{"id":17312,"date":"2023-03-07T22:42:49","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T14:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/fictional-plans-for-building-a-space-station-beyond-the-moon-reflect-jeff-bezos-vision\/"},"modified":"2023-03-07T22:42:49","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T14:42:49","slug":"fictional-plans-for-building-a-space-station-beyond-the-moon-reflect-jeff-bezos-vision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/fictional-plans-for-building-a-space-station-beyond-the-moon-reflect-jeff-bezos-vision\/","title":{"rendered":"Fictional plans for building a space station beyond the moon reflect Jeff Bezos\u2019 vision"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Illustration:
\u201cCritical Mass\u201d traces the construction of a huge space station just beyond the moon. (Illustration for Dutton \/ Penguin Random House)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If Jeff Bezos needs a blueprint for building a space station beyond the moon with ore from an asteroid, he just might want to start with \u201cCritical Mass,\u201d a newly published sci-fi novel by Daniel Suarez.<\/p>\n

The 464-page book describes in detail how entrepreneurs, engineers and astronauts take advantage of a cache of material mined from an asteroid to create a giant, ring-shaped space station, a space-based solar power system, a mass driver for delivering resources from the moon and a nuclear-powered spaceliner.<\/p>\n

To add to the drama, they\u2019re doing all this in the midst of a global climate crisis in the late 2030s.<\/p>\n

Building space outposts and moving heavy industry off-Earth to preserve our home planet\u2019s environment is an overarching theme in Bezos\u2019 long-term space vision. \u201cWe want to go to space to save the Earth,\u201d he said in 2016. \u201cI don\u2019t like the \u2018Plan B\u2019 idea that we want to go to space so we have a backup planet. \u2026 This is the best planet. There is no doubt. This is the one that you want to protect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suarez agrees with Bezos\u2019 sentiment, but not because the billionaire founder of Amazon and Blue Origin came up with the idea. In the latest episode of the Fiction Science podcast, Suarez points out that Princeton physicist Gerard K. O\u2019Neill, Bezos\u2019 space mentor, had the idea first.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the idea of settling deep space by re-creating our biosphere in free space as opposed to settling another planet,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

With \u201cCritical Mass\u201d and the other books in his Delta-V trilogy, Suarez aims to do what O\u2019Neill\u2019s 1970s-era mix of science fiction and fact, \u201cThe High Frontier,\u201d did for the likes of Jeff Bezos. Suarez aims to get people thinking about how a space-based society could work.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/radiopublic.com\/fiction-science-GAxyzK\/s1!056be<\/p>\n

\u201cI want more people who aren\u2019t interested in space to become interested in space, and to recognize that it has a direct impact on their lives, and it can help them.\u201d he says. \u201cIn order to safeguard Earth, we must, some of us, go to space. That\u2019s really what I\u2019m trying to get across: that it\u2019s not a wasted effort. It\u2019s not a hobby, or a billionaire\u2019s fun vacation. It can be so much more.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to stress at this point that \u201cCritical Mass\u201d is a novel, not a textbook. The story follows up on an asteroid mining expedition that\u2019s the focus of \u201cDelta-V,\u201d the first book of Suarez\u2019s yet-to-be-completed trilogy.<\/p>\n

The expedition crew runs into trouble at the asteroid Ryugu \u2014 which happen to be a real space rock that was sampled by Japan\u2019s robotic Hayabusa 2 spacecraft. Only three astronauts are able to return, and they waste no time working with their support team on a risky plan to rescue two of their crewmates who are stuck on a deep-space outpost.<\/p>\n

The plan involves setting up a new type of cryptocurrency, based on the value of in-space resources that have been secretly stockpiled and sent from Ryugu to Earth-Moon L2, a gravitational balance point just beyond the moon. Material mined from the asteroid is used initially to build that giant space station at L2 through additive manufacturing, and then to set up a robotic lunar mining operation with a mass-driver delivery system.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Daniel Suarez. (Photo: \u00a9 Steve Payne)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Suarez doesn\u2019t stint on the details, including just how fast a mass driver would have to sling blocks of compressed lunar material to send them to L2 (2.38 kilometers per second.) He also works in references to real-world technologies that were pure science fiction in O\u2019Neill\u2019s day.<\/p>\n

Even asteroid mining isn\u2019t all that far out of a concept:  A decade ago, a Seattle-area venture called Planetary Resources looked as if it had a chance of turning the technology into a trillion-dollar industry. But by 2020, Planetary Resources\u2019 asteroid ambitions had fizzled out, along with those of a different venture called Deep Space Industries.<\/p>\n

Suarez argues that those startups failed mostly because they started up too soon \u2014 and draws a parallel to the dot-com crash of 2000.<\/p>\n

