review: How Much Gravity Do We Need, and Why Do We Care? One of my hobby horses that I’ve blogged about a few times is the question of how much gravity do humans need to be healthy? As I’ve pointed … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Crew, Commercial Space, NASA, Space Development, Space Settlement, Space Tethers, SpaceX, Variable Gravity | 35 Comments

The Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Lunar Transportation Schemes: Part 1–Gear Ratios

Posted on December 28, 2013 by Jonathan Goff

[Note: I haven’t quite finished with my Venus ISRU series, but some of the articles I’ve read over the past few days drew me back to this series on propellantless lunar launch approaches that I started writing four years ago … Continue reading →

Posted in ISRU, Lunar Commerce, Lunar Exploration and Development, Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Lunar Transportation Schemes, Space Settlement, Space Transportation | 70 Comments

Venus ISRU: ISRU Development Phases

Posted on December 11, 2013 by Jonathan Goff

In the last post in this series, we discussed methods for gas phase processing once the easily condenseable atmospheric constituents had been condensed-out. Before continuing on to a discussion about various processes for creating chemical precursors, I thought it would … Continue reading →

Posted in ISRU, Space Settlement, Venus | 19 Comments

Venus ISRU: Gas Phase Processes

Posted on December 7, 2013 by Jonathan Goff

In the last post, we talked about methods to condense out the five most readily condenseable constituents of the Venusian atmosphere (sulfuric acid, water, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, and hydrogen fluoride). In some ways the next steps of the gas … Continue reading →

Posted in ISRU, Space Settlement, Venus | 14 Comments

Venus ISRU: Condenseables [Updated]

Posted on December 5, 2013 by Jonathan Goff

[Note: Karl caught an important oversight in the comments. With a concentration of 150ppm and a boiling point of only -10C, Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) should also be considered a condenseable. It’s dew point is likely pretty close to water’s. So … Continue reading →

Posted in ISRU, Space Development, Space Settlement, Venus | 19 Comments

Venus ISRU: What Do We Have to Work With?

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Jonathan Goff

In the last mini blog-post, we talked about some of the benefits of atmospheric-feedstock ISRU. But that leads to the question, what materials are there in the Venusian atmosphere, particularly in and around the 50km zone? While chemical engineering may … Continue reading →

Posted in ISRU, Space Development, Space Settlement, Venus | 54 Comments

Venus ISRU: Benefits of Atmospheric Feedstocks

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Jonathan Goff

The concept of in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) has long been an important one for space settlement. The more one can “live-off-the-land”, the less one has to bring with them, the more affordable settlement becomes. If one can lower the cost … Continue reading →

Posted in ISRU, Space Development, Space Settlement, Venus | Leave a comment

Venus ISRU: Introduction

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Jonathan Goff

While the Moon still has my “heart” when it comes to offworld destinations, I’ve long been interested in the idea of Venus Cloud Colonies (some references here and here and this article from earlier today). As several others have pointed … Continue reading →

Posted in ISRU, Space Development, Space Settlement, Venus | 15 Comments

Random Thoughts: Columbus Article Link and Lunar Patents?

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Jonathan Goff

I don’t think this counts as my monthly blog post, mostly because I’m linking to and commenting on someone else’s blog post, but here goes. Michael Mealling (a fellow Masten Alumni gone entrepreneur) set out this year to do a … Continue reading →

Posted in ISRU, Lunar Commerce, Lunar Exploration and Development, Propellant Depots, Space Development, Space Policy, Space Settlement | 8 Comments