Exploring the Moon and Mars |
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| General space exploration links which concentrate on the exploration of the Moon and/or Mars. See the Missions... sections for links to specific missions or plans or visions for, and Exploring The Solar System for exploration elsewhere or generic space exploration links. For such things as Mars bases and lunar mining. For life support issues on other worlds, see also the Settlements on Other Worlds section. For those in space (or not specifically about other worlds), see About People in Space.
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Assessments and Overviews
(Moon & Mars)
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- Exploring the Moon and Mars: Choices for the Nation (PDF) (2.9MB)
- By the (US) Office of Technological Assessment. 1991. Looks "primarily on the possible roles of automation and robotics (A&R) technologies in the exploration and utilization of the Moon and Mars", but also with a look at human exploration. Partly based on a workshop held in Fenruary 1991. Stored at the OTA Archive site (the OTA itself is now defunct). Two more copies (one of which is split up into a series of smaller PDF files) is available here at another OTA archive (at Princeton University). Note that the photographs in the report, at least in these PDF versions, have been poorly scanned.
- "...the Subcommittees on Veterans Administration, Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees asked OTA to examine 'Whether an unmanned, robotic mission or missions might not be a viable option for us to consider' for scientific study of the Moon and Mars, and in the utilization of physical resources on the two celestial bodies."
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Equipment & Technology
(Mars)
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- A Biologically Inspired Robot for Space Operations
- Final report. By Ron Jacobs. A "Phase I" study conducted for the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts. Note: webbrowser must have Javascript. (For a PDF version of the same file, click here.)
- "There is a strong need for legged systems that can travel and operate in difficult terrain, where existing wheeled vehicles cannot go. This is especially true for future missions to, for example, MARS where the planet surface is rugged and uneven. In the near future, we foresee that revolutionary legged robots will be used as part of a community of multi intelligent agents on MARS."
- Building a Robotic Driller for Mars
- Part 1: How To Drill On Mars From The Comfort of Your Desktop On Earth
- Part 2: Inch Your Way Down to Bed Rock
- Part 3: Send in The Mars Subsurface Explorer
- By Bruce Moomaw & Cameron Park. 27 July 2000. Drilling for aquifers & other subsurface things on Mars. At the Space Daily site.
- Electrical Discharge on the Martian Surface
- By Joseph C. Kolecki & Geoffrey A. Landis. Is there lightning on Mars? This paper argues there might be, and "discusses natural and artificial causes, and proposes instruments which might be placed on the Martian surface to observe the phenomena."
- Mars Dust-Removal Technology
- By Geoffrey A. Landis. Academic paper. Looks at possible ways of dealing with the problem of dust from the martian atmosphere settling on solar arrays and degrading their performance.
- A Modular Robotic System to Support the Surface Operations of Human Mars Exploration (PDF version)
- Final report. By Shane Farritor. A "Phase I" study conducted for the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts. Note: webbrowser must have Javascript.
- "Human exploration of Mars is planned for the 2010-2020 timeframe. Extensive use of robots would reduce costs and increase safety. A wide variety of tasks, requiring large variation in robot capabilities, will be performed. ... The Mars Surface Modular Robotic System, a new approach to space robot design, is proposed as a possible solution. Here a robotic system, rather than an individual robot(s), is proposed." The report looks at nine robots constructed from 26 modules.
- Photovoltaic Power Options on Mars
- By Geoffrey A. Landis & Joseph Appelbaum. Originally published in Space Power, Volume 10 Number 2. At the Solar Energy on Mars site. (Another copy, somewhat differently presented, is here.)
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Exploring Particular Places
(on Mars)
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- The Exploration of Mars: The Landing Sites
- A look at the sites chosen for Viking & Pathfinder, as well as a number of other candidate sites. At NASA's Centre for Mars Exploration site. An online version of a CMEX CD-ROM.
- Exploring Gangis Chasma
- "An interactive exploration of landslides and other features in Valles Marineris." At the Lunar and Planetary Institute education site.
- Mars Landing Site Catalog: The Electronic Version
- Edited by Ronald Greeley and Peggy Ellen Thomas. A catalog at 153 potential sites. At NASA's Centre for Mars Exploration site.
- Mars Virtual Landing Sites
- Computer simulations (views using Quicktime VR) of four sites on Mars: Ares Vallis, Candor Chasma, Chryse Planitia, and Olympus Mons. A NASA site.
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FAQs
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- Mars Team Online: Questions and Answers about Mars
- Answered by NASA's "Mars Team" and arranged by categories. Questions range from ones about Mars's geology and atmosphere, to ones about colonies and terraforming. At NASA's Quest site.
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Fictional Depictions
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- Man Conquers Space: The Conquest of the Moon and Mars
- Website. Pics and quicktime clips of a short film "Man Conquers Space", depicting a "'what if' of humans on the Moon and Mars in the mid-1960s using technology proposed by von Braun et al in the early 1950s" (source: a posting by David Sander to the sci.space.policy newsgroup). Judging from the pics, the film looks impressive. Maintained by David Sander of Surfaces Rendered. At the Surfaces Rendered site.
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Lunar Exploration
(manned missions)
| Paper studies & speculative proposals. |
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- Extended Duration Lunar Lander (220K)
- By Nikola Babic, et al. May 1993. Student project. Preliminary design for a "manned lunar lander for use in NASA's First Lunar Outpost (FLO) program...designed to carry a crew of four astronauts to a prepositioned habitat on the lunar surface, remain on the lunar surface for up to 45 days while the crew is living in the habitat, then return the crew to Earth via direct reentry and land recovery." From the Design Archive of the Texas Space Grant Consortium's site.
- LUNOX Scenario Concept Images
- LUNOX = LUNar OXygen. The images were "produced for NASA by John Frassanito and Associates based on technical concept studies from NASA's Planetary Missions and Materials Office", JSC. At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site.
- A Manned Moon Mission
- A proposal from General Space Corporation working with Russian hardware and personnel.
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Lunar Exploration
(organisations & websites)
| Those websites dealing exclusively with lunar exploration (with the exception of Online Magazines and Journals, which are dealt with separately below). For links to space enthusiast organisations of a more generic sort, see Space Enthusiasts and Activists in About Ventures in Space. |
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- International Lunar Exploration Working Group (ILEWG)
- ILEWG has the "goal of being the information exchange center for [lunar] missions." It includes representatives from many major space agencies around the world and "is charged with developing an international strategy for the exploration of the Moon." It also "collects information on potential future lunar missions (both robotic and manned), as well as new scientific and resource information about the Moon."
- Lunar Explorers Society
- An "international organisation which aims to promote the exploration of the Moon for the benefit of humanity."
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Lunar Exploration
(past)
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- The Apollo Lunar Surface Journal
- Edited by Eric M. Jones. Edited and annotated transcripts of the lunar surface activities of the Apollo astronauts. A "record of the lunar surface operations conducted by the six pairs of astronauts who landed on the Moon from 1969 through 1972." Also includes some information about Apollo 13.
- Apollo Over the Moon: A View from Orbit
- Edited by Harold Masursky, G.W. Colton, and Farouk El-Baz. 1975. A view of the Moon from the scientific instrument module (SIM) bay aboard Apollo missions 15, 16, & 17. Concentrates on the results obtained by the cameras in the SIM bays. Numerous photos & diagrams, including schematics of the cameras. At the NASA History Series site.
- Catalog of Apollo Experiment Operations
- Brief. Includes a brief list of experiments carried. Less informative than second "Catalog" below. At NASA JSC's Beyond LEO newsletter site. July 1994 issue.
- Catalogue of Apollo Experiment Operations
- By Thomas Sullivan. Reviews "Apollo mission reports, preliminary science reports, technical crew debriefings, lunar surface operations plans, and various relevant lunar experiment documents, collecting engineering and operation-specific information by experiment." At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site. (NASA RP - 1317)
- A Field Trip to the Moon
- By Harrison H. Schmitt. Lecture #1, 1996, for the NEEP 602 course at the University of Wisconsin.
- Lunar Exploration
- NSSDC's lunar exploration page. Links its various lunar mission pages together. As well (if your computer has sound capability & your browser can handle AIFF files), hear President Kennedy make his famous committent to landing Man on the Moon!
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Lunar Exploration
(policies & strategies)
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- Alternative Lunar Strategies
- By Bret Drake. Date uncertain (but post-April 1990). "Conference paper". The SEI and lunar missions ("although some discussion relevant to Mars is required"). "Two alternate approaches are...provided. The first emphasizes exploration of both the Moon and Mars prior to committing to a permanent outpost. This exploration strategy provides detailed information about the planets allowing for more efficient system designs and outpost emplacement. The second strategy emphasizes aggressively expanding human presence into the solar system. This approach relies on using the local resources to the maximum extent possible to reduce the resupply requirement from Earth." At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site.
- Enabling Lunar Exploration through Early Resource Utilization
- By B. Kent Joosten & Lisa A. Guerra. Dated 1993. At NASA's Human Spaceflight website. ("Past attempts at constructing a strategy to continue the human exploration of the moon have suffered from high projected costs of space transportation hardware development and production. To reduce these costs, an approach is proposed which is designed to take advantage of propellant produced on the moon beginning with the first human mission.")
