{"id":12,"date":"2013-05-29T05:16:31","date_gmt":"2013-05-29T05:16:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/factualfiction.com\/marsartists\/?page_id=12"},"modified":"2020-09-28T02:40:14","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T09:40:14","slug":"faq","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/marsartists\/faq\/","title":{"rendered":"        FAQ"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“Please consider the top SpaceX priority (apart from anything that could reduce Dragon return risk) to be Starship. If we don\u2019t improve our pace of progress, I\u2019m definitely going to be dead before we go to Mars. If it\u2019s taken us 18 years just to get ready to do the first people to orbit, we\u2019ve got to improve our rate of innovation or, based on past trends, I am definitely going to be dead before Mars.”<\/span>
Elon Musk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cBy the time construction of Island Two begins [\u2026] we may be exploiting the vast reserves of the asteroids, and not long afterward, if the economics is favorable, we may shut down the lunar mines, and leave the facilities there as ghost towns.\u201d<\/span>
Gerard K. O\u2019Neill, The High Frontier<\/em>, page 198
<\/span>(written prior to knowledge of near-Earth asteroids)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cowards Return to the Moon?<\/strong>
To suggest the moon offers a training ground for testing Mars missions is unprofessional. Differences in pressure, gravity, temperature, illumination, radiation, and resources require unique equipment. “Moon First” LunaMars advocates ought to expect public rebuttal when personal benefit, institutional inertia, or sheer engineering cowardice leads to claims that humans should return to the moon in order to test eventual Martian infrastructure. It is time to go to Mars now<\/em>. Directly. To Stay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We have wasted decades languishing in LEO. Despite this intergenerational disaster we have learned to cooperate in space with international partners while many astronauts have spent more time in zero gravity than would be required during a flight to Mars. Simulation of exact thermal, atmospheric, and solar conditions in chilled vacuum chambers on Earth will provide more realistic evaluation of Martian hardware than expensive, unnecessary, diversionary, time-consuming, LunaMars “practice”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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No Moon?<\/strong>
We will settle Mars and the rest of our solar system without lunar overhead — without lunar rovers, lunar habs, lunar SBSP, lunar greenhouses, lunar life support, lunar recycling, lunar space elevators, fuel depots, telescopes…or any other distracting lunar nonsense. Apart from a few bored and boring billionaire tourists, their servants, AI, telerobots, and telerobotic telerepair-robots, we will not return en mass to “colonize” the moon anytime soon….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Zheng_He<\/a><\/center>\n\n\n\n

A lunar facility similar to an Antarctic research base can be shut down. We are one scientifically-illiterate President away from termination of human spaceflight altogether. Mars missions involve extended stays. When humans explore Mars we will establish a permanent civilization by the very nature of Mars exploration. If humans can thrive in .38 g Mars will soon have nurseries, high schools, and independent sovereign democracies fostering happiness, tolerance, and freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Free enterprise development of Near Earth Asteroids<\/a> will follow or lead — using dual-purpose launch and transit infrastructure — thereby making humankind a spacefaring interplanetary species forever. Near Earth Asteroids — many much closer than the moon — offer vastly superior concentrations of resources with far less demanding transportation requirements than similar resources sifted by robots from asteroid debris on the Lunar surface. Maintenance of GEO satellites and interplanetary craft will be accomplished telerobotically using volatiles and regolith vacuumed off asteroids, cached in LEO and at L1, not by material launched from the moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With asteroidal Platinum Group Metals and
volatiles at L1, Lunar resources will be irrelevant<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a massive PGM boulder pushed off the surface of a Near Earth Asteroid were placed at L1, lunar resources would be immediately irrelevant to anything we do in space, anywhere — even, ironically, on the moon. We would telerobotically<\/em> mine the asteroid fragment at L1 for resources to be used on the moon<\/em>. Humans are unnecessary in near-Earth space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Exploration is heroic. Noble. Brave. Returning a handful of persons to lunar tourist hotels and robot repair garages — two days from Maui — is not heroic. NASA must be on the cutting edge of space exploration, enabling private enterprise to follow with commerce throughout our universe. Safety considerations for exploration should NEVER be mission determining factors. Pioneers at work off-Earth will die. That is a welcome risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cowards die many times before their deaths;<\/span>
The valiant never taste of death but once.<\/span>
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,<\/span>
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;<\/span>
Seeing that death, a necessary end,<\/span>
Will come when it will come.<\/span>
William Shakespeare, “Julius Caesar”, Act 2 scene 2<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While not entitled to “Mars-in-Our-Lifetime” and while we look forward to making spacefaring a common experience for everyone, the purpose of NASA and heroic entrepreneurial explorers must always be to achieve the difficult, demanding, unending goal of expanding independent free civilization into a permanent frontier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Moon is a Siren’s Call. A “Moon First” LunaMars program is a trap for unambitious risk-adverse engineers. The only<\/em> near-term purpose for human spaceflight is settlement of Mars. Enabling humans to become permanently spacefaring through Martian settlement is too important a goal to be distracted from — especially by impossible to justify, cowardly, “LunaMars” programs. There is important telerobotic science to be accomplished on the moon — this should not prevent ambitious engineers from settling Mars. Now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“It is not the critic who counts; nor the one who points out how the strong person stumbled, or where the doer of a deed could have done better. The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who does actually strive to do deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion, spends oneself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at worst, if he or she fails, at least fails while daring greatly. Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those timid spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”<\/span> 
Theodore Roosevelt<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 “It’s often easier to make progress when you’re really ambitious, and, the reason is, you actually don’t have any competition – no one else is willing to try those things – and you also get the best people, because, the best people want to work on the most ambitious things. There’s tremendous things that are possible in the world through technology, and we have relatively few people in the world working on those things. We’re not developing a lot of new scientists and engineers. It’s probably well under one percent of the population in most developed countries.” <\/span>
Larry Page<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Near Earth Asteroids?<\/strong>
The way to go to Mars is to GO TO MARS. All cislunar activities will be telerobotic. If for some reason it is necessary to have a precursor mission to a deep space destination before undertaking Martian settlement, then near-Earth asteroids — NOT THE MOON — should be the compromise “flexible” destination<\/a>. Private <\/a>enterprise<\/a> will use Mars infrastructure to develop NEAs without government interference and taxpayer funding. It would make sense for NASA to focus upon Mars, allowing entrepreneurs to develop near-Earth asteroids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Far Side Radio Telescope?
