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   There is a great deal of debate in the private and public space exploration and exploitation arena about exactly how to work towards a space economy. International space treaties say that no one can own real estate on celestial bodies such as the Moon and Mars. Furthermore, anything brought back from space such as moon rocks and asteroid samples must be shared with other space faring nations. Obviously, there can be no space economy unless international law changes.
     Dr. AOPJ Abful Kalan is a prominent pioneer of the India space program and was one of the Presidents of India. Over ten years ago, he spoke about the idea of an Earth-Moon-Mars economy. His main idea was that these three astronomical bodies should be seen as a single economic entity. In 2010, the 97th Indian Science Congress was hosted by the Indian Space Research Organization. Kalam spoke at the Congress and said, “Scientists should start considering Earth, Moon and Mars as an economic complex for future habitat expansion of human beings.”  He had made similar statements before the Congress.
     China appears to be interested Kalam’s idea because it is now proposing the establishment of the first Earth-Moon economic zone. Bao Weiman is the director of the Science and Technology Commission of the China Aerospace Seience and Technology Corporation. He discussed an ambitious proposal for the establishment of an Earth-Moon space economic zone by 2050. There have been estimates that such a zone could grow to ten trillion dollars a year.
     China is working on their plan and expects to have outline of the feasibility of creating such a zone by 2030. This will involve basic research and development of some key technologies. China hopes to have the necessary space transportation system established by 2040 so that the Earth-Moon economic zone can be established by 2050. This Chinese plan for such an economic zone was first announce in 2016. Zhang Yulin, who made the proposal, was the deputy commander-in-chief of China’s manned space program. Now, China has produced a timeline for the implementation of this project. The experts obviously believe that such a project can become a reality.
     China is still working on the details of their proposal. It is a bold idea. There are three aspects that are especially interesting.
1. This proposal would probably lead to the colonization of the Moon which is an idea supported by many governments, companies and individuals.
2. The development of new technologies that would be required would be a quantum leap in the ability of humanity to explore and exploit space.
3. It would be a huge expansion of the concept of a space economy.
    Is it plausible that China could accomplish such a grand scheme? To answer this question, it is necessary to specifically consider China’s current capabilities for the exploration of space. In general, China’s experience and ability to plan and carry out such massive project would need to be reviewed. Beyond that, Chinese industrial capacity in general and space program infrastructure needs to examined. Political and economic support would obviously be critical. Generations of political leaders would have to support this project for decades.
Please read Part 2

Part 2 of 2 Parts
     Nanoracks is just in the first stages of research and planning on how to repurpose space junk. It is considering the use of robots that “look like a hand or a snake” carried in the MLS rocket to cut up fuel tanks and weld them into new configurations. Manber said, “You can have robots spring to life and they can put up walls or they can take satellites and deploy them or they can operate labs.” Nanoracks has also partnered with a Canadian robotics company named MDA Robotics and Automation.
    MDA is a Canadian company and is a subsidiary of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.  It specializes in the manufacture of robotic arms and equipment for space applications. It made the Canadarm for the Space Shuttle orbiters and the Canadarm-2 on the International Space Station.
     Nanoracks believes that it will be cheaper and safer to build their outposts in space as opposed to building them on the ground and launching them into space. Manber said, “A launch is a dangerous and risky thing technically.… I have a launch tomorrow morning. I’m nervous and I don’t know how many launches I’ve been to.”
      Manber has said that currently the upper stages of the Cyclone 4M could not be used for any purpose that would require housing human beings because of the fuel that will be carried in the tank. Yuzhnoye, the company that makes the Cyclone 4M rockets has been working on the creation of “green” fuels that would leave the recycled tanks safe for human habitation.
      The current Cyclone 4M upper stages could still be used for purposes that don’t include human use. One possible use would be a fuel depot to support a Mars mission.
     Right now, upper stages of rockets either burn up during reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere or are sent into what are called “junkyard orbits.” They add to the estimated thirty-four thousand pieces of space junk that are the size of baseballs or bigger. Stephen Matier is the President and CEO of MLS. He believes that recycling space junk materials in orbit is a good idea. He said, “We’ve got this stuff up there anyway, so why not take it and reuse it and repurpose it for something that has a second benefit, a second bite at the apple, if you will, that does more science.”
    If it proves feasible to recycle space junk, MLS and Nanoracks could reap substantial financial rewards. There would be other companies eager to employ their technology. Matier said, “Having a station that somebody can go to and drop off material or collect material as they’re pursuing their mission, you know, that’s the way it’s going to benefit everybody.”
     Manber said that Nanoracks chose MLS for collaboration because the company has “seasoned industry veterans.” The use of the Ukrainian rockets by MLS was also a reason for the choice. The use of a northern latitude launch site would also provide Nanoracks with easy access to different orbits.
     MLS received environmental approval from Nova Scotia in June of this year. Matier said that MLS intends to launch its first Cyclone-4M rocket from the new Canso launch facility at the end of 2021 or the first part of 2022.

