Hey, check this out. Looks like an outfit called the Laboratory for
Spacecraft and Mission Design (LSMD) has had a go at updating the High
Frontier plans as recently as 2002. Go to this page
http://www.cds.caltech.edu/~shane/talks/ and look for "Heliopolis: a
profitable, self-sustaining foothold for humanity in space". The links
to this presentation on the LSMD site don't seem to work, though.
Stanford Torus-like habitat at L-1 instead of in HEO. But largely they
seem to agree with O'Neill on the fundamentals.
Regards,
Mike Combs
--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "Combs, Mike" wrote:
>
> Hey, check this out. Looks like an outfit called the Laboratory for
> Spacecraft and Mission Design (LSMD) has had a go at updating the High
> Frontier plans as recently as 2002. Go to this page
> http://www.cds.caltech.edu/~shane/talks/ and look for "Heliopolis: a
> profitable, self-sustaining foothold for humanity in space". The links
> to this presentation on the LSMD site don't seem to work, though.
http://web.archive.org/web/20041011152916/http://www.lsmd.caltech.edu/ae107/
ae107.php
> Interestingly, they want to put both the construction shack and the
> Stanford Torus-like habitat at L-1 instead of in HEO. But largely they
> seem to agree with O'Neill on the fundamentals.
On close reading, a halo orbit around L-1. This would leave L-1 itself wide open for
locating a mass catcher (I'm unsure at this stage of reading whether that's where they want
to put it). As I recall from a later introduction to THF, Dr. O'Neill himself qualified L5 as
being a synonym for "whatever orbit the production engineers and the celestial-mechanics
experts finally settle on" (Preface to Bantam Mass Market paperback edition of THF, 1978).
Dr. Ross' work seems to be the same research area that Dr. Ed Belbruno of Princeton has
been working on for the last 15 years or so. Lee Valentine has talked of the importance of
this work on the SSI site. Incredibly cool work, everyone; go check it out!
>
> Regards,
>
> Mike Combs
>
Shane
From: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of slb1701
> L-1 itself wide open for locating a mass catcher (I'm unsure
> at this stage of reading whether that's where they want to put it).
It's a tempting idea, though that would place the lunar base on the far
side. But that might not be a major problem with the right kind of
communication satellite(s). What might be more of a problem is the
facility occasionally having to dodge incoming ore spheres! Maybe that
wouldn't be as scary as it first sounds to me; I don't know.
Regards,
Mike Combs
--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "Combs, Mike" wrote:
>
> From: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of slb1701
>
> > On close reading, a halo orbit around L-1. This would leave
> > L-1 itself wide open for locating a mass catcher (I'm unsure
> > at this stage of reading whether that's where they want to put it).
>
> It's a tempting idea, though that would place the lunar base on the far
> side. But that might not be a major problem with the right kind of
> communication satellite(s). What might be more of a problem is the
> facility occasionally having to dodge incoming ore spheres! Maybe that
> wouldn't be as scary as it first sounds to me; I don't know.
incoming mass driver payloads on achromatic trajectories and facilities in
L-1 halo orbits, I agree that "Duck!" could potentially be a popular way to
greet new arrivals if they co-located the catcher and settlement at the
same Lagrange point vicinity.
Based on what I've been reading of Dr. Ross' work on the 'Interplanetary
Superhighway' (a catchier name than 'weak stability boundary theory'),
keeping the catcher at L-2 itself with Heliopolis at L-1 would allow use of
those kinds of ultra-low delta v directories to transfer full catchers to
first the construction shack at L-1, then Heliopolis. Unfortunately, they
left the means of transferring lunar materials up to L-1 unspecified beyond
requiring a mass driver; the preceding speculation is mine alone.
The full presentation:
http://www.cds.caltech.edu/~shane/talks/heliopolis-presentation.pdf
The executive summary is shorter, but has comparison of the project with
the Alaskan Pipeline and the Three Gorges dam in China is still there. My
favorite part of the whole presentation was the fact that he used a SEMI-
LOG plot to express how long it would take to make a profit; when a
semi-log plot (with money being on the logarithmic axis) goes vertical,
you know you're dealing with a _serious_ profit margin!
http://www.cds.caltech.edu/~shane/talks/heliopolis-summary.pdf
> Regards,
>
> Mike Combs
>
Shane