Category Archives: ISRU

Humans Fast, Machines Slow

Posted on Thu, 2010-09-09 by gravityloss

Detach a small capsule with the humans that goes directly to the surface (with only days of life support) and leave the untended craft to do multi-pass aerobraking Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Colonization, Depot, engines, ESA, Global, industry, ISRU, JAXA, Lunar, Models, Motivation, NASA, RLV:s, Science Links, Spacecraft, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Far Away, Yet So Close

Posted on Tue, 2010-03-02 by gravityloss

He who controls the [Earth-Moon Lagrange points/Phobos/Deimos/Lunar North Pole], controls the solar system. Why? Because in space, it is not the tyranny of distance that sets the rules – it’s delta vee instead. Since there’s no resistance, traveling large distances … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Colonization, ISRU, Lunar, Motivation, NASA | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Dual Propellant Expander

Posted on Thu, 2009-11-12 by gravityloss

Or what you are going to call it, an unrealized proposal from Aerojet around 1984. PDF Found on NTRS. The idea was to have two turbopumps (like on SSME), but instead operate on the expander cycle. Two heat exchangers, two … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Depot, engines, industry, ISRU, Lunar, NASA, RLV:s, Spacecraft, Transportation | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Reality and Future

Posted on Tue, 2009-08-11 by gravityloss

Jeff Greason is a rational person who simply gets it. It is mind boggling how completely opposite from someone like Mike Griffin he is. See Jeff’s presentation with the Augustine Panel. Paraphrasing, “we could go to Mars with Ares V … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Demotivation, Depot, ESA, Global, industry, ISRU, Lunar, Motivation, NASA, RLV:s, Spacecraft | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Heavy Lift Unnecessary

Posted on Tue, 2009-08-11 by gravityloss

There are a lot of implicit assumptions that heavy lifters of this or that throw weight must be used for future exploration beyond low Earth orbit. These “needs” have never been logically derived from anything. Yet space policy and exploration … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Demotivation, Depot, industry, ISRU, NASA, RLV:s | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Lunar Bases Must Be Buried

Posted on Wed, 2009-04-22 by gravityloss

Concept art of lunar bases tends to show spherical or cylindrical structures, but they suffer from one problem: radiation. (Both of the gamma / particle and heat kinds). The lunar environment has lots of solar and cosmic radiation. Nights also … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Colonization, ISRU, Lunar, Motivation, Science Links, Spacecraft | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

What NASA Should Do

Posted on Tue, 2009-04-21 by gravityloss

And partly what this blog is about (I realized in the middle that I’m typing like in a slide show, so I changed it into bullet points, as it’s an overview and not a deep text). I present my vision … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Depot, industry, ISRU, NASA, RLV:s, Spacecraft, Suborbital | Leave a comment

FLEX – Flexible Exploration Architecture

Posted on Fri, 2008-11-21 by gravityloss

I wrote this architecture proposal, FLEX, a few years ago. It analyzes NASA’s approach that the ESAS study picked and notices how most of the mass in a lunar exploration stack in LEO is actually liquid oxygen. By using a … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Depot, industry, ISRU, Lunar, Models, Motivation, NASA, RLV:s, Spacecraft | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Thorium MSR Design Possibilities

Posted on Mon, 2008-09-01 by gravityloss

There are a huge array of design possibilities for a Thorium molten salt reactor / liquid fluoride thorium reactor, but this post takes a very simplified approach to map a small part of the fascinating and diverse landscape with a … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Climate, Colonization, ISRU, Models, Motivation, Science Links, Thorium | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Bringer of the Second Nuclear Age

Posted on Mon, 2008-08-18 by gravityloss

Thorium Molten Salt Reactors – A Really Short Intro Thorium is about thrice as abundant compared to Uranium. And countless times more abundant than the U-235 Uranium isotope that is used mostly by modern nuclear reactors. You can use Thorium, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Climate, ISRU, Science Links, Thorium | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments