HORIZON at BBC (UK)

Bearing in mind the recent Space Tourist a program on space
tourism would be VERY appropriate. There is a need to clarify the
TRUE costs of going into space (less than 1% of the current
costs), and the advantages of going there. And the actual
costs right now, have recently fallen massively due to the
Russians being allowed to compete after a recent cartel
has fallen.

So a program on 'tourism in space' might be appropriate.
Called perhaps, 'Doing a Tito'

Channel 4 Equinox might be a better bet though. They seem a
bit more fluffy; they may very well be interested in the
general issues, whereas Horizon are much harder science-
single issue programs with a more deterministic arc.

It wouldn't surprise me if they weren't already working
on it however. Still, there's plenty there for two or
more programs; covering why NASA is so freaking expensive,
how much the Russians really spend to get into space
(a pittance- the rockets cost 4-5 million each!)
and how much a Big Dumb Booster would cost (<$500 per kg).

> I recently emailed the HORIZON program at the BBC in the UK to
> suggest that they make a program about Gerard O'Neill and his space
> settlement ideas. The reply is below.
>
> I was a little miffed at the reply and felt I was fobbed of with the
> reason given for not making a Horizon episode being:-
>
> "I read your idea with interest, but unfortunately, I feel that
> Gerard K
> O'Neill's ideas have been covered so often on TV that there is very
> little
> that we could add, so I'm afraid I don't think we can make a HORIZON
> on
> this
> subject."
>
> I have not seen a program on Gerard O'Neill's space settlement ideas
> in the last 20 years. I felt like mailing back and saying why the
> heck do you keep screening programs about Mars when we get the same
> stuff every Month on umpteen other channels. I suspect the real
> reason is because of viewing figures - Mars seems to be the in thing
> at the moment.
>
> Anyway I decided against a reply for now as I think a response along
> these lines would be counter-productive.
>
> What I would like to ask is for people here (particularly from the
> UK) to mail the Horizon program suggesting that they screen this
> subject. I have included below the reply from the BBC, which also
> includes my original letter. I think they would sit up and take a
> little notice if they received a few emails asking for the same
> subject to be screened.
>
> Thank you
>
> regards
>
> Mark.
>
> Email on behalf of Bettina Lerner:
>
> Dear Mr Collins,
>
> Thank you very much for your proposal on Space Settlements. I
> appreciate you
> taking the trouble to submit it to us and apologise for the delay in
> responding.
>
> I read your idea with interest, but unfortunately, I feel that Gerard
> K
> O'Neill's ideas have been covered so often on TV that there is very
> little
> that we could add, so I'm afraid I don't think we can make a HORIZON
> on
> this
> subject.
>
> Nevertheless, thank you for thinking of HORIZON and good luck with
> this
> idea
> elsewhere.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Bettina Lerner
> HORIZON Series Editor
>
>>Dear Sir/Madam,
>>
>>If I may, I would like to suggest the subject matter
>>of a future horizon if I may.
>>
>>The topic originates back in the 1960's and concerns
>>the subject of space colonisation and a certain
>>person's ideas on this.
>>
>>Back in 1969 at Princeton University Professor Gerard
>>K O'Neill was responsible for the teaching of the
>>physics 103-104 course for advanced students. As part
>>of that course O'Neill asked his students to write a
>>paper on the best place to construct large scale
>>settlements beyond the Earth. This excerpt from the
>>space frontier foundation web site best describes the
>>conclusions of O'Neill and his students:-
>>
>>"Not long after the Apollo 11 landing on the moon , A
>>Princeton physics professor asked his class to think
>>about the best place to construct large scale
>>settlements beyond the planet Earth. Up until that
>>moment most people, working under the influence of
>>generations of science fiction writers, had assumed
>>that humans who moved off the Earth would live on the
>>surface of the Moon or Mars.
>>
>>The professor Gerard K O'Neill, and his students, may
>>have started off with those same pre-conceptions, but
>>they concluded their analysis with a startling series
>>of insights that has transformed our thinking about
>>human evolution into the universe.
>>
>>O'Neill and the class determined that a planetary
>>surface would not be the optimum site for space
>>settlements, largely because of the energy required to
>>land on and take off from such a surface. They also
>>realized that the best way to build a space settlement
>>would be to live off the like earlier terrestrial
>>pioneers, using extraterrestrial materials for
>>construction, rather than dragging those materials out
>>from Earth.
>>
