Inhabit Space, Today!

Sort of...You can apply to join the 10th season of The Mars Desert Research Station. This is a really cool and detailed simulation of a Mars base. It even has something called Greenhab, a simulation of farming in space. It can even purify water. The application is due September 15, 2010. However, if you apply by August 15th, you get a better chance. The time commitment isn't bad (Two weeks per crew), but it is $1,000 dollars + transportation costs. However, The Mars Society has a really good scholarship program (Undergrads get to go for free!) for those willing to do five presentations, which isn't bad. I would 100% recommend my readers who are even slightly interested to apply.

You just have to imagine the change in gravity.

SPC #21: Ethics

Welcome to the Sunday Paper Club. Every Sunday, this blog will offer an analysis of a paper on space habitation and other related topics. These are my opinions on a weekly scientific paper; basically, I read the paper and write down my thoughts while I read it. They are subject to my perspectives and believes. I am open to debate, so if any reader believes I have misinterpreted something in a paper, please point it out. I'm only a student and I'm still learning how to read these papers and interpret them. All quotes and ideas are from the paper, unless otherwise noted.

This week we are reviewing the paper The Ethical Dimensions of Space Settlement. I am using a new format based on the Lifehacker article Back to School: Keep an Academic Reading Journal.

Article Information

Title: The Ethical Dimensions of Space Settlement

Author(s): Martyn J. Fogg

Date: April 2002

Journal: Space Policy

Volume: 16

Issue: 3

Pages: 205-211

Article Overview

This paper gives an overview of 4 ethical system and how Mars settlement fits within the system. It is focused on terraforming due to its massive impact on Mars’ environment. The article concludes claiming Preservationism is the only system our of the four studied that will not allow terraforming.

Key/Interesting Quotes

“…the challenge of space settlement involves the creation of artificial and autonomous biospheres which can resist or adapt to local barren conditions. Here we have the reason why settlement lags at least four decades behind travel and still remains to happen: the science of life-support systems is much more complicated and poorly understood than rocket science.” Page 1

“While generating considerable interest at the time, the fashion for O'Neill's ideas has declined to be replaced by an enthusiasm for Mars.” Page 1-2

“Haynes was the first to turn his attention to these questions and to commend the concept of terraforming Mars as an ideal arena within which to develop future, cosmocentric, environmental ethics” Page 2

“Anthropocentric morality would therefore hold that, although our obligation toward nature is indirect, it is nonetheless real.” Page 3

“Mars must surely surrender its scientific secrets first before it is exploited and if there is life there, then it must be studied in its natural environment. If the expense of space settlement could be shown to incur a net detriment to human well-being, then this would also rule out the enterprise.” Page 3

“To the ecocentrist, terraforming Mars is only moral if it is truly a barren world.” Page 4

“The cosmos has its own values, [preservationism claims], and its mere existence gives it not only the right to exist, but the right to be preserved from any human intent.” Page 4

“Would Mars be a better place transformed into a living world? Preservationism would say no, but its movement from what is descriptively true of Mars to a prescriptive claim is arbitrary and unconvincing.” Page 6

“Yet if spacefaring is a legitimate activity for microbes, why should it not be so for humans?” Page 6

Personal Response to the Article

I think preservationism does lead to a good idea. Yes, it would be hard to function if a rock had rights, but the idea of leaving things alone could be useful. For example, it could be useful to leave geologically active areas of Mars untouched for studies (and safety). I also think we have no choice to use a ecocentrict view while settling space because that world view will force us to avoid microbes which do not have rights under anthropocentrism or zoocentrism.

Questions Raised by the Paper

How would someone with a zoocentrist view feel about terraforming Mars if it had life on it?

Photo Credit: Miss K ★

Do You Want To Be A Space Inhabitant Today?

Thanks to Geekdad for posting this information.

Are you angry because humanity does not have a moon base to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission? Have you been working in the space field since the dinosaurs were alive and you only want to retire in space? Are you an insane blogger who writes about space habitation because he can't live in space? Well, the space community has two solution for you.

The Mars Society’s runs the FMARS program and the Mars Institute’s runs the Haughton-Mars Project. These are simulations, on Earth, of a Mars base. You can volunteer to be a part of this simulations, either as the crew or as mission support. Now, you will be a lab rat. There will probably do something cruel like a solar storm notification while you are at the farthest point from the base in the EVA. But, I think the real thing will be more cruel. So, you can contribute to the establishment of a Mars base while doing something epic. The Mars Society will post on their website when they are taking applications and the Mars Institute will do the same. The Haughton-Mars Project is active in the summer and the FMARS program has had 6 crews over the 7 year program.

Internet in Space

I was over at the blog The Martian Chronicles reading the article "Would You Go?" which asked it's readers wether or not they would go on a one-way trip to Mars. The vast majority of commenters (and I) said they (I) would. When commenting, I thought of what I would do during my free time. See, one can be entertained for hours on end with the Internet. But, the Internet is not available in it's current form on Mars.

That [the long distances] rules out TCP,which requires the computer sending a message to get almost immediate acknowledgement of receipt from the computer that receives the message.The computer will continue to send messages only if it receives a steady stream of such receipts.The impossibility of immediate acknowledgement means TCP will not work over the distances of deep space. (1)

I thought one could take a personal intranet with information needed for the mission on physical memory, much like taking a Wikipedia CD collection to Mars. But, using YouTube on Mars would be fun. How would that work? The current version of the Internet on Mars is the Deep Space Network.

NASA currently communicates with interplanetary and Earth-orbiting missions using its Deep Space Network. The network consists of dishes in California, Spain, and Australia, which are manually set to receive transmissions from a given spacecraft. The main drawback of the Deep Space Network is that it relies on line-of-sight transmissions. That means rovers or astronauts on the far side of Mars must wait until they are back in the line of sight with Earth before sending a message home. To receive the message, the Deep Space Network dishes must be pointed in the right direction at the right time, or the signal will be lost forever. (2)

Meaning, if I were to send a message to Earth from Mars, I would have to send it, hope the message got to Earth and wait for a few hours for confirmation that the message got to it's destination. However, there is a better plan.

 

 

Image Credit: (3)

Imagine the Internet on Earth and a similar one on Mars, linked by satellites, which relay the information between the Internets. These special purpose satellites are called 'gateways'. Now think of it not only as two Internets, but a network of Internets, interconnected by a store-and-forward "overlay" network that forms the backbone across interplanetary space. Each Internet will have a local gateway.(4)

I think this is a very good idea, but I have input. How would I know if there was new content to request. I think there would need to be an index of the Earth's Internet on Mars plus an index of Mar's Internet on earth. This way, I could search the index for information located on another planet. Then, get it. It would need to be updated continuously, so my idea would take up a ton of bandwidth but it would allow for a fast search for information that can be accessed later.

It would have to work like a mail order. I need a catalog to see what a company has, I don't know wether or not a company would have ... tin foil pants without a catalog. Only with the catalog could I request the tin foil pants, which could then be shipped to me. But, the company must keep sending me new catalog every few months so I can see the updates. Otherwise, I could end up requesting tin foil pants which went out of production long ago and miss out on the recycled plastic pants which just came out. (That was the most ridiculous example ever.)

So, I could play Halo 3 over Xbox Live on Mars with the people on Earth. But, I could watch YouTube with a long delay as long as I have a catalog. It would work like this...

only without the real time voice. I did not find on other ways it could work, but please share your ideas.     

 

Sources

(1): Hogie, Keith, Ed Criscuolo, Ron Parise. Putting More Internet Nodes in Space. April - June 2006. CSCWorld. 8 Feb. 2009 <http://personal.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/cleo/hogie-papers/hogie-cscworld-apr-jun-2006.pdf>

 

 

(2): Gray, Rich. On the Edge: Interplanetary Internet. 02 May 2003. Space.com. 8 Feb. 2009 <http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/ontheedge_0305.html>

 

 

(3) and (4): Ward, Deirdre, Rachel McDonnell, Micheal Tinney, Emer O'Donovan, Philip Kelly. The Internet In Space - What Is Happening?. Networks and Telecommunications Research Group. 8 Feb. 2009 <http://ntrg.cs.tcd.ie/undergrad/4ba2.02/space/index.html>