- How to Return to the Moon
- By Mark R. Whittington. Article in Space Policy Digest, July 1999.
- "Just thirty years ago, the United States performed the greatest feat of technology, exploration, and science in the history of humanity. Two men landed on the Moon and, after a brief sojourn, returned safely to the Earth. Yet three years later, after five more successful voyages of lunar exploration, the United States abandoned the Moon. It was as if the first European explorers, having poked about the Americas, had shrugged their shoulders and sailed back across the Atlantic never to return."
- It wasn't supposed to be this way...
- By Michael K. Heney. Article in Space Policy Digest, July 1999. ("The way to open the moon is the same as the way to open Low Earth Orbit--commercially owned infrastructure and services, with government acting as a customer for those services.")
- Japan Looks to the Future: A Long-Term Lunar Plan
- By Tamiya Nomura. Includes an An Overview of Japan's Space Program by Charlene M. Anderson. From The Planetary Report, vol. 15, no. 5, Sep/Oct 1995.
- The NTR With a Kick: 24 Hours to the Moon with LUNOX Afterburners
- By Stan Borowski. NTR = Nuclear Thermal Rocket. LUNOX = LUNar OXygen. At NASA JSC's Beyond LEO newsletter site. May 1995 issue.
- "The exploration community has benefited from "lessons learned" each time it has proposed an initiative to return humans to the Moon. One lesson, that of a 'profit-motivated' industry/government venture could accelerate development of high payoff technologies, reduce operating costs to NASA, stimulate commercial lunar activities and underwrite eventual development of lunar settlements."
- A Planetary Science Strategy for the Moon
- Report of the Lunar Exploration Science Working Group (LExSWG) of the Terrestrial Planets Science Working Group at Brown University.
- Taking the Next Step: The European Moon Program
- By R.M. Bonnet. From The Planetary Report, vol. 15, no. 1, Jan/Feb 1995.
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Lunar Exploration
(whys & should we's)
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- Apollo Twenty-Five Years Later: Will We Ever Return to the Moon?
- By Donald F. Robertson. 1994. ("The answer is a resounding 'Maybe,' but if so it will take a long time.") At his website. Originally appeared "in very different form", in Astronomy. This is his original version.
- Discussion Forums: Should We Return to the Moon?
- Various articles on the subject of whether we should, or should not, attempt to return to the Moon to establish a permanent presence.
- Should We Return to the Moon?
- A World Wide Web Public Policy Forum.
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Mars Exploration
(general discussion)
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- An Interview With Kim Stanley Robinson
- 27 June 2000. Space.com interviews the science fiction writer (and author of the Mars series of novels) about Mars and the recent discovery (by MGS) of possible evidence for liquid water.
- James Cameron Talks Mars
- At the New Mars site.
- "I look around at the turn of the millennium and see a prosperous, powerful, technologically unparalleled society which, collectively, has no purpose but to feather its own nest. It is a goal-less, rudderless society, dedicated to increasing security and creature comforts. ... Going to Mars is not a luxury we can't afford--it is a necessity we can't afford to be without. We need this, or a challenge like it, to bring us together, to all feel a part of something, to have heroes again. And there is no challenge on our horizon like Mars."
- Resuming the Exploration of Mars
- By Joseph A. Burns, Ronald Greeley, and David H. Smith. At the Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) of the US National Academy of Sciences site. 1996.
- Think Bigger About Mars
- By Louis Friedman. 27 June 2000. At Space.com. The executive directory of the Planetary Society calls for a stepped up program of Mars exploration.
- Why Mars?
- By Carl Sagan. From The Planetary Report, vol. 16, no. 5, Sep/Oct 1996.
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Mars Exploration
(human exploration)
| General discussion about the human exploration of Mars. For specific proposals, see Mars Exploration (manned missions) below. |
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- Considerations for EVA on Phobos
- By Valerie Neal. Excerpt from a 1989 work. At the NEEP 602 course site at the University of Wisconsin.
- For Argument's Sake: A guide to the whys of space--and Mars--exploration (109K)
- By Richard L. Poss. An examination of the arguments for and against Mars (and space) human exploration. At the New Mars site.
- Human Mars Exploration: Derailed or Progressing
- By Douglas A. O'Handley. 1994? "A review of progress on the prerequisites for Mars exploration leads to the conclusion that, although a specific funded program like the Exploration Technology Program is no longer in place, most of the elements of critical technology needed to open Mars to human exploration are being pursued in a variety of ways."
- Humans to Mars
- Brief rundown plus various links and news items. At the Mars News site.
- Mars in 2018: Travel Light
- By Cynthia Fox. At The Scientist site. May 1, 2000.
- "The word astronomical aptly describes current price estimates for a manned jaunt to Mars: $40,000 per pound. 'That's an expensive can of Coke' for astronauts making the trip,' says Brian Sauser of NASA's New Jersey Specialized Center of Research and Training (NSCORT). So NSCORT's mission is not to figure out how to ship food, air, and energy to Mars, but to create and re-create it up there."
- Mars: One Way to Stay
- By Tom Gunn. "Economics, Commercialization, Public Policy and Technology Needs Required For Mission Success". Conference paper presented to the International "Case for Mars" Conference in July 1996. A call "for immediate, realistic and managed action leading to permanent human life on Mars." At Gunn's The Planet Mars Homepage site.
- Mission to Mars Makes do with Robots
- By Vincent Kiernan. "The US has formally abandoned its goal of landing astronauts on Mars by 2019. Instead, the new national space policy unveiled last week commits the nation to a permanent robot presence on the Red Planet starting no later than 2000. Human exploration might come later, depending on what the robots find." Part of the New Scientist Plus site's special section about Mars. From New Scientist, 28 September 1996.
- The Significance of the Martian Frontier
- By Robert Zubrin. Zubrin expounds his reasons for why human beings should go to Mars. From Vol. 1 No. 4 of the First Millennial Foundation News December, 1994. (Another copy here, while another with a few changes can be found here at the Mars Society's New Mars site.
- "Can a free, egalitarian, democratic, innovating society with a can do spirit be preserved in the absence of room to grow? ... What do we see around us now but an ever more apparent loss of vigor of American society, increasing fixity of the power structure and bureaucratization of all levels of society, impotence of political institutions to carry off great projects, the cancerous proliferation of regulations affecting all aspects of public, private and commercial life, the spread of irrationalism, the banalization of popular culture, the loss of willingness by individuals to take risks, to fend for themselves or think for themselves, economic stagnation and decline, the deceleration of the rate of technological innovation and a loss of belief in the idea of progress itself. Everywhere you look, the writing is on the wall. Without a frontier from which to breathe life, the spirit that gave rise to the progressive humanistic culture that America for the past several centuries has offered to the world is fading."
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Mars Exploration
(manned missions)
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- Advocacy
- Mars on a Shoestring
- By Robert Zubrin. Discusses his Mars Direct proposal. Published in Technology Review, Nov/Dec 1996 issue.
Discussion
- Analysis of the Synthesis Group's Mars Exploration Architectures (302K)
- By Douglas R. Cooke, Dwayne P. Weary, & David I. Kaplan. October 1991. At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site. The Synthesis Group was a NASA body formed to assess President Bush's Space Exploration Initiative (SEI).
- Mars Exploration Strategies: A Reference Program and Comparison of Alternative Architectures (108K)
- By David B. Weaver & Michael B. Duke. A conference paper. 1993. At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site.
- Space Center sees future in trip to Mars
- A brief news item (5 December 1997) speculating about the Mars Reference Mission (envisioning it for 2013). At the public affairs office website of NASA's KSC.
Images
- Mars [Manned] Mission Scenario Images (1997)
- Images by Jack Frassanito and Associates. For the "current" scenario. 7 November 1997. At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site.
- Past Scenario Study Images
- Images by Jack Frassanito and Associates. Probably date from the SEI period. At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site.
Proposals & Scenarios
- 2009/2011 Human Mission to Mars
- "2009 Reference Mission Overview". At NASA's Centre for Mars Exploration site.
- Beyond Apollo: A Manned Mission to Mars (missing)
- By David DeRemer.
- A Crewed Mission to Mars...
- "A possible strategy outlined from beginning to end." Author uncertain. At NASA's NSSDC site. Launching the mission, why go to Mars, mission objectives and profiles, landing on the martian surface, surface systems, & return to Earth. Proposes the first crew be launched in 2009.
- Human Exploration Mission Scenario: The Case for Mars II, 1984
- This is a "mission scenario for the human exploration of Mars that was developed at the Case for Mars II workshop, held in Boulder, Colorado, July 10-14, 1984. The purpose of the plan was to demonstrate that human missions are possible now, and that all of the major mission requirements could be met using current technology."
- Human Exploration of Mars: The Reference Mission of the NASA Mars Exploration Study Team
- Edited by Stephen J. Hoffman & David L. Kaplan. Dated July 1997 (with a 1998 addendum). Note: just about everything (so far) at this site is in PDF format, so have your copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader handy. At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site. (Another copy can be found here at NASA's Human Spaceflight website.) A number of manned mission images can be found here and here.
