One of the many benefits of working for NASA as long as I have and being the INSPIRE National Project Manager is the opportunity to meet and get to know some REALLY cool people who turn out to be some of the world’s leading scientists, engineers and mathematicians. These men and women are just down the hall, at the table next to you at the cafeteria or across the road in a building that may look like an ordinary warehouse. But let me tell you, they are working on exciting projects that some of us can only dream about. To be a part of what they are doing, even if it’s only hearing about from a distance, is just cool!
After looking over many of the presentations, I was so impressed with the caliber of work offered in 3 presentations for the “Lunar Habitat Challenge” I asked one of those guys “down the hall” to look over three of the proposals we received.
I sought the input of Dr. Philip Metzger. He is a research physicist and one of those people who is doing cool stuff. Dr. Metzger is part if the NASA team at the Kennedy Space Center’s Applied Physics Laboratory, currently working on Lunar Outpost Technologies.
I sent Phil three of the “Lunar Habitat Competition” submissions. I thought you might like to see what he had to say:
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Hi Steve,
…. I have been working 70 hours a week with lots of driving/hiking to/from the test area, so I've been wiped out these past 2 weeks. Here are my comments from the review.
General: All groups did a good job of researching the literature and integrating many ideas into a coherent concept…….. One area where all three groups (could have added more) detail is the process of building the outpost. It is difficult to build a lunar outpost in part because each step of the way the partially constructed outpost must already be functional to support the people, energy demands, and logistics needed to continue construction in the next step. This is a difficult concept and so I'm not surprised that the groups did not put detail there. However, I would challenge your students to think of the construction itself as an equally important part of the outpost and think about how they would do modular step-by-step operations during the build-up process.
Specific comments for each group:
Group 1 -- Nice specificity in the design. I liked this one …. though little rationale was given for considering other options and rejecting them…… The integration of multiple concepts of lunar exploration were combined nicely demonstrating a lot of effort in researching the literature.
Group 14. -- The concepts seem to have been well reviewed and synthesized (though) not specific on construction of the radiation shield. This is a minor ….but there was some self-contradiction in the presentation regarding the perpetual twilight for solar energy and then 14 days darkness necessitating nuclear power. In perpetual twilight regions there won't be 14 days darkness. There might be just a day or two (when the sun goes behind a mountain along the horizon) but not a full 14 days, and that is the benefit of the perpetual twilight regions on the Moon. ………. Overall, this team did a good job of integrating many concepts into their outpost.
Group 10 -- This group also did a good job combining multiple concepts into one outpost. One minor point: cold fusion doesn't work, but I don't think they really meant cold fusion. Maybe they meant Radioisotopic, Thermoelectric Generation, or fission? In any case, nuclear reactors would need to be outside the habitat … due to radiation concerns. Another important issue is how would that much titanium be made from the lunar soil? In addition, how will the habitat be buried that deeply into the soil (what kind of excavators will be used)? These issues are as important, or more important, than the final outpost, itself. ……. I liked (this proposal) …….. because it seemed to be filled with great ideas. (Some) were unfortunately not feasible to implement. It is great "out of the box" thinking (though), and we need that to see where we are going in the long run…... Finally -- it is a nice idea to sleep in a centrifuge. Was that an original idea? That is pretty cool.
Best regards!
Phil
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In conclusion, he wanted all of you to know he reviewed these reports while he was on the side of a volcano actually testing lunar outpost technologies. He did the reviews in Hale Pohaku at about 9000 feet up Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii, just over a cinder cone from the main test site.Congratulations to the teams who worked on the presentations! Good job!
In case you haven’t seen these presentations, they are on the “Showcase” page. Go check them out!
To learn more about some of Dr. Metzger’s research you can go to http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/space-junk-tracking/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wiredscience+%28Blog+-+Wired+Science%29
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