\u201cMultibillion-dollar companies went bankrupt,\u201d he recalls. \u201cAt the time, quite a few pundits were saying that the internet was over. And as we know, it was not over. The biggest stage was yet to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the same way, advances in space technology are on track to make the pipe dreams of the past more achievable, Suarez says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, the urgent need, the burning fuse of climate change, increasing conflict, species extinction \u2014 all of these things are pressing us to try to relieve the burden of the modern world on our Earth,\u201d he says. \u201cTo try to lift polluting and heavy industries into space, to avail ourselves of new energy and resources without further impacting the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suarez says the key to unlocking space resources is to develop methods for in-situ resource utilization, or ISRU. It so happens that Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture recently announced a significant advance in ISRU technology: a process called Blue Alchemist that promises to turn lunar soil into components for solar cells.<\/p>\n

Space-based solar power is another key technology: If researchers can develop a way for spacecraft to capture the energy from sunlight and beam it safely to the surface of Earth or the moon, that could open up a new energy frontier. It so happens that the technology is getting serious attention from academic institutions such as Caltech, from companies such as Northrop Grumman, from the European Space Agency and from the U.S. military.<\/p>\n

Yet another frontier has to do with robotic additive manufacturing, otherwise known as 3D printing. It so happens that Relativity Space is getting set to launch the world\u2019s first 3D-printed rocket, while ventures including Bothell, Wash.-based Tethers Unlimited are testing 3D printers and recyclers that are optimized for zero-G.<\/p>\n

The novel\u2019s bag of technological tricks also includes CRISPR-enabled genome surgery that has the potential to put cancer cases into remission, and cycler spacecraft that could offer a more efficient way to send payloads and people to the moon (or Mars).<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u201cCritical Mass\u201d by Daniel Suarez. (Dutton \/ Penguin Random House)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Suarez is well-placed to write about the frontiers of technology \u2014 not only thanks to his background as a software developer and systems consultant, but also because of the research he\u2019s done for a string of techno-thrillers written over the course of the past decade and a half.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a pretty good reputation with scientists and engineers and other people \u2014 innovators, entrepreneurs, people in Silicon Valley, Wall Street, defense, all sorts of places where I could go to talk to people and ask them questions about how things work,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cCritical Mass\u201d and the book that preceded it, \u201cDelta-V,\u201d also feature tech titans you can immediately recognize as stand-ins for Elon Musk, Richard Branson and, yes, Jeff Bezos.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are composites,\u201d Suarez says. \u201cThey of course compete with one another, and what this has created is almost a space race in a way similar to the one between the Soviet Union and the United States. Except it\u2019s literally individuals doing it, which I guess is progress, but it certainly makes it interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suarez turned up the dials on your typical space billionaire to create one of the central characters of the book series, named Nathan Joyce.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to examine if somebody were to, say, go just a little further and actually send people to do something quite dangerous,\u201d Suarez says. \u201cNot without their permission, but to go talk to the types of people who climb mountains or dive deep in caves and risk their lives, really just for the thrill of it, or for the experience of it, or to see around the next bend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suarez points to research suggesting that the willingness to take on an adventure may be linked to a genetic variant known as the \u201cWanderlust Gene\u201d \u2014 and he speculates that explorers on the space frontier may well be more likely to possess that variant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere might be an evolutionary basis for this, in that we have societies that are settled, and occasionally among us there\u2019s a rare few who are not satisfied and have to go find the edge. And this is what helps us grow as a species and expand,\u201d he says. \u201cI think they\u2019re still among us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, such risk-takers may satisfy that urge by taking up base jumping, or racing fast cars, or flying high-performance jets. But when the space frontier beckons \u2014 perhaps with an assist from a billionaire like Nathan Joyce or Jeff Bezos \u2014 Suarez believes they\u2019ll heed the call.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir existence is our great hope,\u201d he says. \u201cThey can help push that frontier back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Daniel Suarez\u2019s website provides more information about \u201cCritical Mass\u201d and the real-world science behind it.<\/em><\/p>\n

My co-host for the Fiction Science podcast is Dominica Phetteplace, an award-winning writer who is a graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop and currently lives in Berkeley, Calif. To learn more about Phetteplace, visit her website, DominicaPhetteplace.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

Check out the original version of this item on Cosmic Log for bonus reading recommendations from Suarez and the Cosmic Log Used Book Club. And stay tuned for future episodes of the Fiction Science podcast via Anchor, Apple, Google, Overcast, Spotify, Breaker, Pocket Casts, Radio Public and Reason.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cCritical Mass\u201d traces the construction of a huge space station just beyond the moon. (Illustration for Dutton \/ Penguin Random House) If Jeff Bezos needs a blueprint for building a space station beyond the moon with ore from an asteroid, he just might want to start with \u201cCritical Mass,\u201d a newly published sci-fi novel by Daniel Suarez. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4418,4593,4419,1046,625,4482,4491],"class_list":["post-17312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-books","tag-daniel-suarez","tag-fiction-science","tag-jeff-bezos","tag-moon","tag-science-fiction","tag-space-outposts"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17312"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}