- Mars Direct: The Red Planet Within Ten Years (52K) (missing)
- By Robert M. Zubrin. Paper presented at the Washington Roundtable on Science and Public Policy on November 9, 1995.
- Mars Exploration Strategies: A Reference Design Mission
- By David B. Weaver, Michael B. Duke, & Barney B. Roberts. A conference paper. 1993. At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site. (Another copy can be found here at NASA's Human Spaceflight website.)
- An International Manned Mars Mission
- A Mission Design for an International Manned Mars Mission
- By Wendell W. Mendell. From the 1991 International Space University (ISU) Design Project. At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site.
- An Organizational Model for an International Mars Mission
- By Wilhelm Stoffel & Wendell W. Mendell. A look at some of the necessary political and funding framework for an international outpost on Mars. From the 1991 International Space University (ISU) Design Project. At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site.
- The SpaceLaunch Foundation's Proposed Mars Expedition
- The foundation is attempting to organise a privately-funded Zubrin-like manned expedition "before 2010". The plan includes a number of unmanned precursor missions (including a sample return using in situ propellant production). Much seems to depend, though, on them being able to organise $10 billion worth of funds, in part using "a massive marketing
campaign which would put Nike to shame." At the The SpaceLaunch Foundation site. Includes an overview, mission architecture, and description of some of the proposed hardware.
- Stanford University International Mars Program
- A "proposed plan to put humans on Mars early in the 21st century."
- Propulsion Systems
- Assessment of the Advantages and Feasibility of a Nuclear [Thermal] Rocket for a Manned Mars Mission (PDF)
- By Dr. Steven D. Howe. Presented to the Manned Mars Mission Workshop, Marshal Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama, USA, June 10-14, 1985. ("The feasibility of rebuilding and testing a nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) for the Mars mission has been investigated. Calculations indicate that an NTR would substantially reduce the earth-orbit assembled mass compared to L02/LH2 systems.")
- Other Technology
- A Solar Power System for an Early (Manned) Mars Expedition
- By Barbara I. McKissock, Lisa L. Kohout, and Paul C. Schmitz. Prepared for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Summer National Meeting, San Diego, CA, August 1990. (Assumes, among other things, a crew of eight, four of which land on Mars, departing Earth in 2007, which in turned in based on NASA's Office of Exploration 1988 Report Case Study 2.) At the Mars Power Homepage site.
- Simulated Missions & Scenarios
- The Mars Project
- A worldwide "Educational Space Simulation of a Journey to Mars". At the website of the Houston (Texas) Independent School District.
- Websites
- The Mars Academy
- An "online collaborative project where students all over the world are designing a manned mission to the Red Planet." Landing site selection, crew section, trajectory, propulsion, life support, etc.
- Mars Direct Home Page
- "Headquarters for the Mars Direct Manned Mars Mission." Robert Zubrin's site.
- The Mars Project
- A worldwide "Educational Space Simulation of a [Manned] Journey to Mars".
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Mars Exploration
(organisations & websites)
| Organisations and websites (with the exception of Online Magazines and Journals, which are dealt with separately below) dealing exclusively with martian exploration. For links to space enthusiast organisations of a more generic sort, see Space Enthusiasts and Activists in About Ventures in Space. |
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- Mars: Mankind's Future Lies in Space
- A website tutorial on Mars, Mars mission, Martian colonisation, etc.
- The Mars Society
- A group promoting "a program of activity, which in a series of escalating steps", will provide for "a real private Mars exploration effort". One of the sponsors is Robert Zubrin. See also The Mars Society Home Server site.
- Mission to Mars
- Not to be confused with the movie of the same name. A website "for the Mars Enthusiast who wants to take up residence on the Red Planet, like me!"
- Red Colony.com
- Yet another website for Mars enthusiasts, one with an emphasis on colonisation and terraforming. Part of (or affilated with) the Pittsburgh Area Mars Society. News, chat rooms, a newsletter, plus (brief) essays on various aspects of bio-engineering, climatology, geology, etc. (Beware, however, of bad links!)
- Think Mars
- A "business concept for the human exploration of Mars". A site "dedicated to making human Mars exploration happen by overcoming the financial, managerial and political barriers that currently exist." Includes the Mars Petition.
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Mars Exploration
(overviews)
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- Return to the Red Planet
- "Mars, Pathfinder, Solar energy & dust, and Future missions to the Red Planet." By Geoffrey A. Landis. HTML version of a slide presentation for the Explorer scout post in Cleveland on October 23, 1997. At the Solar Energy on Mars site. (Another copy, somewhat differently presented, is here.)
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Mars Exploration
(policies & strategies)
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- An Exobiological Strategy for Mars Exploration (223K)
- Prepared by the Exobiology Program Office, NASA HQ, January 1995. At the Centre for Mars Exploration website.
- How Not to Go to Mars
- By Mark R. Whittington. Article in Space Policy Digest, August 1999.
- The International Exploration of Mars
- 4th Cosmic Study of the International Academy of Astronautics, by the Committee on International Space Plans and Policies, Subcommittee on the International Exploration of Mars. ("Why Mars?", "Why International?", etc.)
- Mars Group: First Meeting Report
- "On January 6, 1996 the first meeting of a diverse group of small satellite enthusiasts took place at the home of Jan King of Boulder, Colorado, USA. The purpose was to flesh out a rough agenda for a private mission to the planet Mars."
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Mars Exploration
(resource websites)
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- The Case for Mars
- Website for the International Conference for the Exploration and Colonization of Mars, Boulder, Colorado, July 1996. Includes proceedings, reading lists, (online) technical articles, and links to various online resources.
- Centre for Mars Exploration
- NASA site. Mars news, atlas, and other resources
- Mars Library
- Sections on Mars in myth & science fiction, Mars science, & Mars exploration. Part of the California Space Institute site.
- Mars Now
- Part of the California Space Institute site. Mars Museum & Mars Library.
- MarsWeb
- Site linking info about NASA's current and proposed missions to Mars.
- New Scientist Plus: Mars
- Website versions of (some) articles that have appeared in New Scientist magazine. (Note: the "Mars Latest" part dates only to August 1998.)
- Mars Sample Return Science Workshop
- Held in March 1996. Website. Includes links to WWW versions of several presentations (mainly viewgraphs).
- West of Mars
- Lobbying hard for a Zubrin-style manned mission to Mars. Has poetry, space art, etc.
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Mars Exploration
(specific issues)
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- Centrifugal Gravity
- How to Get to Mars
- By Gregory Benford. 11 April 2000. At Space.com. Brief. The professor of physics and science fiction author explains why we need a centrifugal gravity experiment on the ISS.
- Communications
- MARSSAT: Assured Communications with Mars
- By Thomas and Gail Gangale. Earth-Mars communications and the problem of solar conjunctions. Originally presented at the Founding Convention of the Mars Society, August 13-16 1998, Colorado, USA. At the The Martian Time Web Site.
- "...robotic missions to Mars have accepted the inevitable communications blackout that occurs when Mars is in solar conjunction. This interruption, which lasts several weeks, would seem to be unacceptable during a human Mars mission. This paper proposes a relay satellite as a means of maintaining vital communications links during conjunction, and explores candidate orbits for such a spacecraft."
- Crews for a Manned Expedition
- We Want to Go! Self-Selected Crews for Mars Exploration
- By Roy Clymer. At the New Mars site.
- Energy & Power
- Solar Energy on Mars
- At the NASA's Lewis Research Centre site.
- Lander Science
- Instruments for the Exploration of Mars
- General discussion of instruments for penetrators and "small stations", and a diagramatic presentation of a balloon mission. At NASA's Center for Mars Exploration site. An online version of a CMEX CD-ROM.
- Lander Science
- Discussion of the title topic in connection with geochemistry, geology, seismology, & meteorology. At NASA's Center for Mars Exploration site. An online version of a CMEX CD-ROM. ("The goal of any science lander on Mars is to establish what we may call geological 'ground truth' for the landing site--which is used in combination with "remote sensing" measurements from orbit to determine the true history of the region in question.")
- The Life Issue
- International Committee Against Mars Sample Return
- Website. News, reviews, petition, etc. ("When the European explorers reached the Polynesian and Hawiian Islands, 50% of the native inhabitants died as a result of imported microbes...")
- Optimization of an '05 Sample Return for Mars Exopaleontology
- By Jack D. Farmer. Looks are exploring the ancient fossil record of Mars. At the website of a 1996 Mars Sample Return Science Workshop.
- Return to Utopia?
- By Julian A. Hiscox, Howell G. M. Edwards and David Wynn-Williams. The prospects of, and investigating for, life on Mars. At the New Mars site.
- "Life scientists used to think that life was confined with fairly narrow parameters, yet the versatility of microbial life illustrates that evolution has few boundaries. Any habitat suitable for the growth of higher organisms will also permit microbial growth, but in addition, there are many habitats unfavorable to higher organisms where microorganisms exist and even flourish."
- Sample Return Missions
- Scientific Assessment of NASA's Mars Sample-Return Mission Options
- A report of the Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) of the US National Academy of Sciences. 1996.