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     I have often blogged about the terrible problem with space junk. There are millions of pieces at many sizes that could threaten satellites. One solution to this problem may be to find a way to recycle the space junk. I recently blogged about some ideas for recycling materials from satellites in geosynchronous orbit to build new satellites. Batteries, cameras and solar panels were also to be recycled. Now there has been a proposal to recycle empty fuel tanks.
     Nanoracks is a private space company headquartered in Houston. It was launched to develop products and offers services for the commercial utilization of space. The company hosts a CubeSat Deployer which was developed to deploy CubeSats from the International Space Station. Nanoracks is planning for the construction of a rocket-launching facility on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia.
     Maritime Launch Services is a private space company headquartered in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is a space transport services company. MLS is a joint venture of three U.S. based firms. One hundred and ten million dollars will be spent by MLS to construct a launch site near the town of Canso, Nova Scotia.  It will rely on Ukrainian Cyclone-4M rockets to launch satellites into solar and sun synchronous orbits from Canso.
      The Cyclone-M4 rocket was derived from the Tsyklon-4 rocket which was going to be developed as launch vehicle for a planned launch site at the Alcantara Launch Center in Brazil. The cooperative agreement between Ukraine and Brazil was cancelled over concerns about the cost and projected market. MLS announced in 2017 that it was going to use the design of the Tsyklon-4 as the basis for a new rocket called the Cyclone-M4.
     The Cyclone-M4 was designed by Yuzhnoye and is being manufactured by Yuzhmash. The cost of development was originally estimated to be around a hundred and fifty million dollars. The rocket is about one hundred and thirty feet tall and thirteen feet in diameter. It has two stages. It can carry anywhere between two thousand pounds to eleven thousand pounds of payload depending on the altitude of the orbit and the orbital orientation. The first stage weighs about a million pounds including the fuel which is liquid oxygen and a highly refined form of kerosene similar to jet fuel. The second stage weighs about fifty-five thousand pounds including fuel which is nitrogen tetroxide and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine.
    MLS and Nanoracks have signed a contract to collaborate on the repurposing of upper stages of the MLS Cyclone-4M rockets. Nanoracks has been researching ways to recycle space junk to construction what it refers to as “outposts” around the solar systems. The research has been supported by NASA.
      The outposts envisioned by Nanoracks include hotels, research facilities, fuel depots and storage centers. Jeffrey Manber is the CEO of Nanoracks. He said, “There’s lots of things that you can be doing with the upper stages and our core belief at Nanoracks is you don’t waste something in space — it’s too precious.”
Please read Part 2

     A few days ago, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence spoke during the opening session of the International Astronautical Congress in Washington, D.C. Pence is the chairman of the White House’s National Space Council. More than six thousand people registered for the event and many of them had to stand in line for security checks to get into the opening ceremony. 
     During his speech, Pence talked about the Trump administration’s plans to send astronauts back to the Moon and promote space commerce in the present. He also spoke about private property rights with respect to space resources. Pence emphasized the need for international space cooperation in his official welcome address to the IAC.
     The main focus of Pence’s presentation was the NASA Artemis program to send the first woman and the next man to the Moon by 2024. After that, NASA will be looking at Mars for future missions. Pence said, “We are well on our way to making NASA’s ‘moon to Mars’ mission a reality.”
     Pence specifically praised astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir who just took the first all-female spacewalk last week from the International Space Station. He also praised Japan’s decision to join the NASA Artemis Moon program. He mentioned that European nations were also interested in the Artemis program and were discussing their participation. He said, “To be clear, our vision is to be the leader amongst freedom-loving nations on the adventure into the great unknown.”
    Pence made a point of saying that the U.S. would continue to observe the terms of international agreements on space activities. This was presumed to refer to the Outer Space Treaty. The OST states explicitly that no one can make a claim of sovereignty on the Moon or other celestial bodies. Pence went on to say that partners of the U.S. in the exploration and exploitation of space should respect private ownership in space. The issue of private party ownership rights in space is far from settled in space law.
     Pence said, “As more nations gain the ability to explore space and develop places beyond Earth’s atmosphere, we must also ensure that we carry into space our shared commitment to freedom, the rule of law and private property. The long-term exploration and development of the moon, Mars and other celestial bodies will require the use of resources found in outer space, including water and minerals. And so we must encourage the responsible commercial use of these resources.”
     Pence hinted that the U.S. is in the process of developing new policies with respect to the use of space resources. He said, “We will use all available legal and diplomatic means to create a stable and orderly space environment that drives opportunity, creates prosperity and ensures our security on Earth into the vast expanse of space.”
     Speaking about security, Pence mentioned the Trump administration’s work to create a Space Fouce. This would be the sixth branch of the U.S. armed forces. He said, “Soon it will be a reality, and the Space Force will be a vanguard to defending our nation, defending our freedom, and defending the rights of all freedom-loving nations in the vast expanse of space.”
     Commercial firms are focusing increased attention on space resources. This includes potentially valuable metals and minerals. It also refers to water on the Moon and asteroids that could be converted to drinking water for astronauts or broken down to create fuel for spacecraft.
     Blue Origin is one of the companies that is receiving NASA funding in order to develop technologies for processing space resources. Jeff Bezos picked up an Excellence in Industry Award for Blue Origin at the IAC meeting. The crew of Apollo 11 were the recipients of and IAC World Space Award.

