Earth-Moon Network = Maturing Space Industries

Despite many responses to this post, very few if any of you actually answered the question(s). While this is quite disappointing, it is not at all surprising.

I did not ask what we need to mine asteroids. I asked what is needed for space industry to develop, generally speaking. I agree that asteroids are a resource worth exploiting, but I already knew that.

I hope those of you who responded without answering the question(s) posed will reconsider and repost an appropriate response. Think holistically. Let me put it to you like this:

Would a space station in orbit around the Earth (let's say LEO) make an asteroid mining project more feasible? More practical? Less expensive, for example? I strongly believe that an appropriate industrial infrastructure in space would go a long way to facilitating such projects. But potential industries in space are not limited to asteroid mining. What shape should this infrastructure take to support full-scale, space-based industries? What, in your opinions, should the physical elements of this infrastructure be? Are the four elements I enumerated below sufficient? Should they be in a different (chronological) order? Is there a better or different location for a station not listed below? Etc.

Your input is much appreciated.

Jack

I have a question:

If you were to define the (physical) elements that needed to be in place
before full-blown space industries could be developed, what would those
elements be?

Marshall Savage, in The Millennial Project, describes these elements as the
Earth-Moon Network. Between Bifrost (launch system) and Asgard (space
colony) are four steps:

1. A space station in LEO (named Valhalla).
2. A space station positioned above the Moon at L2 (named Camelot).
3. A lunar station on the Moon (named Landsberg).
4. A station on one of the near-earth asteroids.

To be accurate, according to Marshall's plan, construction on Asgard would
actually begin after the lunar base (#3 above) and before the station on
near-earth asteroid (#4 above). Asgard would be built from materials mined
by the lunar base and eventually the asteroid station.

The idea is to provide the necessary "transportation, communications, and
mining infrastructure needed to construct and support" very large space
colonies. Valhalla and Camelot are used to "develop the systems needed to
live successfully in space for the rest of time." Landsberg and the
asteroid mining station (Marshall suggests Eros) provide construction
materials and the necessary volatiles.

Would these four elements provide the necessary physical infrastructure to
fuel the development of space industries? Are "space colonies" necessary
for space industries to grow? Does automation and robotics eliminate the
need for large human populations in the development of space industries and
therefore eliminate the need for large colonies that would presumably
support the population? Do we need two stations (in LEO and L2) or can one
in, say, GEO, accomplish the same thing? With the discovery of frozen ice
on the Moon, do we need a station on an asteroid?

You get the idea, right?

Jack

spacesettlers-unsubscribe@...