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Online Magazines
and Journals
| See also Online Magazines and Journals in About Travelling in Space and in Exploring The Solar System. |
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- Lunar News
- A "newsletter forum for facts and opinions about lunar sample studies, lunar geoscience, and the significance of the Moon in solar system exploration." At NASA's Planetary Materials Curation site.
- The M2RC Newsletter
- At the Mars Mission Research Centre site. 1990-1994 issues only.
- Mars Daily
- News items about Mars. A "Space Daily Production". Basically a collection of links to Mars-related Space Daily news items.
- Mars News
- "Newswire for the New Frontier." News items and features (eg "Life on Mars") about Mars. Started by a chapter of The Mars Society.
- The Martian Chronicle
- The "Electronic Newsletter for Mars Exploration" at JPL. Only the first eight issues (ie 1995-April 1997) are online.
- The Moon Miner's Manifesto
- Published ten times a year by the Lunar Reclamation Society, and includes Pleides, the newsletter of Artemis Society International. Archived at the Artemis Society website. Deals with "the opening of the Lunar frontier, suggesting how pioneers can make best use of local resources." There is also "one Mars theme issue each year, and occasionally other space destinations are discussed: the asteroids, the great moons of Jupiter, Titan around Saturn, even the cloud tops of Venus."
- New Mars
- "A Journal of the Martian Frontier." A journal of The Mars Society.
- TES News
- Online quarterly newsletter about the current Mars missions (and especially the TES instrument) from Mars Global Surveyor's Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) team.
- WWW Space and Mystery: Mars
- Space news and information about Mars & Mars missions. At the WWW Space and Mystery space news site.
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Policies & Strategies
(general)
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- Analysis of Synthesis Group Architectures: Summary & Recommendations
- By David I. Kaplan. 1992. At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site. The Synthesis Group was a NASA body formed to assess President Bush's Space Exploration Initiative (SEI). Over a period of 10 months it "developed four architectures, or paths, for pursuing exploration" of the Moon and Mars. This document "provides a collective assessment of the Synthesis Group architectures."
- Apollo Nostalgia
- By Mark R. Whittington. Apollo, SEI, and manned Mars missions. Article in Space Policy Digest, April 1999.
- "Some observers believe that NASA actually used it's Ninety Day Study as a means of sabotaging the Space Exploration Initiative. Congressional sources have suggested that NASA officials at the time were actually lobbying against SEI, on the theory that it would prove a distraction from the space shuttle and space station programs. Whether a result of bureaucratic folly or deliberate sabotage, the Ninety Day Study had it's effect. During the subsequent year, the Democratic controlled appropriations committees showed their disdain for recreating Apollo by eliminating every line item having to do with human exploration of the Moon and Mars from the NASA budget, even those which predated SEI."
- Preparing for a 21st Century Programme of Integrated Lunar and Martian Exploration and Development
- By H.H.Koelle, D.G.Stephensen. "5th Cosmic Study" of the International Academy of Astronautics.
- Robotic Spacecraft: Loaded for Bear or Barely Loaded?
- By Dale M. Gray. Article in Space Policy Digest, October 1999.
- "If a man, a company or a nation sets out to explore, disaster is one coin that must be paid and paid often. Columbus knew this fact and knew it well. School children know that he took three ships with him in 1492. Without the triple redundancy, he would not have made it back home. History is filled with tales of men and women pushing into the unknown and never returning."
- A Vision for Planetary Exploration
- By John F. Connolly, Robert K. Callaway, et al. 1992. At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site. ("The Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) is the latest in a series of endeavors which represent humankind's desire to expand its knowledge and sphere of influence.")
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Research Labs
(websites)
|
- Mars Mission Research Centre
- Researching Mars missions at North Carolina State University.
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Simulations
|
- Mars Virtual Spacecraft
- Approach Mars (over various selected regions) in a virtual "spacecraft". 6 to 8 levels of zoom. At NASA's Mars Atlas and Image Finders site. An online version of a 1995 CD-ROM.
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Space Art
|
- Alex Michael Bonnici's Mars Exploration Page
- Very impressive space art from a variety of artists, chiefly about manned exploration of Mars and its vicinity.
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Technical Papers
(miscellaneous)
|
- Contingency Analysis of Space Exploration Human Support Systems
- By Paul D. Campbell. 1992. At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site. ("This study was undertaken to investigate a range of hazards to which SEI human missions may be exposed and to define a process for compiling information on hazards, means of controlling them, and methods of recovery from contingency situations.")
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Travelling Round: Planes & Balloons
|
- MIT Mars Airplane Project
- The home site for project by students of MIT to send a robotic plane to Mars in 2003. Not much here when I visited (September 2000). For more details, see the Mars News page on the project. The MIT project is the successor to a now-defunct NASA project. (See Missions that Never Flew in the Archives of Concluded Missions.)
- Preliminary Design of a Long-Endurance Mars Aircraft
- By Anthony J. Colozza. April 1990. Proposes a long-endurance, remotely piloted aircraft, solar or radio-isotoped powered, capable of flight within the Martian environment, and with a flight duration time in the order of one year. At the Mars Power Homepage site.
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Travelling Round: Rovers
|
- Manned Rovers
- The Next Lunar Rover?
- By Author unknown. Pics & stats for a "six-wheeled 'truck' capable of transporting both crew and cargo, and being operated by either onboard crewmembers or remote teleoperation. It would be capable of piloted round-trip traverses up to 50 km and teleoperated round-trip traverses of up to 400 km." Conceived by the First Lunar Outpost (FLO) study completed by NASA early in 1993. At NASA JSC's Beyond LEO newsletter site. January 1994 issue.
- Robotic Rovers
- An Exploration Mars Rover
- By Adonis Charalambides. Brief. 1995. Tasks required by a Mars rover and how they could be accomplished. At the SURPRISE Journal site.
- Exploring Mars Using Intelligent Robots
- By Paris Andreou and Adonis Charalambides. 1995. At the SURPRISE Journal site.
- "...a totally autonomous vehicle that could travel for extended periods carrying out its assigned tasks is simply beyond the present state of the art of artificial intelligence. This report considers the technical issues involved in the operation of a Mars Exploration Rover. In particular,the various navigation techniques and related technologies are discussed,while up to date robots and their performance are used as examples."
- Honey, They Shrunk the Rover
- By Eric Scigliano. On post-Sojourner Martian rovers. A paper published in MIT's Technology Review, Jan/Feb 1998 issue.
- Lightweight Survivable Rover (LSR)
- Prototype Mars rover.
- LunaCorp's Robots in
Cyberspace
- Coming soon to an Internet near you: a lunar rover simulator for the WWW. "Visitors to [LunaCorp's] Robots site will download a custom front end, and after driving rover simulators will be allowed to control actual rovers over a lunar-like terrain." At LunaCorp's site.
- Marsokhod
- The Marsokhod Planetary Rover
- NASA (Ames)'s Intelligent Mechanisms Group's site on the Russian rover.
- Marsokhod Rover Pictures
- At NASA's Ames site.
- NASA's Space Telerobotics Program
- The program's goal: "To develop, integrate, and demonstrate the science and technology of remote manipulation such that by the year 2004, 50% of the EVA-required operations in orbit and on planetary surfaces may be conducted telerobotically." Program overviews, photo archive, major projects, plans and publications, Internet robotics resources (dozens of links), etc.
- Pathfinder Sojourner Simulation (missing)
- Web Interface for Telescience (WITS) rover simulation system for the Mars Pathfinder Sojourner rover.
- Planetary Exploration: Navigation Methods and a Generation of Robots
- By Adonis Charalambides. 1995. Describes "the navigation techniques for robotic vehicles developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the approaches of various institutions to the actual implementation of the robots." At the SURPRISE Journal site.
- Planetary Rovers Might Roam Better with an Elastic Loop Mobility System
- A news item at NASA's Space Science News site. 28 April 1998. ("Reviving a 65-year-old English invention might give planetary explorers a better footing on other planets, and a better view as they roll along.")
- Rockettes
- Ten-gram microrovers for Mars. ("No, no, they're not golf balls!")
- Rocky 7
- Rocky 7: Mojave Desert Experiments
- Prototype Mars rover.
- Long Range Science Rover
- Rocky 7. Part of the Robotics Vehicles Group page.
- Rover/Sample Return
- General discussion of Mars rover and sample return missions. At NASA's Center for Mars Exploration site. An online version of a CMEX CD-ROM.
- SEI Rover Solar-Electrochemical Power System Options
- By Colleen A. Withrow, Lisa L. Kohout, David J. Bents, and Anthony J. Colozza. A paper on a "trade study of power system technology options for proposed lunar vehicles and servicers". At NASA's Lewis website.
- Self-Transforming Robotic Planetary Explorers (PDF version)
- Final report. By Steven Dubowsky. A "Phase I" study conducted in 1998 for the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts. Note: webbrowser must have Javascript. Also note that a "Phase 2" study is now underway, although only a viewgraph-style presentation is presently available.