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    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.

Part 2 of 3 Parts
    There are a number of billionaires these days who are very interested in the exploration and exploitation of space and have founded their own companies in the rapidly growing space industry. These individuals include Jeff Bezos who founded of Blue Origins, Elon Musk who founded SpaceX, and Richard Branson who founded Virgin Galactic. The late Paul Allen who founded Vulcan was also a space entrepreneur.
    These new companies and many other competitors have driven down the cost of sending payloads to orbit to the point where considerations of space habits no longer sound like science fiction. And, the founders of many of these companies are very interested in the possibility of space habitats.
     There are other rich individuals outside the U.S. who are aggressive actors in the space industry including a Russian oligarch named Yuri Milner who has proposed using many tiny probes to carry out a mission to another star.
     Alan Globus has been an advocate for space settlements for decades. He spent many years at the NASA Ames Research Center. He has estimated that it would require about sixty launches of the yet-to-be-built SpaceX Super Heavy rocket to place the equipment and materials in orbit required to construct a 360-foot diameter rotating space station. The project is called Kalpana 2. The SpaceX Super Heavy rocket will be able to carry a payload of two hundred and twenty thousand pounds into
Earth orbit.
     In the 1970s, NASA was estimating thousands of launched to construct the Stanford Torus space station in low Earth orbit. The Stanford Torus would have been about six thousand feet in diameter. The more modest proposals outlined at the conference are much more realistic.
    Globus suggests that a smaller Von Neuman rotating space station might be an even better starting project. He said, “A space hotel has requirements fairly similar to a space settlement. So you can build a small hotel, which you could do with a single launch, and you could start gaining revenue. If your small hotel is successful, you build a bigger one.”
   Globus also said, “If you take the most optimistic rumors floating around about the [SpaceX] Starship and so forth and so on, and you assume that the cost of the stuff and construction is no greater than the cost of transportation — which is a big if, by the way — then you can argue that it’d cost a couple about $5 million to move in.”
    A group called Space Decentral says that “We are building a decentralized space program, connecting thousands of engineers, scientists, and future astronauts, to devise and fund next-generation space initiatives.” They presented a plan for a multi-industry space outpost which was designed by architect Suzi Bianco from the University of Houston.
     Skyframe Research says that its goal is to develop and “deploy deep space rotating habitats with extended capability for cyclical growth.” They will use radiation shielding based on a layered water design. Andrew Longman made the presentation. He said, “We need to find an evolutionary approach so we can make it affordable.”
Please read Part 3

