Free Space Settlement

• "Alliance for Space Development: the First Five Years Went Well," by Al Globus, November 2019. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the Alliance for Space Development in lobbying the U.S. government on behalf of space development and settlement.
• "Near Term Policy and Research Priorities to Enable the First Space Settlement," by Al Globus, June 2019. Policy Forum on Space Settlement, An Examination of Policy Options, International Space Development Conference, 2019 Arlington, VA. This paper discusses the policy, research, and development needed to build the first space settlement in Equatorial Low Earth Orbit that are unlikely to be developed by general technological improvement or by the market created by space hotels.
• "The High Frontier: An Easier Way" by Tom Marotta and Al Globus 2018 is a general audience book on free space settlement. It starts with Princeton professor Dr. Gerard O'Neill's space settlement concept and describes and a vastly easier way to get the first space settlement built. Available in paperback and kindle format from Amazon.
• "A Radically Easier Path to Space Settlement," by Al Globus, February 2017. This is a short, non-technical version of "Space Settlement: an Easier Way" (see below) intended for a general audience. An earlier version was first published in the French language magazine Diplomati. The big change is recognizing that the Earth to LEO leg of the Interplanetary Transportation System (ITS) SpaceX is developing would be an excellent system for building Equatorial Low Earth Orbit (ELEO) space settlements.
• "How Small of a Free-Space Settlement Can People Be Happy Living In?" by Al Globus and Tom Marotta, preprint February 2017. This paper presents the results of an internet survey of 1,075 respondants intended to throw light on the smallest size free-space settlement that would be an acceptable place to live. The primary goal of the survey was to determine how small, both in land area and population, a settlement could be and still attract a sizeable number of potential settlers. Roughly 6% of all respondents said they could be happy living in a space settlement no bigger than a large cruise ship with no more than 500 people and they would be willing to devote at least 75% of their wealth to be able to live permanently in orbit.
• "Space Settlement: an Easier Way," by Al Globus, Stephen Covey, and Daniel Faber, NSS Space Settlement Journal, July 2017 describes a relatively easy, incremental path to free space settlement by taking advantage of very low radiation levels in Equatorial Low Earth Orbit (ELEO) and the fact that people adapt to rotation rates of 4-6 rpm within a few days. Low levels of radiation in ELEO may permit settlements with little or no radiation shielding. Higher rotation rates permit much smaller settlements. Together this reduces settlement design mass by two to three orders of magnitude and places early settlements very close to Earth, radically reducing the difficulty of building the first space settlements and making launch from Earth practical, particularly if the SpaceX ITS effort succeeds. The mass model used in this paper is available here as an Excel spreadsheet. DOI: 110.13140/RG.2.2.12690.35523
• "Orbital Space Settlement Radiation Shielding," Al Globus and Joe Strout, NSS Space Settlement Journal, April 2017. The major result of this paper is that settlements in low (~500 km) Earth equatorial orbits may not require any radiation shielding at all based on a careful analysis of requirements and extensive simulation of radiation effects. This radically reduces system mass and has profound implications for space settlement as extraterrestrial mining and manufacturing are no longer on the critical path to the first settlements, although they will be essential in later stages. It also means the first settlements can evolve from space stations, hotels, and retirement communities in relatively small steps. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.27789.84966.
• "Space Settlement Population Rotation Tolerance," Al Globus and Theodore Hall, NSS Space Settlement Journal, June 2017. This paper reviews the literature to find that space settlement residents and visitors can quickly adapt to at least four, and probably six, rotations per minute to achieve 1g of artificial gravity. Thus, the notion that space settlement rotation rate must be limited to no more than 1-2 rpm is incorrect. Although rotating at 4-6 rpm may cause discomfort, it does not last long and is not a significant barrier to settlement. High rotation rates mean that settlements can be radically smaller, and thus easier to build, than previously believed. DOI 10.13140/RG.2.2.29467.57123
• "Finding Advanced Spacefaring Civilizations," presentation at Gateway to Space, St. Louis, November 2014. Analyzes a small portion of archived Spitzer Space Telescope data searching for signs of very advanced civilizations consisting of extremely large numbers of free-space settlements. The search is very robust as it looks for excess energy at frequencies water-based life would need to use to dump excess heat from space settlements.