- "...self-transforming planetary explorers--systems that are able to autonomously change their physical and software structure to meet the challenges of [their] environment and task. Such systems could dramatically enhance the ability of planetary explorers to survive and to successfully complete their mission objectives."
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Unmanned Missions
(paper studies)
| Mars |
|---|
- 1994 Mars ISRU Sample Return (MISR) Mission Study
- One image and some brief text describing the study by David Kaplan. At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site.
- Final Report for a Robotic Exploration Mission to Mars and Phobos: Project Aeneas (194K)
- By Justin H. Kerr et al. November 1993. Student project. From the Design Archive of the Texas Space Grant Consortium's site.
- MISR--Sampling Mars on a Budget
- By John Connolly. At NASA JSC's Beyond LEO newsletter site. January 1995 issue. MISR = Mars In-Situ Resource Utilization Sample Return.
- "The mission's scientific goal of returning 1 to 5 kg of pristine Martian soil, rock and atmosphere samples constitutes a scientific treasure chest -- regardless of the locality from which the sample is collected, it will serve to anchor discussions of Martian geology, geochemistry and geochronology on a firm base, and will allow concrete decisions to be made on a systematic program of Mars exploration."
- Phobos Mission Vehicle Design (119K)
- By Guillaume Brat, et al. December 1991. A "preliminary design" for a "three-module spacecraft" consisting of a "propulsion module, a stationary lander, and a smaller mobile lander". Their "primary goal...is to gather chemical composition data with a particular emphasis on the search for water", with secondary goals of "completely map[ping] the surface of Phobos and investigat[ing] its internal structure via seismographic experiments." Student project. From the Design Archive of the Texas Space Grant Consortium's site.
- Preliminary Design Review for PERCIVAL Mission To Mars (181K)
- By David W. Reed, et al. December 1992. "Percival" as in "Percival Lowell". "The main purpose of the Percival mission to Mars is to collect and relay scientific data to Earth suitable for designing future manned and unmanned missions to Mars." Student project. From the Design Archive of the Texas Space Grant Consortium's site.
|
Moon |
- L.O.V.E.: Lunar Oxygen Verification Experiment
- By Richard Eddings, et al. December 1995. Student project. The proposal's "primary objective is the placement of a small oxygen production plant on the lunar surface and the subsequent production of oxygen using lunar soil as the raw material for the oxygen plant" using a "small lunar rover...designed to collect regolith samples and return them to the O2 regeneration plant". From the Design Archive of the Texas Space Grant Consortium's site.
- Lunar Polar Coring Lander: Final Report (232K)
- By David Angell. May 1990. Student project. "One of the most important considerations is qualifying and quantifying the presence of water on the moon. The existence of water on the Moon implies that future lunar settlements may be able to use this resource to produce things such as drinking water and rocket fuel. Due to the very high cost of transporting these materials to the Moon, in situ production could save billions of dollars in operating costs of the lunar base. Scientists have suggested that the polar regions of the Moon may contain some amounts of water ice in the regolith. This report suggests six possible mission scenarios which would allow lunar polar soil samples to be collected for analysis." From the Design Archive of the Texas Space Grant Consortium's site.
- Lunar Rover Initiative
- Icebreaker Rover
- Conceptual pic only. At the LunaCorp site (where you can find other pics for various missions such as the "Grand Apollo Tour").
- Lunar Rover Initiative
- At the Field Robotics Center site of Carnegie Mellon University.
- Water and Oxygen Resources: A Lunar Discovery Mission (197K)
- By Cyril Annarella, et al. December 1994. Student project. LUNOX production plus a search for lunar water resources. From the Design Archive of the Texas Space Grant Consortium's site.
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Exploring The Solar System |
|---|
| General space exploration links other than for the Moon or Mars or in which exploration of the Moon or Mars is only a part. See the Missions... sections for links to specific missions or plans or visions for, while for such things as Mars bases and lunar mining see Settlements on Other Worlds. |
Equipment & Technology
|
- Planetary Surface Instrument Workshop Report
- Compiled in 1995 by the Lunar and Planetary Institute.
|
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Exploration
(particular worlds)
| General discussion (or more nebulous proposals like "IcePIC"). For paper studies of a more "concrete" kind, see the Manned and Unmanned Mission sections blow. |
|---|
- Europa
- Icepick: The Europa Ocean Explorer
- One person's vision (Larry Klaes, NSS Vice President). Brief. (Should spelling = "IcePIC"?) (IcePIC is "...an effort to generate a design for a future mission to Jupiter's moon Europa. The spacecraft's mission would explore the liquid water oceans that may exist beneath Europa's surface.")
- Europa Ice Penetrator Internet Committee (IcePIC)
- Includes a page summarising "hydrobot design issues". At Russell Clark's Homepage.
- Preventing the Forward Contamination of Europa
- A report of a task group of the Space Studies Board of the US National Academy of Sciences site. 2000.
- A Science Strategy for the Exploration of Europa
- The state of knowledge of Europa near the close of the Galileo-Europa Mission, an assessment of future mission strategies & objectives, etc. At the Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) of the US National Academy of Sciences site. 1999.
- A System of Mesoscale Biomimetic Roboswimmers for Exploration and Search of Life on Europa
- Phase I Overview
- By Thomas W. Vaneck.
- Phase 1 June 2000 Viewgraph Presentation (PDF version)
- Presented by Thomas W. Vaneck.
- A study conducted for the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts. Note: webbrowser must have Javascript.
- Proposes "a revolutionary approach for the exploration of oceans and the search for marine ecosystems on the Jovian moon Europa" which involves "numerous small (~10 cm scale), autonomous, robotic swimmers which as individuals and as a cooperative group sense the ice, ocean, and sea floor environment and measure the physicochemical properties characterizing the presence of life. The design of these roboswimmers is biology-inspired., i.e. they are inherently weight and power efficient and compatible with the ocean environment at great depths."
- Exploration of Jovian Atmosphere Using Nuclear ramjet Flyer
- Overview
- Overview (PDF version)
- By George Maise. A "Phase I" study conducted for the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts. Note: webbrowser must have Javascript.
- See also the viewgraph-like Annual Meeting Presentation held in June 2000 (in HTML and PDF versions).
- Investigation of "the design, operation, and data gathering possibilities of a nuclear-powered ramjet flyer in the Jovian atmosphere using a modified version of the MITEE nuclear rocket engine. (MITEE was "a
compact, ultra-light-weight thermal nuclear rocket which uses hydrogen as the propellant.") "The nuclear-powered ramjet can produce sufficient thrust so that the flyer will be able to dive deeper into the Jovian atmosphere and climb back up as needed."
- Exploration of Near-Earth Objects
- At the Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) of the US National Academy of Sciences site. 1998.
- Exploring the Trans-Neptunian Solar System
- The state of knowledge of Triton, Pluto & Charon, etc as of 1998, an assessment of future mission objectives, etc. At the Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) of the US National Academy of Sciences site. 1998.
- Extreme Exploring with JPL: Antarctica and Jupiter's Moons
- CalTech is looking to set up a project to investigate (late in 2001) Lake Vostok in Antarctica using hydrobots and cryobots, in part as "a pathfinder for future Europa missions".
- Mercury
- Report of the Terrestrial Planets Science Working Group at Brown University. Preliminary draft. Brief history, status of knowledge, and future objectives.
- Venus
- A Strategy for the Exploration of Venus
- Report of the Venus Subgroup of the Terrestrial Planets Science Working Group at Brown University. Draft. December 10, 1995.
- A Strategy for Venus Exploration: 2000-2010
- By Ellen Stofan. March 1997. At the Terrestrial Planets Science Working Group site at Brown University.
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General Discussion
|
- Comparative Planetological Themes
- Issues paper for: "What are the most important cross-cutting scientific themes for the terrestrial planets?" At the Terrestrial Planets Science Working Group site at Brown University.
- Evaluating the Biological Potential in Samples Returned from Planetary Satellites and Small Solar System Bodies
- By the Task Group on Sample Return from Small Solar System Bodies, Space Studies Board, Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications, National Research Council, USA. At the National Academy Press site. (A more structured--but slower loading--copy with a table of contents can be found here.)
- Rationale for Terrestrial Planetary Body Exploration: The Local Terracentric View
- At the Terrestrial Planets Science Working Group site at Brown University.
- Robots vs Humans: The Next Space Race?
- By Louis D. Friedman. In spite of the title, more a survey of prospects than a discussion of merits. From The Planetary Report, vol. 16, no. 5, Sep/Oct 1996.
- Smaller, Cheaper, Faster Vindicated?
- By David H. Smith and Joseph A. Burns. At the Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) of the US National Academy of Sciences site. 1997.
- Where Do We Go?
- "If we can't travel faster than light, are our dreams of exploration hopeless?" Email discussion between David Portree & Geoffrey A Landis.
- Where Now in the Solar System?
- By Joseph A. Burns and David H. Smith. "The Role of the Small Mission in Planetary and Lunar Exploration". At the Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) of the US National Academy of Sciences site. 1995.