<\/strong>A constellation of freespace telescopes should be established using infrastructure from Mars settlement and asteroid exploitation. Each telescope can be equipped with its own shield to block background radio noise rather than rely upon the moon.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Traitors Return to Earth”?<\/strong>
Do not return. Expeditions to Mars are not precursors to book tours and motivational speaking retreats. Do not dare return. (Eventually cyclers will offer routine travel to and from Earth and other destinations throughout our solar system; returning persons born off-Earth will offer unique perspectives and insights into life on Earth. Visits by such second-generation settlers should be celebrated.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Where does the idea of returning to the moon come from?<\/strong>
Decades old analysis unaware of 10,000+ Near Earth Asteroids, 1,500 of which are closer than the moon (and to an extent unforeseen advances in telerobotics, digital communication, and the health effects of reduced gravity). It may be instructive to read excerpts from the most influential text promoting commercial development of lunar resources, The High Frontier<\/em>, written half a century ago by Gerard O’Neill (late founder of easily the most noble, proactive, genuinely intellectual space-advocacy group by far: The Space Studies Institute<\/a>, still somewhat in operation). O\u2019Neill thought the closest asteroids were in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter \u201c1,000 times further than the moon\u201d (p. 317). We also still – amazingly – have no evidence whatsoever of the health effects\/benefits of reduced gravity between zero and 1g. Not one mouse. It may turn out that one-third Earth’s gravity is beneficial. We simply do not know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The statement “Cowards Return to the Moon” specifically addresses Moon First advocates of ‘LunaMars’ programs, in which Martian settlement would be “practiced” on the Moon. However, there will always be reasons to explore the Moon telerobotically from Earth. Whether or not lunar resources are of value depends upon current unknowns, such as: the exact composition of near Earth asteroids, launch costs, advancements in telerobotics, and evolving business opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For confirmation of the decline in our civilization\u2019s spiritual visionary core read The High Frontier<\/em>. It is a gorgeous work of bold unapologetic heartfelt optimism. The infinite resources and inexhaustible energies of space are proposed as real-world pragmatic solutions to our most pressing, systemic, foundational challenges. Unfortunately it was written prior to the discovery of significant numbers of near Earth asteroids:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDuring the time period about which I am now speculating. I am assuming that it will not yet be practical to obtain carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen from the asteroids.\u201d (p. 216)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs has happened so often when we\u2019ve studied in depth possibilities that seemed promising as aids to space manufacturing, the asteroids may be even better sources of materials<\/span> than I\u2019ve suggested so far. Though most of the minor planets are in the main belt, Dr. Brian O\u2019Leary pointed out that a special class, named after the asteroids Apollo and Amor, have orbits much closer to the Earth\u2019s.\u201d (p. 231)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith the help of the gravity-assist technique, already well-proven in spaceprobe missions to the outer planets, it seems that some of the asteroids may be much more accessible than those of the main belt, and from an economic viewpoint may even give the Moon a run<\/span><\/span> for its money. There\u2019s plenty of material available; even the smallest asteroid we can see in our telescopes has a mass of more than a million tons.\u201d (p. 231)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe material resources of nearby space, once thought to be confined to our Moon, have now been shown to include Earth-approaching asteroids<\/span><\/span> undiscovered until the last decade.\u201d (Appendix 2, p. 314)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOther than the external tanks, the nearest source of materials is the Moon, and the next nearest, typically 1,000 times as far away, is the Earth-approaching asteroids. Lunar and asteroidal materials have great value not because they are different from elements found on Earth, but because of their energy height.\u201d (Appendix 2, p. 317)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n