Part 1 of 3 Parts
    Fifty years ago, a Princeton physicist named Gerald O’Neill tasked his students with working on a plan for space habitats. Giant cylinders were designed that would rotate to provide gravity. Giant mirrors would reflect sunlight into the cylinders with day and night cycles. A few years after the student project, a book titled The High Frontier was published by O’Neill that laid out details of the work of O’Neill and his students. Many people including Jeff Bezos were inspired to become involved in the exploration and exploitation of space by the ideas in The High Frontier.
     Now the California-based Space Studies Institute is reconsidering O’Neill’s vision in order to update it for the Twenty First Century. The Space Studies Institute was founded in 1977 by O’Neill with the “hope of opening the vast wealth of space to humanity.” The purpose of the Institute is to “open the energy and material resources of space for human settlement within our lifetime.”
     Edward Wright is a senior researcher at the Institute. He said, “The fact is, a lot has changed in the last half-century” at a two-day conference presented by the Institute at Seattle’s Museum of Flight.
     Space industry experts and entrepreneurs attended the conference to review concepts and designs that have been stimulated by the idea of the O’Neill space habitats. There is a great deal of interest in the space industry and the U.S. government in building a space station to orbit the Moon that would be called the Lunar Gateway. In addition, the U.S. Artemis project is dedicated to returning astronauts to the Moon by 2024 in order to begin building a permanent settlement there.
     A major goal of the Institute is to consider strategies that could turn O’Neill’s vision of huge enclosed self-contained space habitats from outdated fantasies to economically viable enterprises. John Blincow is the current president of the Gateway Foundation. He said “The biggest challenge for all of us in this room … is not engineering. We’ve got brilliant engineers here. It’s economics.” The mission of the Foundation is “to build the first spaceport. Our plan includes the development of a robust space construction industry, the first artificial gravity space station and, finally, the Lunar Gateway.”
     The Foundation is working on the design and funding for a Von Braun Rotating Space Station. This is basically a ring-shaped space station that rotates fast enough to simulate gravity. In the case of the Foundation version, the ring would have a diameter of six hundred and twenty-five feet. The plan calls for the accommodation of as many as four hundred permanent residents and will offer amenities including restaurants, movie theaters and sports facilities.
    It has been estimated that a rotating space station would need to be over six hundred feet in diameter in order for the Coriolis forces not to cause problems for human beings aboard the habitat. The design of the Lunar Gateway would be just big enough to satisfy this requirement.
    The estimated cost would be around seventy billion dollars, says Blincow. Seventy billion dollars is a lot of money. However, it has been pointed out that the International Space Station cost about a hundred billion dollars and it has the volume of a six-bedroom house. There are billionaires in the U.S. who could fund the entire Foundation project out of their own pocket.
Please read Part 2

     Made in Space is a startup based in Mountain View, California. For the past nine years, the company has been working closely with NASA to develop technology that will allow the 3D printing of objects in space and then assemble parts using robots. From its beginnings in 2010,. MIS has had some impressive successes. In 2015, MIS sent a 3D printer to the International Space Station. It has been working since that time on the improvement of their microgravity 3D printers. It has a seventy million dollar contract with NASA to construct ten-meter solar arrays in orbit. The Archinaut One is a small satellite with a 3-D printer and a robotic arm. Once it reaches orbit in 2022, the Archinaut One will 3D print components and then assemble them into the power system.
     Jim Bridenstine is the NASA administrator. During a tour of MIS in late August, he told a SpaceNews reporter that “As an agency, we have always had constraints when it comes to accessing space. One of the major constraints is the size of a fairing of a rocket and the weight of the things that we launch into space and the amount of materials. All of these constraints drive solutions that are not optimum and cost more.”
    The possibility of 3D printing things in space has many far reaching implications. According to Bridenstine, such a capability could help NASA in future space missions including their intention to land a man and woman on the southside of the Moon by 2024. Bridenstine says that the ability to 3D print components in space is “transformational.”
    Andrew Rush is the president and CEO of MIS. He issued a press release which announced the new contract with NASA last July. The press release said, “Autonomous, robotic manufacturing, and assembly will reshape the landscape of space exploration and space infrastructure and we are taking a monumental step towards that future. Through our partnership with NASA, we will build a space-optimized asset on-orbit, for the first time, that will prove the efficacy of this technology, reduce the risk posture, and manifest new opportunities for in space manufacturing.”
     The Gateway Earth project which I covered in a recent post, propose the construction of a space station about a hundred miles above geosynchronous orbit. The purpose of the station would be to shepherd geosynchronous satellites which are not longer useful into a parking orbit above the  geosynchronous orbit. Once move into the higher orbit, the old satellite would be taken apart. Batteries, cameras and solar panels could be recycled. The shells of the satellites could be ground up to make a feed stock for 3D printers such as those being developed by MIS.
     Tethers Unlimited are working on a eight armed construction robot which will be able to 3D print structural members to be assembled into lattices. These lattices could be used to provide support for geosynchronous satellites. This will help solve the problem of crowding in geosynchronous orbit.