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Manned Missions
(paper studies)
|
- Human and Robotic Precursor Missions to the Polar Icecaps of Mercury
- By Jonathan Vos Post. "Since Caltech/JPL observations suggest possible water ice at the north and south poles of the planet Mercury, it is now feasible to consider a new class of human exploration missions to these sites, and three classes of robotic precursor missions that would precede human exploration (impact/orbital spectroscopy, lander, sample-return)." Includes a (1992) response from NASA Administrator Goldin. At the Computer Futures Space Publications page.
- A Near Term Private Mission to a Near Earth Asteroid
- A paper study. At the P.E.R.M.A.N.E.N.T. site.
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Online Magazines
and Journals
| See also Online Magazines and Journals in About Travelling in Space and in Exploring the Moon & Mars. |
|---|
- Beyond LEO
- Newsletter published by the JSC Exploration Office. Only 1994 & 1995 issues online. (It may also be possibly defunct. The "current" issue is the December 1995 one.) At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site.
- Galileo Messenger
- JPL's newsletter for the Galileo mission. Only some issues are online.
- SSE Newsletter
- In PFF format. Published on-line by the Science Director for Exploration of the Solar System in NASA's Office of Space Science. At JPL's Solar System Exploration Home Page site. Only some issues are online.
|
Policies & Strategies
|
- Big Payoffs from Small Spacecraft
- By Joseph A. Burns and David H. Smith. "The Role of the Small Mission in Planetary and Lunar Exploration". At the Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) of the US National Academy of Sciences site. 1995.
- Defining NASA's Mission and America's Vision for the Future of Space Exploration
- By Keith Cowing. On the hearings before the US House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, Subcommittee on International Affairs and Criminal Justice, 19 May 1997.
- Does Japan have any plans for lunar or planetary exploration?
- A very brief statement at a NASDA site.
- The Human Exploration of Space
- A report by the Committee on Human Exploration, Space Studies Board, 1997. A one-volume version of 3 previous reports:
- Note: the one-volume version uses frames whereas the others do not.
- An Integrated Strategy for Planetary Sciences 1995-2010
- A report of the Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) of the US National Academy of Sciences. 1994.
- NASA Envisions Human Missions to Deep Space
- By Leonard David. 15 September 2000. News item on a NASA wishlist. At Space.com. Manned missions to Ganymede, Titan, and the libation points get a mention (as well as the more usual Moon and Mars).
- "NASA wants to put Earth in its rear view mirror. The space agency has scripted a step-by-step plan to send astronauts to locales between Earth, the moon and the sun, to Mars and the asteroids, and even farther--to the moons of several outer planets."
- On Assessment of NASA's Solar System Exploration Roadmap [2000 version]
- A letter to Dr. Carl Pilcher, NASA's science program director for Solar System Exploration, followed by a report ("Scientific Assessment of Exploration of the Solar System: Science and Mission Strategy") on the roadmap. By the Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) of the US National Academy of Sciences. Dated 2000.
- Outer Solar System Exploration Program (missing)
- Pluto, Europa, comets, the Solar Probe, and three more atmosphere probes for Jupiter are the main objectives. A JPL document. Seems to have been written near the end of 1997. Part of the Solar System Exploration Strategy site at JPL.
- Priorities for JPL's Solar System Exploration Program (missing)
- Solar System Exploration Subcommittee: Findings of the Strategic Planning Workshop. Part of the Solar System Exploration Strategy site at JPL.
- Roadmap for the Mission to the Solar System
- Year 2000 version. Check out NASA's hopes and dreams for exploring the solar system over the period 2000-2015. (An older (HTML) version can be found here, along with a kind of shopping list of missions here.)
- Scientific Assessment of NASA's Solar System Exploration Roadmap
- A report of the Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) of the US National Academy of Sciences. 1996.
- The Space Science Enterprise Strategic Plan (1997)
- Gives info on various envisioned projects such as the Interstellar Probe and the Pluto-Kuiper Express. Your choice of PDF or HTML formats.
- Technology Programs and Plans
- What technologies may be required to support JPL's Solar System Exploration missions. Part of the Solar System Exploration Strategy site at JPL.
- Technology Validation Missions
- The New Millennium program, Deep Space 4, Muses-C, and the Comet
Nucleus Sample Return mission. A JPL document. Part of the Solar System Exploration Strategy site at JPL.
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Prizes and Awards
|
- 2111 Foundation for Exploration's Long-Term Expedition Awards
- Various Mars exploration awards, a lunar (overland) circumnavigation one, and two restricted to entrants from Commonwealth of Nations countries. Target dates for achievement are in the early 22nd century.
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Research Labs & Other Facilities
(websites)
|
- ASU Planetary Geology Group
- "Planetary Geology is the study of the origin, evolution, and distribution of matter condensed in the form of planets, satellites, comets and asteroids." At Arizona State University.
- Center for Earth and Planetary Studies
- A "scientific research unit within the Collections and Research Department of the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution." It "performs original research and outreach activities on topics covering planetary science, terrestrial geophysics, and the remote sensing of environmental change."
- Planetary Material Curation
- At NASA's JSC.
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Timetables
|
- Planetary Exploration in the Next Decade and Beyond (missing)
- At the Planetary Society site.
|
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Travelling Round
(general)
|
- Interplanetary Rover Efforts
- Prepared by Mark Maimone. Rover technologies, teleoperated rovers, deployment & field tests, etc. Covers a range of rovers, from the Soviet Lunokhods to Sojourner and beyond.
- A Scientific Rationale for Mobility in Planetary Environments
- At the Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) of the Space Studies Board of the US National Academy of Sciences site. 1999. ("A variety of recent planetary exploration missions have either demonstrated the advantages that derive from the ability to move instruments from one location to another in planetary environments or have indicated that such a capability is a logical approach to conducting future priority studies.")
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Travelling Round: Planes & Balloons
|
- Optimizing Remote Planetary Exploration (no longer accessible: behind firewall)
- Lt. Kevin S. Ford. Thesis proposal for an optimization model to help plan a VFR (Venus Flyer Robot) route "that visits locations in a manner that is most beneficial to planetary scientists".
- Planetary Aerobot Program (at JPL)
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Unmanned Missions
(paper studies)
|
- Europa
- Europa Project (missing)
- A student's (Charles Hornbostel) "AE 441 class, Spacecraft Vehicle Design, is designing a space probe to land on Jupiter's moon Europa" in response to a design competition sponsored by American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). This is a "research page to help us with the arduous task of researching all the systems involved."
- Europa Orbiter and Seismic Landers Mission (missing)
- One person's vision. An orbiter, 5 hard landers, and a penetrator.
- Odysseus Mission: Europa Lander and Subsurface Probe
- Five senior students at Cornell University's College of Engineering & their year-long project (in 1998) "to design a spacecraft mission to land on the surface of Europa and explore beneath its icy crust." Includes a WWW version of their Powerpoint presentation. At the website of Odysseus, Cornell's Space Exploration Design Group.
- A Probe to Europa
- By Hector O. Alvidres. May 1993. Student project. From the Design Archive of the Texas Space Grant Consortium's site.
- Interplanetary Space
- Mission Design: Passive Solar Tracking Apparatus (P-STAR)
- By Tim Crain. July 1996. Student project. P-STAR establishes "a constellation of GPS-like solar satellites at approximately 5 Astronomical Units (AU) in various inclinations. These satellites will become the focus of a single dedicated Earthside tracking organization and will, in turn, provide passive navigation and tracking resources to any spacecraft operating within and possibly slightly beyond the orbit of Jupiter." From the Design Archive of the Texas Space Grant Consortium's site.
- Mercury
- A Low Cost Mercury Orbiter Mission
- By Kenneth J. Ely, Wallace T. Fowler, & Byron D. Tapley. Student project. From the Design Archive of the Texas Space Grant Consortium's site.
- A Mercury Orbiter Mission
- By D.N. Baker. An academic paper looking at the design of such a mission.
- Websites
- Design Archive of the Texas Space Grant
- Lunar landers, Mars missions, Europa probes, and lots more, designed by undergraduate and graduate students at the TSGC. In some cases, only the abstracts are available online. In many cases, though, the full-text is available, either as PDF (ie Adobe Acrobat) files or as HTML. The latter I have given separate entries on these pages. At the Texas Space Grant Consortium's site.
- Mission Plans and Concepts
- "...specific people and companies who have been putting forth proposals or concepts, or trying to develop plans, or attempting to raise capital for a project to utilize asteroidal and/or lunar material." At the P.E.R.M.A.N.E.N.T. site.
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WWW Resources
(websites)
|
- In Situ Exploration and Sample Return
- "Solar system exploration is now embarked on a new phase - using highly capable robotic space systems to explore the atmosphere, surface and subsurface of planets, satellites and small bodies by means of in situ measurements and sample return." JPL site.
- NASA's Exploration Document Library
- Some of the documents here are linked directly elsewhere on this page. This site is divided into various sections (eg lunar base, lunar astronomy, Mars documents).
- Solar System Exploration Home Page
- A NASA site. News, features, capsule descriptions of planets, moons, and missions of exploration. An "Internet resource for information on Solar System Exploration, one of four space science themes of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration." Seems to have been greatly revamped.
