Part 3 of 3 Parts (Please read Parts 1 and 2 first)
The Growth-Adapted Tensegrity Structures project utilizes the mathematics of tensegrity systems which will be used in the design of the Skyframe habitats. The tensegrity math was developed by Dr. Robert Sheldon who became the Skyframe Chief Scientist in 2013. This project was funded by the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program and led by Texas A&M researchers. The project calls for beginning with a small space station and slowly expanding it into a rotating habitat that will be capable of supporting up to eight thousand people in simulated gravity equal to normal Earth gravity.
One major question with respect to the construction of huge rotating space habitats with room for thousands of people is where the construction materials will come from. Some of the conference attendees suggested that construction materials could be obtained from the surface of the Moon or from near-Earth asteroids. Water is often mentioned as a critical resource for space construction projects for the astronauts to drink. Using solar power for electrolysis, water can be broken down to oxygen for breathing as well as providing hydrogen and oxygen for use as fuel.
Dennis Wingo is the CEO of Skycorp, Inc. whose mission statement says the purpose of the company is “to fundamentally transform the spacecraft industry, utilizing orbital assembly process, electric propulsion, and modular construction, to create applications unthinkable before.” He said that the Moon could supply regolith for building materials, helium-3 to fuel fusion reactors for power, and sapphire for semiconductor substrates and high-quality glass.
While many technical challenges to the exploration and exploitation of space have been solved in the fifty years since O’Neill published the High Frontier, there are many challenges that still confront the creation of space habitats. Chris Lewiki is the co-founder to ConsenSys Space. ConsenSys is a venture studio focused on Etherium cryptocurrency. They acquired Planetary Resources, an asteroid mining venture in 2018. Lewiki said, “We haven’t figured out how to privately or publicly finance long-term, high-risk, capital-intense projects.” This problem was highlighted by the financial problems at Planetary Resources which led to their acquisition by ConsenSys.
Lewiki has not yet revealed ConsenSys business plans for space projects but he suggested that the blockchain system of cryptocurrencies such as Etherium might be useful in funding space ventures. He said, “What’s interesting there is the way that it allows you to connect disparate things in a more understandable way, in a more traceable way so that you could, for example, create a financial investment share community around a shared project.”
Phil Metzger is a planetary scientist with the Florida Space Institute at the University of Central Florida. He emphasized that artificial intelligence will be critical in humanities movement into space. He said, “We can’t leverage ourselves more if we have to do everything, if we have to control all of the machines. The key to making this all work is artificial intelligence and machine learning — having smarter machines so that we have more machines per person managing them.”
Only time will tell if any of these projects for rotating space habitats will come to fruition, but the enthusiasm of the conference attendees was undeniable.