MUOL

MUOL Mission Statement

The industrial and economic potential of space-based product research and development is unknown but almost certainly enormous. We live in an age of exotic materials and refined gadgets. Various refined environments are necessary for some of their production -- very low or very high pressures of air or other gasses and combinations of gasses, high gravitation (achieved in a centrifuge), high or idiosyncratic (e.g., pulsating) magnetic fields, very high or very low temperatures, etc. It is obvious to postulate that conditions available in space but not on Earth (particularly micro gravity) would be essential to the manufacture and use of some further exotic materials and products' manufacture and use.

Technological limits on space exploration are giving way to those of policies, politics, and economics. Due to these constraints it is difficult for industries to develop new products and technologies in the unique environment of space. We need to develop a means whereby industry can utilize the space environment without being over burdened by the hurdles current policies, politics, and economics pose.

MUOL Mission Objectives

To provide support services for research and commercial production in Earth orbit via a common backplane that multiple experimental and industrial users can plug into, thereby reducing individual cost hopefully to a manageable level.

MUOL Introduction

The environment in Earth orbit is likely to be a valuable one for several areas of research and commercial production. In particular a micro-gravity environment cannot be duplicated on the Earth's surface. And it seems that micro-gravity may be very important for developing certain crystal structures and other sorts of delicate materials.

However, the costs of research and development, and of production, in Earth orbit could be very high. Consider the relative difficulties (and therefore, expense) of putting a particular kind of materials lab or factory on a landfill in New Jersey compared with putting it on a space station in orbit around the Earth. Merely having raw materials delivered and products moved out to market present serious obstacles. And consider maintenance and repair of the facility. Consider having employees come and go. It is not unreasonable to guess that an orbiting site would cost 10 or 100 times as much as a comparable land-based site.

Is there any way to ameliorate the costs? Consider again the comparison with a facility on the ground (say, in New Jersey). Such a ground-based operation does not need to provide its own police or fire departments, its own rubbish removal, its own power supply, its own housing or transportation for employees, etc. These expenses are greatly lessened because they are shared, in effect, with "the neighbors." A common power, waste, transportation, etc. infrastructure greatly reduces the cost to each individual participant.

But in space there are no "neighbors" to share infrastructural costs. Or are there? Suppose it were possible to create a cooperative "neighborhood." Suppose it were possible to set up a sort of "mother ship" that could provide power, transportation, communications, radiation protection, etc. to several "client" baby ships. If, in this way, the "babies" could share among themselves much of the infrastructural costs, it might significantly reduce the costs to each of them of "doing business" in space.

That is the dream -- the mission -- of creating a MUOL system, a "backplane" or common infrastructure availability for Modular Unmanned Orbiting Laboratories.

Why "Modular"? Because planning for clients to be able to use a standardized interface greatly reduces the overall cost. That is why debris boxes have a standard size and shape, a standard lid structure and holders for being emptied. That is why appliances and household electrical gadgets are designed to use a standard 120 Volts, 60 cycle, alternating current -- and even to have a standard size and shape of wall plug. Anyone who has traveled outside the U.S. knows how insufferably inconvenient -- and, for a manufacturer, expensive -- it is for each country, each region, to have a different standard of voltage and plug connection. So we propose a high level of modularity be designed into the client MUOL users.

Why "Unmanned"? Because the harsh and dangerous environment of space makes having human employees very expensive. Their lives need to be protected from a variety of hazards and their every need attended to, night and day. And in recent years the sophistication of robotics and of remote sensing and control have blossomed. It is now possible to design a complex laboratory or factory entirely robotically and so that it can be run and observed from a distance. Humans "on the floor" are not necessary and in space they are so expensive, that the MUOL system is designed so that only machines -- no humans -- will have to be present for the laboratory or factory to function.

Why "Orbital"? Because that is where the very valuable environment of micro gravity can be found -- never, except for a few minutes in free fall from a high altitude, on Earth. And there are some other conditions involving magnetic fields, vapor pressures, radiation, etc. that are best found in orbit rather than on the Earth's surface.

Finally, why "Laboratory"? Although the MUOL may service developmental and even production needs, its first and primary mission is to support laboratory facilities. This is where the technical "exploration" and development of space must start.