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Settlements in Space |
|---|
| Orbiting and Lagrangian settlements, including orbital hotels. See the Settlements on Other Worlds section for those on the ground. (Also discussion of legal issues relating to settlements in space will be found in the Space Law section of About Ventures in Space.) |
EVAs
|
- EVA Worksite (missing)
- By David S.F. Portree. EVAs past, present, and future. (Portree is co-author of a NASA book on EVAs: Walking to Olympus.)
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Megaengineering
| Dyson spheres and other such structures. See also Orbiting Settlements for orbiting structures of large but less vast dimensions. |
|---|
- The Dyson Sphere FAQ
- By Anders Sandberg (& others). What is a Dyson sphere? Who was Dyson? Etc. At the author's website.
- Dyson Spheres
- By Jasper McChesney. A "showcase" of rendered images about Dyson Spheres and other megascale engineering projects. Brief notes also on "Life on a Sphere", "Sphere Construction", and "Type I Spheres".
|
Orbital Hotels
(general)
|
- Orbital Hotel Design
- Part of the Space Habitat page at Space Future.
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Orbital Hotels
(proposed)
|
- Space Tour
- Space Tourist Facility
- [27 stateroom modules, zero-G lobby module (including dining/cafeteria, facilities), hangar/air lock module, gymnasium/recreation module. Some parts to have artificial gravity.]
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Orbiting Settlements
| Covers large orbiting structures (particularly permanent/long-term ones), such as those of the O'Neill-type. For establishments of more modest size (and not necessarily of a long-term kind; ie the orbiting equivalent of an Antarctic base), see Space Stations below. Conversely, for the really, really big sort, see the Megaengineering section above. |
|---|
- Designs & Studies
- The Babylon Project: On The Edge of a New Frontier
- By Thomas Beatty and David Peters. Produced as part of a 1998 NASA Space Colony contest for school children. At the Life Sciences site of NASA's Ames centre.
- Lewis One Space Colony
- Intended to improve on the 10,000 inhabitant designs of the mid-1970s. Postscript version of the paper plus various images. At the NAS Systems Division site of NASA's Ames centre.
- SCORE: Self Contained Off-world Residential Environment
- "Design of a[n] extra-terrestrial settlement: An engineering project". By Nyssa Stephanie Rene Woods. Produced as part of a 1997 NASA Space Colony contest for school children. At the Life Sciences site of NASA's Ames centre.
- Space Colony Terra Nova: Beyond 2001
- By Katie Neish. Produced as part of a 1997 NASA Space Colony contest for school children. At her website.
- Space II: The World Beyond
- "The Epitome of Eloquence, Beauty, and Fine Quality." By Michael G. Leong, Gary M. Diaz, & Michael Bottom. "MGM" and the Princess Ishtar! Produced as part of a 1995 NASA Space Colony contest for school children. At the Life Sciences site of NASA's Ames centre.
- Tango III: A Space Settlement Design
- By Carolina Podesta, Carolina Subotovsky, Felipe Juda et al. Produced as part of a 1996 NASA Space Colony contest for school children. At the Life Sciences site of NASA's Ames centre.
- Space Settlements: A Design Study
- Conducted over 10 weeks in the summer of 1975 at Stanford University and NASA's Ames Research Centre. "Participants included professors, technical directors and students in a variety of disciplines from physical science and architecture to engineering and social science." At the Life Sciences site of NASA's Ames centre.
- Well, you start with a Rock...
- "Space Colonization for the 21st Century". By Turhan Herder, Stephen Shepherd, John Hirst. Produced as part of a 1995 NASA Space Colony contest for school children. At the NAS Systems Division site of NASA's Ames centre.
- General Discussion
- Co-Evolution Book on Space Settlements: spreading life throughout the solar system
- Edited by Stewart Brand. Published 1977. Contains arguments for and against space colonization. At the Life Sciences site of NASA's Ames centre. Chief elements:
- Creation of Free Settlements
- "...information useful to those who wish to build future extraterrestrial settlements, whether those interests are in the engineering, the funding, earth based examples, or political structures." At the Island One site.
- Our Future in the Cosmos--Space
- Speech given by Isaac Asimov. Seems to date from the middle 1980s. He makes some additional comments here. Mostly about "space settlements". From an etext version of Impact of Science on Science containing the texts of speeches by Asimov, James Burke, and Jules Bergman. ("In their letters to me, some individuals wrote that people would not be able to endure the kind of engineered environment that would exist in the space settlements and that they wouldn't be able to bear not living close to nature as they do on Earth. Who lives close to nature here on Earth? There are millions of people on Earth who are never close to nature. I know; I live in the middle of Manhattan.")
- Space Colonies and PERMANENT ("using asteroidal and/or lunar materials")
- Essay on the subject. At the P.E.R.M.A.N.E.N.T. site.
- The Space Settlement FAQ
- By Mike Combs. ("What is space settlement?", "What is a space habitat?", "What is a mass driver?" etc.) He also has a (mostly space art) Space Settlement site.
- The World, the Flesh, and the Devil
- By J.D. Bernal. "An Enquiry into the Future of the Three Enemies of the Rational Soul". An online version of Bernal's seminal if utopian 1929 essay. Includes a description of what are now called "Bernal spheres". At Cosma Rohilla Shalizi's Home Page. (Note: Shalizi's page also has online versions of two other important philosophical works of the 1920s on the future of science: J.B.S. Haldane's Daedalus, and Bertrand Russell's rebuttal to it: Icarus.)
- "Imagine a spherical shell ten miles or so in diameter, made of the lightest materials and mostly hollow; for this purpose the new molecular materials would be admirably suited. Owing to the absence of gravitation its construction would not be an engineering feat of any magnitude."
- Websites
- Orbital Space Settlements: spreading life throughout the solar system
- Maintained by Al Globus et al. The Who, How, When, Where, and Why. At the Life Sciences site of NASA's Ames centre.
- Starships, Space Colonies, and the Like: An Occasional Series
- By Geoff Wood. Essays and space art. (Bit hard to place this one. It's in this section mainly due to the emphasis on space habitats.)
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| Space Art |
- Space Colony Art from the 1970s
- Cylindrical colonies, torodial colonies, & Beynal spheres. At the Life Sciences site of NASA's Ames centre.
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Space Colonisation
| Covers more general (and generic) discussion of the colonisation of space. |
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- Forum: Gerard K. O'Neill on Space Colonization and SETI
- An interview by John Kraus of Cosmic Search magazine with Gerard O'Neill. Ranges widely on the two title subjects. Published in Vol 1. No 2 of the magazine, March 1979.
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Space Stations
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- Strategic Considerations for Cislunar Space Infrastructure
- By Wendell W. Mendell & Steve Hoffman. 1991. Argues "that a crewed space station at the [L1] libration point between the Earth and the Moon provides an environment that is more suitable for almost every research objective, from microgravity to planetary exploration", than the proposed space station Freedom (now ISS). At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site.
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Technology
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- The Architecture of Artificial-Gravity Environments for Long-Duration Space Habitation
- A dissertation by Theodore Wayne Hall for an architectural doctoral degree at the University of Michigan. Not yet fully online. It "aims to advance the science of environmental design for artificial gravity" by consolidating "current knowledge from engineering, life science, and architecture, and introduces new material through mathematical derivation and computer simulation."
- "The goal of environmental design in artificial gravity is not to fool people into thinking they're on Earth, but rather, to help them orient themselves to the realities of their rotating environment."
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| Miscellaneous |
- Differences in National Outlook
- Or why the Japanese are probably destined to corner yet another market (and the Australians and the British, and to a lesser extent the Americans, are likely to be caught sipping afternoon tea at the starting gate when the gun goes off). By Mark Prado. At the P.E.R.M.A.N.E.N.T. site. The two earlier essays referred to in the one above:
- Shimizu Corp: "Japanese blue chip engineering and construction company doing work on lunar materials utilization and large scale space construction."
- Obayashi Corp: "competitor to Shimizu, another giant Japanese engineering and construction company interested in getting involved in space construction."
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Settlements on Other Worlds |
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| Primarily settlement and colonisation of other worlds and related matters, including such surface activities as lunar mining. Links dealing with the Travelling to... and exploration sides will be found in Travelling into Orbit, Travelling to the Stars, Exploring the Moon and Mars, and Exploring the Solar System sections, while the Missions... sections contain links to info on current and proposed missions. Also discussion of legal issues relating to other worlds (eg property rights under the Outer Space Treaty) will be found in the Space Law section of About Ventures in Space. |
Bases & Settlements
(Architecture & Construction)
| Covers discussion on the areas in question not tied to particular worlds (or which deal with both lunar and Mars bases). For those articles, essays, etc specific to lunar bases or to Mars bases, see the separate sections below. |
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- Homesteading the Planets with Local Materials
- Author unknown. 28 April 1998. News item from NASA's Space Science News site. ("Building lunar and Martian bases from local or in situ (on-site) materials is a concept almost as old as space exploration.")