• "Paths to Space Settlement," Al Globus, NSS Space Settlement Journal November 2012.
• "The Fruits of a Space Settlement Contest," Al Globus, Ad Astra, Spring, 2013.
• "Our Solar System, Our Galaxy, then the Universe," Al Globus, March 2012. A short paper on how Life can expand throughout the universe using orbital space settlements co-orbiting with small bodies such as asteroids and comets.
• "Lunar Mines," Al Globus. A short paper on the advantages of lunar mining.
• New Space Policy Targets Launch. Support for President Obama's new space policy.
• Space Settlement and the Environment. Describes some of the potential benefits to Earth's environment from space settlement.
• Obama's Brilliant Space Policy. Analyzes President Obama's space policy from the point of view of space settlement. As you might guess, I like what I see. This was written after the policy was formally announced and budget figures were available.
• Obama's Present to Space Settlement. Recent decisions regarding the human space flight program may, probably unintentionally, be just what space settlement development needs. This was written before the policy was formally announced.
• A Sensible Space Program proposes space solar power, rather than putting a small number of people beyond Low Earth Orbit, as the primary new project for NASA.
• Presentation: Paths to Space Settlement given to the NASA Ames Research Center in February 2009. PDF (39MB) Power Point (9MB)
• Presentation: Paths to Space Settlement given to the ATWG (Aerospace Technology Working Group) at NASA Ames Research Center in December 2008. PDF (25MB) Power Point (7MB)
• In Defense of Space Solar Power January 2009.
• Paths to Space Settlement (25MB) a presentation given to the ATWG (Aerospace Technology Working Group) at NASA Ames Research Center in December 2008.
• A Solution to the Launch Problem? Maybe. September 2008.
• Proposals for International Space University team projects:
  • Space Olympics. Submitted 2012, resubmitted with newly available Bigelow cost data 18 January 2013.
  • Human asteroid mission comparison. Submitted 2011.
  • Asteroid mining. Submitted 2008. Used in the summer of 2010.
  • Low-cost human space program. Submitted 2008.
  • Orbital retirement home. Submitted 2008.
  • Space Solar Power. Submitted 2008.
  • Cleaning up large LEO debris. Submitted 2010.
• "Fifteen Years of NASA Student Space Settlement Design Contests: Some Lessons," Al Globus, Ruth Globus, Tugrul Sezen, Hami E. Teal, Wenonah Vercoutere, Bryan Yager, International Conference On Environmental Systems, June 2008, San Francisco, CA, USA, Session: Education Outreach.
• A Space Program for Americans, 2008 Al Globus, February 2008.
• "A Better Strategy for America?," Al Globus, April 2007.
• "The Kalpana One Orbital Space Settlement Revised," Al Globus, Ankur Bajoria, Nitin Arora, Joe Strout, April 2007.
• Will We Live in Orbit? Translations:
  • Ukrainian by the Translator Group
  • Czech by Valeria Aleksandrova
  • Indonesian by Jordan Silaen
  • Romanian by Irina Vasilescu
  • Russian translation by the Translator Group
  • Albanian translation by Vera Hoxha
• "Contest-Driven Development of Orbital Tourist Vehicles," Al Globus, AIAA Space 2006, San Jose, California, 19-21 September 2006.
• " A U.S. Space Program for Space Settlement, Al Globus, 25th Internatioal Space Development Conference, National Space Society and the Planetary Society, Los Angeles, California, 4-7 May, 2006.
• "Kalpana One: A New Orbital Space Colony Design," Al Globus, Ankur Bajoria, Nitin Arora, 25th Internatioal Space Development Conference, National Space Society and the Planetary Society, Los Angeles, California, 4-7 May, 2006.
• "Kalpana One: A New Space Colony Design," Ankur Bajoria, Nitin Arora, Al Globus, Earth and Space 2000, 10th ASCE Aerospace Division International Conference on Engineering, Construction and Operations in Challenging Environments, Houston, Texas, 5-9 March 2006. This improves on Lewis One (see below).
• In the summer of 2005 Diplomatie, a French magazine, interviewed me on space colonization. The article appeared in the September/October 2005 issue. Read article in English.
• Introduction and one chapter of my book "Orbital Space Colonies" The publisher cancelled not only the book, but the entire division of the company. I still like the intro ...
