How to Colonize an Asteroid
How to Colonize an Asteroid
No, I am perfectly sane. Hello, my name is Robert Richards, and I have thought about living on an asteroid since I saw an artists rendition of one made into a battleship when I was in kindergarten. It is now more than three decades later, and the same dream still burns in my heart - brighter than ever.
I cannot give you a specific reason why I want to do this. There are many reasons for doing something of this type, all probably rooted in mankind's curiosity and wanderlust, but I do not think that I could pin it down to one individual thing. Suffice it to say that this is something which I want to do, and something which I believe is possible with current technology.
My main problem has always been that nobody could tell me how to do it. Try this - walk up to anyone you know - be they a teacher, a chemist, a lawyer, a mechanic, or whomever, and ask them this;
"Excuse me sir/madame, would you please tell me how to colonize an asteroid?"
Hah! They will probably call the men in white coats on you, but what if the question were genuine? What if you really wanted to know? Well, too bad, until now.
No single person knows how to colonize an asteroid, but the information and the technologies are there. We just need to put all of the pieces together in one place.
I cannot profess to know how to do it, though I did pay attention to all of my science and some of my math lessons in school. I saw a bit of what it would take. I studied chemistry when I was in high school, and I saw some more. I joined the army, where I learned about electronics and missiles, and I saw a little more. For the past decade I have been working as an electronic and computer technician by day, and trying to study asteroids and space flight at night - now the puzzle is really starting to fit together.
This work will not tell you how to colonize an asteroid. It is meant to serve as an introduction to the requisite technologies, and as a bibliography of various other works which contain more detailed information. Most of the references listed in the bibliography are actually present in my personal library, and a majority of any proceeds generated from this work will be used to establish a self supporting library and research center to house them. This library will eventually be open to the public, so that the next person who decides to colonize an asteroid won't have to spend his or her entire life gathering information. I realize now that I will probably not live long enough to colonize an asteroid myself, but my dream is to have enough information gathered by the time I die that the next generation can actually get to work on construction.
In 1921, a Russian school teacher named Konstantine Tsiolkovsky wrote a fourteen point plan for the conquest of space, which included the colonization and mining of asteroids. He also foresaw things such as using plants to control the atmosphere inside a space craft, powering internal systems with solar energy, and space stations in orbit around the earth.
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human being from planet earth to set foot on another planetary body. At that time, all of the technology used by NASA (The National Aeronautics and Space Administration - USA) to accomplish this feat was "state of the art", but now, more than a third of a century later, our children in kindergarten play games on computers which are more powerful than any machines NASA had in the 1960's. A modern automobile equipped with factory installed air conditioning, anti-lock brakes, computer controlled fuel injection, satellite navigation systems, cellular telephone, and digital dashboard displays (to mention only a few items) is probably as sophisticated a craft as were the Apollo modules which carried men to the moon.
We HAVE the technology to colonize an asteroid! If we just look at "off the shelf" equipment and existing technologies, we can build the next generation of "Conestoga Space Ships" which will push mankind out into the solar system.
As you work your way through "How to Colonize an Asteroid", remember that a lot of this is my own personal opinion. There are many different ways to go about something, and different people can arrive at different conclusions by absorbing the same information. Due to the nature of reality and the limits of human perception, it is not possible for any human to be right about anything, but it is also not possible to be wrong. Please use this work as a guide to get you started down my personal train of thought - but you must also read the reference works if you are seriously interested in this subject. Don't take my word for any of this - listen to the hundreds of other experimenters and scholars down through the ages who have given me the seeds of my own understanding and vision. See the references for whole groups of people who have similar ideas, and explore some of the differences between their ideas and my own - then figure out what YOUR way would be.
You don't have to be a "Rocket Scientist" to understand the concepts presented here. No single person can colonize an asteroid alone, rather, it will take a group of specialists from different fields, but the basic concept is (I believe) simple, and if you have read this far, then you already have the intelligence to understand what follows...
Your time is NOW! You and your classmates will be able to live on an international space station, in colonies and scientific bases on the moon, walk on Mars, or mine the asteroids. It will happen with or without you, but be assured that it WILL happen. The momentum is there. Amature rocketteers are almost able to launch small payloads into earth orbit. In august of 1997, amatures launched a rocket to 94,000 feet with commercially available engines (see the section on high powered rocketry).By the time you are forty years old, they will be able to launch YOU into space!
If you really want to live or work in space, your generation will have that opportunity, in ever increasing numbers. To take advantage of it, you need to study hard in school - and pay close attention to your math and science courses. You might find that this work can help you to understand some of the more difficult problems your teachers throw at you by giving you another way to look at it. There are many approaches to anything, and a different perspective often leads to a greater understanding.
I have been experimenting with the presentation of the information here for several years, and I had a lot of trouble finding a medium for expression. I have experimented with writing my own special multimedia programs on the PC platform, both in DOS and in Windows, but I was spending too much time programming the interface, and not enough time on the content. I then decided to go strictly with a book version, but the variety of information involved made for a very complicated index structure. Along came the World Wide Web and HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). This seemed to me to be the ultimate method of presentation, as readers would not be limited to a specific brand of computer, and the work will (hopefully) get world wide exposure.
This web is a living thing, constantly growing and changing. It is meant for people who want to spend time reading and experimenting, and learning with me. I build things, and play with technologies, and I will continue to share what I learn through this web. Forgive the lack of glitz and pizzazz here, but the content is the important part.
Selecting the link marked "Forward" (Finger pointing right) on the far right below will take you to a "HELP!" screen which will describe the reference system and navigational icons.