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Bases & Settlements
(Equipment & Outfitting)
| Covers discussion on the areas in question not tied to particular worlds (or which deal with both lunar and Mars bases). For those articles, essays, etc specific to lunar bases or to Mars bases, see the separate sections below. |
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- Cryogenic Reactant Storage for Lunar Base Regenerative Fuel Cells
- By Lisa L. Kohout. Prepared for the International Conference on Space Power sponsored by the International Astronautical Federation,
Cleveland, Ohio, USA, June 5-7, 1989. At a NASA Lewis Research Centre website.
- Mars Power Homepage: Power Systems for Bases & Rovers on Mars
- Studies done on power systems for use on Mars during the days of the Space Exploration Initiative. Also has a section on Combined Lunar and Martian Systems. A NASA site. (Note: I've given some of the more interesting and less technical papers separate links.)
- Design and Optimization of a Self-Deploying PV Tent Array
- By Anthony J. Colozza. June 1991. At a NASA Lewis Research Centre website.
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Colonisation & Settlement
(general)
| See also the separate more specialist sections on Mars Colonisation below. |
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- The Far Future
- Burning the Cosmic Commons: Evolutionary Strategies for Interstellar Colonization (PDF)
- By Robin Hanson. Note: this is a PDF file, so you'll need the Adobe Acrobat Reader.
- "It seems likely that if...any substantial fraction of our descendants can survive for the next thousand years, and maintain a growing economy over that period, they by then will have begun to attempt to colonize other star systems. ... Once such an interstellar colonization process has begun, then aside from opposing colonization waves, there are no obvious barriers to such a colonization process eventually spreading to all the roughly hundred billion stars in our galaxy, or the roughly hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe."
- A copy of the abstract is here.
- Man's Role in the Galaxy
- By Ronald N. Bracewell. Originally published in Vol 1. No 2, March 1979, of Cosmic Search magazine.
- "By cosmological standards, the million years or so that would suffice to penetrate the galaxy by space travel is a mere instant. An outside observer who had inspected our galaxy thousands of times at regular intervals since its birth would find intelligent life all over the galaxy on one of his inspections whereas there had been only isolated pockets on his previous inspection. It is hard to believe that intelligent life has already flashed through our galaxy for no signs of it have been detected."
- The Swarming: Interstellar Migration (missing)
- "'The Swarming' is David Zindell's term. I use it to refer to the onset of near-lightspeed expansion of the technosphere which originated on Earth." Still under construction. Part of a wider page on futurology: The Future: Stages in Future Evolution.
- General Discussion
- Creation of Free Settlements
- "...information useful to those who wish to build future extraterrestrial settlements, whether those interests are in the engineering, the funding, earth based examples, or political structures." At the Island One site.
- For a Free Frontier (missing)
- "The Case for Space Colonization". Essay. By Daniel Ust. Discusses various types of space colonisation. At the Free Radical site. Note: your web-browser will need javascript if you want to use the buttons at the bottom of this page to go elsewhere. However, they won't work properly unless you access it using Free Radical's frames. (I guess they forgot one of the ground rules of the WWW: access to any page on any site from anywhere.) Still, you can read the nice essay.
- Galactic Information Guide
- Maintained by Jamal Willis. A "reference for topics relating to and useful for the colonization of the oceans and space."
- How to Colonize an Asteroid
- "In 15 easy steps". By Robert Lyon Richards. An enthusiast's plan. At Obwan's Home Page.
- How to Restart a Space Race to the Moon & Mars
- By Alan Wasser. Land grants and the colonisation of the Moon & Mars. At the The Moon Miner's Manifesto site. March 1997.
- "Although it is now often forgotten, the international law created by the 1967 treaty is not the norm in human history. The right to claim newly settled property has always provided the economic incentive for human expansion. (Would Europeans have ever settled America if they couldn't claim ownership of the land they settled?) In this case, immediately re-saleable property deeds are the only possible 'product' that can be profitably brought back from space at current launch costs."
- Lunar Industrialization and the Saturn VI
- "We 'stand on the shoulders of giants!'" Notes for lecture #24, 1996, for the NEEP 602 course at the University of Wisconsin.
- On Earth's Moon
- By Chris Peterson. "The rationale for building a community on the Earth's Moon". At the Apollo Society site. ("Why should humans settle on the Moon? Why not Mars first, or an asteroid?")
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Educational Materials
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- Reaching for the Red Planet
- By Mary Urquhart. A "multi-purpose curriculum focusing on planning a Mars colony" designed for grades 4-6. At her K-12 Education site. (The wider site also contains other space-orientated educational materials, such as Titan in a Fish Tank and Probing Below the Surface of Mars.)
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Equipment & Technology
| Covers those technology issues not given a separate subsection (like Oxygen Production). |
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- Advanced Automation for Space Missions
- Edited by Robert A. Freitas, Jr and William P. Gilbreath. Written for a 1980 summer study sponsored by NASA and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). Note: only part of the report is online. Other copies can be found here at the The Lunar Replicator Home Page, and also here at the Island One site.)
- Artificial intelligence, replicating machines and other marvels. The study proposed (amongst other things) a 19-year project to land a 100-ton solar-powered automated factory on the Moon. By mining the lunar soil, this factory would clone itself over the course of a year. You would then have two factories on the Moon. These two would then clone themselves over the course of the next year, yielding four factories, which would then clone themselves over the course of the year following that, and so on. Written in the days before nanotechnology was thought of (the study assumed the use of conventional macroscopic machines).
- Molecular Nanotechnology in Aerospace: 1999
- By Al Globus. A "high-level discussion of molecular nanotechnology and some aerospace applications". At the technical reports site of the NAS Systems Division site of NASA's Ames centre.
- NASA and Self-Replicating Systems: Implications for Nanotechnology
- By Ralph C. Merkle. At the Nanotechnology website. Mostly about the ASEE report listed above on an automated self-replicating lunar factory. Originally appeared in the No. 9, June 1990 issue of Foresight Update of the Foresight Institute.
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Exploration & Settlement
(general)
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- Romance to Reality: Moon & Mars Expedition & Settlement Plans
- By David S.F. Portree. "Describes past and present plans for the exploration and settlement of the martian and lunar frontiers."
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Lava Tubes & Off-World Settlement
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- 12 Questions About Lunar Lava Tubes
- Author unknown. At the The Moon Miner's Manifesto site. November 1996.
- Lavatube Culture Part II: "Down Inside" Lavatube Culture
- By Peter Kokh. At the The Moon Miner's Manifesto site. December 1996. (Part 1, Naming Lavatube Settlements, was much briefer and more whimsical (and had a misleading main title: "'Down Inside' Culture and Civilization").)
- Remote Mapping of Lunar Lavatubes
- Author unknown. "Challenges of Sealing & Pressurization." At the The Moon Miner's Manifesto site. November 1996. (Reprinted from the April 1991 issue.) Fairly brief.
- Robotic On-Site Exploration and Surveying of Lava Tubes
- By Peter Kokh. At the The Moon Miner's Manifesto site. November 1996.
- Searching Mars for Lavatubes
- By Peter Kokh. "Mars' vast shield volcanoes & lava sheets are prime territory for lurking lavatubes & prime real estate for the New Martians." At the The Moon Miner's Manifesto site. March 1996.
- Subterraforming Lavatubes
- By Peter Kokh. "Challenges of Sealing & Pressurization." Fairly brief. At the The Moon Miner's Manifesto site. November 1996.
- Settling into a Lava Tube
- By Peter Kokh. "Brainstorming an Early Lava Tube Town." At the The Moon Miner's Manifesto site. November 1996. Fairly brief.
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Life Support & Protection
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- Atmosphere
- Integration of Plant Growth into a Mars Habitat
- By Paul D. Campbell & Nathan Moore. Date uncertain (but after 1993). At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site.
- Internal Atmospheric Pressure and Composition for Planet Surface Habitats and Extravehicular Mobility Units
- Authorship: paper has "Paul D. Campbell", but Exploration Library's catalog has "Jeri W. Brown, Joe Kosmo, and Paul D. Campbell". 1991. At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site.
- "Proper design of the atmospheres within habitats and Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMU) is key to the development of a long-term planetary surface human outpost. Early decisions about atmospheric pressure and composition will have continuing effects, throughout the life of the planet surface program, on the outpost's habitable elements and on the activities accomplished within those elements."
- Radiation
- Crew Habitable Element Space Radiation Shielding for Exploration Missions
- By Paul D. Campbell. 1992. At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site.
- "Proper design of the atmospheres within habitats and Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMU) is key to the development of a long-term planetary surface human outpost. Early decisions about atmospheric pressure and composition will have continuing effects, throughout the life of the planet surface program, on the outpost's habitable elements and on the activities accomplished within those elements."
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Lunar Bases & Outposts
(plans & speculations)
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- Earthrise 1: Design of a Stripmining Base on the Moon
- Final report, April 1999. A study by fourth-year civil engineering M.Sc students of Delft University of Technology, Netherlands. (Note: the entire report appears to be online, but only first few sections are directly accessible from the table of contents. For sections 4-9, use the "Next Page" chain of links. After that you will have to manually increment the page number in the URL.)
- "As a part of the M.Sc. studies of Civil Engineering of Delft University of Technology, a project has to be done every year. This project is part of the new f
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