Thread by @rocketrepreneur

Lee Valentine is now up talking about the Space Studies Institute, which is now nearly 42yrs old. #SpaceAccess19

Lee: Talking about various research projects they've funded over the years. NEA studies, Lunar Prospector (which they helped instigate). Funded a lot of ISRU research. Magnetic benefaction of lunar regolith. Aluminum production from lunar regolith, and glass-glass composites.

Lee: Talking about glassmaking from lunar basalt regolith, and research they did on vacuum melt processing of the glass. It's possible to make a glass-glass composite, with a low-melting point glass in a high tensile strength matrix. Acts like a thermoplastic composite.

Lee: Talking about the mass driver research they funded for lunar launch. They funded three iterations of prototypes. Third device demonstrated 1800gs of acceleration, would need a 160m long track. With modern capacitors the weight can go down a lot. Still need work on catchers.

Lee: Mass drivers are >94-95% efficient at converting electric energy into kinetic energy.

Lee: Also talking about funding Leik Myrabo's laser launch work that they sponsored.

Lee: Funded some design studies for space habitats, solar power production facilities. Found you could produce most of the mass of a power satellite from lunar materials.

Lee: At Freeman Dyson's recommendation, they did research into closed-loop life support systems. Found you want to fix nitrogen chemically instead of using plants. Demonstrated that you can transform nearly all the synthesized protein in plants into usable human food.

Lee: You can find a lot of this research on SSI's website (ssi.org)

Now Gary Hudson is continuing the presentation about SSI. When he got in, the question was what should we be doing that nobody else is doing? The thing nobody else was answering was "how much gravity do humans need to survive in space?"

Gary is showing the chart he borrowed from me and Joe Carrol. We don't know what the slope looks like between 0g and 1g. Most of the Solar System (other than Venus, Earth, and Saturn) is much lower than 1g.

Gary is mentioning work that people had done some related research, but nothing with vertebrates in real hypogravity. Talked about the centrifuge access module that was canceled before it flew.

Gary is arguing that to answer these questions, you really want a free-flyer. There might be cheaper ways to do a single generation, but really you want a multi-generational rodent research study. He felt we were going too small.

Gary is showing his G-Lab concept from 2017, which could be launched by a pair of New Glenn launches. He's happy to talk more about it offline.

The other thing Gary wants to talk about is SSI's "Exotic Propulsion Initiative". He admits this is a bit off the wall, but they've funded some work at the Woodward-Fearn Lab studying Mach Effect Thrusters.

This study led to a NIAC Phase I and now a NIAC Phase II study on this. They've also held two workshops in Estes Park, CO on exotic propulsion.

Gary just handed it over to Ed Wright to talk about the Space Settlement Enterprise initiative at SSI.

Ed: We're coming up on the 50yr anniversary of Apollo 11. In that year, Gerard O'Neill asked his physics students if the surface of a planet is the best place for people to live. His conclusion and his students conclusions were no.

Ed: Talking about O'Neill's plans for building 10,000 person habitats built from lunar materials, leading to habitats housing eventually millions of people.

Ed: Most of the research on space settlement was done between 1969 and the mid 1970s. SSI is launching a new initiative to revisit this based on new research and new knowledge of solar system research, to update this vision for the 21st century.

Ed: Kickoff will take place Sept 9-10th at the 50th SSI anniversary conference, in the Museum of Flight in Seattle.

Ed: The first session on Monday will be on habitats, hosted by Dallas Bienhoff. Is L4/L5 still the most logical place for putting big habitats? What is the next step past ISS-sized habitats? What are emerging technologies that impact habitats.

Ed: Second session, hosted by @george_sowers on Extraterrestrial Resources. Lunar, Asteroidal, and recycling LEO debris.

Ed: Third session construction techniques, Fourth on Transportation logistics, Last is on Economic Viability

(I may have missed one of the sessions)

Ed: You can register for the conference at ssi50.eventbrite.com

If you register early (before May 1st) -- $340 w/ meals, $285 w/o.