Bold Adventurers and Entertaining Storytellers will Profitably lead the way into Space

This is an update to my previous article about true industries and reasons for space.

Some people talk about mining helium 3. Helium 3 is valuable when you first have working commercial aneutronic nuclear fusion. Even in my more optimistic assessment that is not until the 2020s. Earth can get billions of tons of rare earth materials off the ocean bottom (recent Japan find) or can get uranium from the ocean (Japan can do it for about $150 per pound, there is 4 billion tons in the ocean).

The true larger industries for space :
Information and satellite servicing
Tourism
Entertainment
Colonization

Information and satellite servicing

The satellite business is already a $168 billion a year business. An $8-20 billion market for improved servicing of satellites with space tugs for raising orbits, repairs, refueling seems like a reasonable estimate of a near term market.

Space Tourism in More Detail

Bladerunner quote -

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate.

Space tourists may not see what Roy Batty saw. But there amazing real life views and experiences to be had in space. They will see things that people who have not gone to space would not be able to truly experience even if they watched an IMAX movie from the space station.

Adventure tourism by some measures is an $89 billion market (excluding airfare and gear/clothing). (15 pages)

Conducted in late 2009, the final study surveyed people from representative countries within Latin America, North America and Europe, regions that account for 72.8% of all international tourism expenditures1 and 68.7% of all international departures. Based on UNWTO-reported departure figures, as well as the percentage of adventure trips reported by the respondents in the survey, statistical analysis was used to estimate that nearly 150 million adventure trips are taken every year.

Hard adventure includes trekking, climbing (mountain, rock and ice) and caving. This is about 2% of the market in terms of number of trips, but hard adventure is more expensive. The next trip question on the survey suggests that hard adventuring could be increasing to 3.5% of the adventure market. Expeditions to Everest cost $70,000 to 200,000. $200,000 is needed for an attempt at the summit. About 10 to 16% of the people who go to Everest die. Mountaineering and caving have real danger and statistically can be more dangerous than what has been experienced by astronauts (about 2% fatalities).

Orbital space hotels where people will be able to see the curvature of the Earth or even the whole Earth (from a Lagrange point or from the moon for Earthrise) for the view of earth against the blackness of space.

Soft adventure tourism is possible for space with a focus on views and other experiences and this market is 10 to 15 times bigger than the hard adventure market. Selling space this way is possible if the safety can be increased.

Orbital space hotels will also provide opportunities for space sex (400 mile club).

Space adventure (hard and soft) tourism seems like it could be a $10 billion per year with potential to grow even more.

Nano Quadrotors formation flying and the X-RHex for modular payloads

The General Robotics, Automation, Sensing, and Perception (GRASP) lab at UPenn posted a video with nano quadcopters showing remarkable agility and the ability to perform as a team.

CNet - The quadcopters are able to flip over and maintain flight. More amazing (unnerving?) is their operation in formation. Based on commands, 16 quadcopters change direction, land, navigate past obstacles, and even fly in a figure-eight formation.

The protein dynein 'walks' along filaments to transport material inside cells

Harvard - Molecular motors, built from proteins, are a kind of transport service that keep cells functioning. They traffic essential chemical packages between the heart of the cell, the nucleus, and the cell periphery. In elongated cells such as neurons, this can be a big commute in cellular miles, equivalent to a person walking from Boston to Manhattan. The constant shuttling of materials by motors keeps cells alive and allows cells to move and divide, and talk to their neighbors.

It’s no surprise, then, that when these motors stop functioning, serious problems can result. In fact, defects in dynein-based transport have been linked to Lou Gehrig’s and Parkinson’s disease and the neurodevelopmental disease lissencephaly.

Nature - Molecular motors: A staggering giant

The protein dynein 'walks' along filaments to transport various cargoes within the cell. Two studies reveal that, unlike other motor proteins, dynein's steps are not strictly coordinated.

NASA Space Technology Roadmaps and Priorities

NASA Space Technology Roadmaps and Priorities: Restoring NASA's Technological Edge and Paving the Way for a New Era in Space (468 pages)

The report is designed to give the agency feedback on draft roadmaps they submitted in 2010 and to help the space agency prioritize its research. The council took into account NASA's "likely" level of funding for new technology, about $500 million to $1 billion a year.

Self-Assembling Nanorods: Berkeley Lab Researchers Obtain 1, 2 and 3D Nanorod Arrays and Networks

A relatively fast, easy and inexpensive technique for inducing nanorods – rod-shaped semiconductor nanocrystals – to self-assemble into one-, two- and even three-dimensional macroscopic structures has been developed by a team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). This technique should enable more effective use of nanorods in solar cells, magnetic storage devices and sensors. It should also help boost the electrical and mechanical properties of nanorod-polymer composites.

Leading this project was Ting Xu, a polymer scientist who holds joint appointments with Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division and the University of California (UC) Berkeley’s Departments of Materials Sciences and Engineering, and Chemistry. Xu and her research group used block copolymers – long sequences or “blocks” of one type of monomer bound to blocks of another type of monomer – as a platform to guide the self-assembly of nanorods into complex structures and hierarchical patterns. Block copolymers have an innate ability to self-assemble into well-defined arrays of nano-sized structures over macroscopic distances.

Future work will look at assembling nanorods into tetrapod and other shapes.

Transmission electron micrograph (a) shows cadmium sulfide nanorods forming arrays that are aligned and oriented parallel to the cylindrical microdomains of block copolymers. Schematic drawing (b) illustrates copolymers with nanorods.

Nanoletters - Direct Nanorod Assembly Using Block Copolymer-Based Supramolecules

Spacex successfully tests fires SuperDraco engine for the Dragon capsule

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has successfully test fired SuperDraco, a powerful new engine that will play a critical role in the company’s efforts to change the future of human spaceflight. The engine will enable launch escape at any point in the launch.

“SuperDraco engines represent the best of cutting edge technology,” said Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO and Chief Technology Officer. “These engines will power a revolutionary launch escape system that will make Dragon the safest spacecraft in history and enable it to land propulsively on Earth or another planet with pinpoint accuracy.”

The SuperDraco is an advanced version of the Draco engines currently used by SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft to maneuver on orbit and during reentry. As part of SpaceX’s state-of-the-art launch escape system, eight SuperDraco engines built into the side walls of the Dragon spacecraft will produce up to 120,000 pounds of axial thrust to carry astronauts to safety should an emergency occur during launch.

SuperDraco engines will provide the Dragon spacecraft with the capability to perform on target propulsive landings anywhere in the solar system. Credit: SpaceX

Defkalion releases video of Hyperion Cold Fusion Device test and an online Project to send testers to Defkalion

1. Ecat World - Defkalion Green Technologies released a short video of some testing taking place on one of their “bare” reactors. Recently the company issued an invitation for qualified professional organizations to come and do some testing at their Greek facilities — so this gives some idea of what they will be dealing with.