>>What emerged was the visionary concept of space
>>settlements built in free space, housing up to 10,000
>> people, powered by the unlimited and non-polluting
>>energy of the sun. The libration points between the
>>Earth and the Moon were found to be the most stable
>>places for such communities, and the fifth of these,
>>L5, the best spot of all.
>>
>>O'Neill and his students had transformed the paradigm
>>of space settlement thinking."
>>
>>O'Neill found these ideas so compelling that he went
>>on to write papers of his own, then write a popular
>>book on the subject (called 'The High Frontier') and
>>create a foundation called the Space Studies Institute
>>to continue research into the fundamental concepts
>>that would make his vision come true. Also NASA funded
>>a summer study into space settlements in 1975 that
>>produced detailed designs of large scale human space
>>habitats that O'Neill had proposed.
>>
>>So why should this be the subject of an episode of
>>Horizon? Here are the reasons I present to you:-
>>
>>1. Both the vision and the man are an interesting and
>>exciting subject.
>>
>>The vision involves engineering on a scale never seen
>>before - building structures that measure kilometers
>>across, the largest habitats O'Neill envisaged were
>>cylinders in the order of tens of kilometers long and
>>were so large that the environment inside would
>>contain clouds and blue sky.
>> O'Neill himself was primarily a particle physicist
>>and was the inventor of the storage ring, which is now
>>an integral part of large scale particle accelerators.
>>O'Neill was a positive and brilliant man and despite a
>>seven year battle with Leukemia he applied himself to
>>his work until just a few days before his death in
>>April of 1992.
>>
>>2. We are coming to a critical time in man's
>>development of space exploration. Nothing
>>fundamentally new has happened in space exploration in
>>the last thirty years since the last Apollo landing in
>>1972. Now, with the construction of the international
>>space station, manned space exploration is once again
>>in the public eye and all the old ideas of going to
>>Mars are once again being dragged out of the cupboard
>>and are getting a lot of airtime.
>>People like myself believe that the next step should
>>be to develop near Earth space in the way that O'Neill
>>proposed. In this way space development could pay for
>>itself and therefore be self sustaining. If we carry
>>on to Mars and conduct it in the way we did Apollo, in
>>the aftermath of such a mission we could end up with
>>another 30 years of space exploration in the doldrums.
>> Missions to Mars have recently had a whole series
>>of TV programs dedicated to them, but the 'high
>>frontier' philosophy has not. It's time Gerard
>>O'Neill's ideas had a bit of airtime.
>> If people decide afterwards they still want to go to
>>Mars then so be it but at least other ideasshould be
>>given a chance to be considered.
>>
>>3. With the world population becoming greater and
>>energy sources becoming more scarce O'Neill has
>>offered a realistic solution to a lot of the problems
>>that are facing us today. I firmly believe that if we
>>don't start some similar project to what O'Neill
>>proposed very soon, we will be in a worse position in
>>the future to do so. It is critical that something of
>>this nature is started at the next available
>>opportunity (i.e. at the end of construction of the
>>international space station.) The presentation of
>>these ideas could actually be critical to the future
>>of the human race.
>>
>>As you can gather I am totally in support of O'Neill's
>>ideas and this letter is so biased. I do concede
>>however that I may be wrong and I am overstating the
>>case, but the arguments for and against Mars vs
>>O'Neill are strongly biased towards the O'Neill
>>paradigm.
>>
>>Anyway that is by the by as far as Horizon is
>>concerned as it would produce an unbiased account of
>>such ideas. Obviously I have only presented a fraction
>>of the information on this subject in this letter so
>>here are some links to other internet resources giving
>>information on this subject:-
>>
>>The home page of the space studies institute:-
>>
>>http://www.ssi.org/
>>
>>A section on Gerard O'Neill and the High Frontier at
>>the Space Frontier Foundation web site:-
>>
>>http://www.space-frontier.org/HighFrontier/
>>
>>The 'Space Settlement' web site by Mike Combs
>>(excellent images in here of prospective space
>>habitats):-
>>
>>http://members.aol.com/oscarcombs/settle.htm
>>
>>'Orbital Space Settlements' by Al Globus (Includes a
>>link to an online copy of the 1975 NASA AMES summer
>>study):-
>>
>>http://lifesci3.arc.nasa.gov/SpaceSettlement/
>>
>>Anyway I do hope you seriously consider a program on
>>the subject and please let me know either way.
>>Thank you for your time.
>>
>>Regards
>>
>>Mark Collins
>>(Software development engineer and space enthusiast)
>>

civilization?"