• "Searching for Partial-Dyson Spheres," Al Globus, Dana Backman, and Fred Witteborn, September 12, 2003. Unpublished. A different take on the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence, with a falsafiable hypothesis!
• "Teleoperated Modular Robots for Lunar Operations," Al Globus, Greg Hornby, Greg Larchev, Matt Hancher, Howard Cannon, Jason Lohn AIAA 4th Aviation Technology, Integration and Operations (ATIO) Forum, Chicago, Illinois, 20 - 23 Sep 2004. A plan for building robotic lunar bases that might be used for mining.
• The Design and Visualization of a Space Biosphere," Space Manufacturing 8, Energy and Materials from Space, Space Studies Institute, Princeton, NJ, May 1991, pages 303-313. This presents the Lewis One space settlement design intended to improve on the 10,000 inhabitant designs of the mid-70s. The new design features large shielded micro-g construction bays, low-g agriculture near the rotation axis to reduce the length of cylindrical settlements, large micro-g visitor and recreation areas, space viewing, and low-g recreation.
• "Remote Teleoperation Earth to Moon - An Experiment," Fifth Princeton/AIAA Conference on Space Manufacturing, 1981.
Shows that ordinary people can drive a rover on a simulated lunar surface with a three second time delay as if they were teleoperating from Earth.
• Annotated space settlement bibliography.
• Basics
• Who? You, and people pretty much like you.
• What? Kilometer-scale spacecraft with all the amenities of home, and then some.
• Where? In orbit; near Earth at first, throughout the solar system this millenium, then on to the stars.
• How? Space tourism, orbital retirement homes, solar power satellites, asteroid mining and chutzpah.
• Why? To grow and survive.
• When? First one this century.
• How much will it cost? A lot, but not too much.

• Al Globus, "A Planetary Defense Policy," February 2014. On the one year anniversary of the Chelyabinsk meteor strike in Russia, this is a suggestion on what we might do to prevent a much more disasterous repeat.
• "A Comparison of Astronaut Near-Earth Object Missions," Al Globus, Chris Cassell, Stephen Covey, Jim Luebke, Mark Sonter, Bryan Versteeg, and James Wolff, AIAA Space 2012, Pasadena, CA, 11-13 September 2012. This paper examines the advantages of bringing small asteroids into cis-lunar space for exploitation.
• Asteroid Mining (5.3 Mbytes), presentation materials for the International Space University in 2010.
• Asteroid mining proposal for the International Space University. Submitted 2008. Used in the summer of 2010.
• "AsterAnts: A Concept for Large-Scale Meteoroid Return and Processing Using the International Space Station," Al Globus, Bryan Biegel, and Steve Traugott, NAS technical report NAS-99-006, presented at Space Frontier Conference 8. Presents a plan to retrieve very large numbers of very small asteroids with fleets of identical solar-sail-powered spacecraft. This paper has been translated into Czech by Alex Red.
• Work by other members of the Asteroid Mining Group
  • Asteroid Mining: Key to the Space Economy, by Mark Sonter
  • Technologies for Asteroid Capture into Earth Orbit, by Stephen D. Covey
  • The Technical and Economic Feasibility of Mining the Near-Earth Asteroids, by Mark Sonter (1998 paper)
  • The Technical and Economic Feasibility of Mining the Near-Earth Asteroids, by Mark Sonter (1998 Master's Thesis updated 2012) PDF 207 pages
  • The Sisyphus Victorious Asteroid Project, a presentation by Marco Tantardini at CalTech December 6, 2010. This presentation led to the creation of the Keck Workshop on Asteroid Retrieval.

• "A Public/Private Program to Develop Space Solar Power" Al Globus and John C. Mankins, January 2020. An approach to developing SSP based on the COTS program that helped develop (among other things) the Falcon 9 SpaceX launcher. The NSS policy committee has accepted a slight revision of this paper as NSS policy.
• "A Space Solar Power Industry for $2 Billion or your Money Back," Al Globus, AIAA Space 2012, Pasadena, CA 11-13 May 2012. This paper investigates using prizes to develop space solar power.