    The OpenLuna Foundation is a San Francisco nonprofit venture that has a plan to create a settlement on the Moon for a cost of around five billion dollars. For the past five years, the OLF has kept a low profile but now they are being more public about their plan.
    Silicon Valley venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson provided the initial funding for the nonprofit foundation. He said in a tweet, “At $5B, it’s not only achievable within current NASA budgets, it offers the tantalizing possibility that a single passionate individual could fund the entire program as their legacy!”
    Bloomberg News recently published a report about the OLF. OLF currently has about five million dollars to pursue its goals. It intends to raise additional funds for hardware and policy initiatives.
   It may sound a little over-optimistic to think that a nonprofit could lead efforts for a lunar settlement. It has taken major national governments to fund existing space programs. While billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have launched major for-profit space ventures, neither of them is involved with the OLF. However, Jurvetson rescued Musk’s SpaceX when it almost went bankrupt in 2008 and he continues to provide major support for SpaceX. Will Marshall and Robbie Schingler are cofounders of the Planet satellite venture. They are also a part of the OLF campaign as is Kate Schingler, Robbie’s wife. Chris Hadfield is a retired Canadian astronaut who has served missions on the International Space Station. Pete Worden is the former director of NASA’s Ames Research Center and the current chairman of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation. Both of them are part of the OLF team.
    The OLF was born from a weekend retreat that was held by Steve Jurvetson in 2014. Since then, the OLF has been discussing the potential for small scale unmanned missions that could pave the way for a manned lunar base. Parallel to efforts of the OLF, the White House and -NASA have been drawing up plans for a multibillion dollar project to put astronauts on the Moon by 2024. From the coverage in Bloomberg News, it would appear that the OLF does not think that government space projects and private space ventures need be mutually exclusive.
   Chelsa Robinson is the chief of operations and staff for the OLF. She has been quoted as saying that settlement,” “Our highest ambition is catalyzing and enabling a peaceful and cooperative lunar settlement. At this time when there are so many commercial and government actors advancing their efforts on the moon, we are excited to demonstrate a civic approach to participation.”
    The plan of the OLF is similar to the European Space agency’s “Moon Village” concept. Both call for various groups involved in lunar projects to coordinate efforts to build settlements on the Moon.
     Jeff Bezo has also talked about building a city at the Moon’s south pole with robotic construction equipment. He has obviously been keeping up with the OLF plans. He used the term “Moon Base Alpha” in 2017. This phrase was used by the OLF back in 2014. Musk said, “We should have a lunar base by now,” Musk said at the time. “What the hell is going on?”
     It will certainly require more than the five million dollars that the OLF has on hand to make significant progress in setting up a permanent base on the Moon. However, considering the powerful players aligned with the OLF, it may indeed play a role.

Part 2 of 2 Parts
       The Gateway Earth station could repair, repurpose or recycle dead satellites and space debris. The materials resulting from this activity could be uses as construction materials for future spacecraft or bases on the moon. This harvesting of materials would reduce space junk and would not cost anything to launch because they are already in orbit. These recycled materials could also produce income to support the Gateway Earth station.
       Research indicates a space station in an orbit one hundred miles above the protected zone in GEO would have access to the entire GEO. Satellites could be captured and taken to the station by a fleet of drones. They could be either recycled or repaired. It is estimated that such activities could generate over eight billion dollars a year. However, the international space laws mentioned above are outdated and would require extensive revision in order for this to happen. Fortunately, the United Nation is already working on this problem with input from the Gateway Earth Development Group.
       One use for the shells of the dead satellites could be to grind them down into powder and use the powder to 3-D print radiation shielding for Gateway Earth. Research shows that the type of solar panels used in satellites only lose about a quarter of their efficiency in fifteen years. This means that panels on old satellites could be removed and used to power Gateway Earth.
       Many excellent cameras have been sent into space on satellites. If these could be recovered from defunct satellites at Gateway Earth, they could be repurposed to watch the sky for asteroids that might collide with the Earth. Currently there are about four thousand functional satellites in Earth Orbit. Thousand more are about to be launched to LEO. There are also plans to put another one hundred and fifty satellites in GEO. It would be very useful to have Gateway Earth in a high orbit to manage all these satellites.
       There are plans to expand Gateway Earth into a space hotel to generate additional revenue. Future enhancements include satellite and spacecraft construction facility. It could also serve as a spacecraft refueling facility for space missions beyond Earth orbit.
      Tethers Unlimited is working on a construction spider robot with eight legs. Four for climbing around on space structures and four for construction. The robot will carry a spool of construction material that could be used to construct space lattices. Having space lattices in GEO would be very useful. Right now, each satellite that goes to GEO has to go alone and find a clear path around the Earth that does not interfere with other satellites. With huge lattices constructed by robots, satellites could be sent to GEO and mounted on the lattice saving orbital space and concentrating the satellites to make them easier to service. The construction material to construct the space lattice could be provided by ground up satellite shells.
       Gateway Earth has the potential to be a major step in the long-term proper use of GEO.