• "Towards an Early Profitable PowerSat, Part II" Al Globus, Ion Bararu, and Mihai Radu Popescu, International Space Development Conference 2011, National Space Society, Huntsville, Alabama, 18-22 May, 2011. This paper suggests an approach to developing a small, single-launch SSP system that may be profitable in certain high-priced niche markets. The underlying technologies could be developed by a modest R&D; program, suggesting that critics who claim SSP is multiple orders of magnitude from profitability are wrong.
• "Towards an Early Profitable PowerSat," Al Globus, Space Manufacturing 14: Critical Technologies for Space Settlement, NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA, October 29-31, 2010. This paper examines a new design that, using technologies proven in space and on the ground, may be profitable or nearly so given optimistic but reasonable assumptions for near term R&D; results.
• New Space Policy Targets Launch. Support for President Obama's new space policy.
• Space Solar Power and the Environment makes the argument that Space Solar Power (SSP) is one of, if not the, most environmentally sound source of energy if the space segment is built from lunar materials. A slightly different version entitled Space Solar power, Lunar Mining, and the Environment was published in the Online Journal of Space Communication issue 16.
• Obama's Present to Space Settlement. Recent decisions regarding the human space flight program may, probably unintentionally, be just what space settlement development needs.
• Is SSP Competitive with Nuclear investigates evidence that building space solar power systems may cost only a few times more than a comparable nuclear power plant today.
• A Sensible Space Program proposes space solar power, rather than putting a small number of people beyond Low Earth Orbit, as the primary new project for NASA.
• "Space Solar Power Via Prizes," Al Globus. A later version of this is published in the Online Journal of Space Communication issue 16 as SSP Via Prizes.
• "Paths to Space Settlement," Al Globus, NSS Space Settlement Journal November 2012. Al Globus.
• Presentation: Paths to Space Settlement given to the NASA Ames Research Center in February 2009. PDF (39MB) Power Point (9MB)
• Presentation: Paths to Space Settlement given to the ATWG (Aerospace Technology Working Group) at NASA Ames Research Center in December 2008. PDF (25MB) Power Point (7MB)
• In Defense of Space Solar Power January 2009.
• Paths to Space Settlement (25MB) a presentation given to the ATWG (Aerospace Technology Working Group) at NASA Ames Research Center in December 2008.
• A Solution to the Launch Problem? Maybe. September 2008.
• I wrote a series of proposals in May 2008 for the International Space University (ISU) summer program. One was for Space Solar Power
• Space Solar Power X-Prize Space Settlement Advocacy Committee, December 2007. This is a proposal to the X-Prize Foundation for a Space Solar Power (SSP) prize.
• A Space Program for Americans, 2008 Al Globus, February 2008.
• "A Better Strategy for America?," Al Globus, April 2007.
• " A U.S. Space Program for Space Settlement, Al Globus, 25th Internatioal Space Development Conference, National Space Society and the Planetary Society, Los Angeles, California, 4-7 May, 2006.

• Will We Live in Orbit? to Finnish by Dalip Senka.
• Whos Earth? to Hindi by Nathan Zed.
• Space Settlements to Italian by The Unbiased Reviews and supported by Boutiquese .

• An interview on space settlement in September 2017 by Planet Watch is available here.
• Lsten to my April 2017 interview on the Space Show to discuss Equatorial Low Earth Orbit (ELEO) space settlements! The interview starts about 9.5 minutes ito the podcast. ELEO settlements appear to be radically easier to build and operate than previous settlement concepts.
• Podcast of my interview on Voices From L5 in September 2015. I answer questions about the (relatively) easy way to build space settlements taking advantage of low radiation levels in Equatorial Low Earth Orbit (ELEO) and higher than previously believed human tolerance for rotation.
• Podcast of my interview on The Space Show on 12 July 2015. I answer questions about the easy way to build space settlements taking advantage of low radiation levels in Equatorial Low Earth Orbit (ELEO) and higher than previously believed human tolerance for rotation.
• MailOnline, Humans could live in 'space cities' that orbit Earth - and beyond - by 2100, claims expert, Thursday, 18 September 2014.
• Here are some videos of Moonandback Media interviewing me about space settlement in April 2013:
  • Part 1: https://vimeo.com/65706145
  • Part 2: https://vimeo.com/65706146
  • Part 3: https://vimeo.com/65750473

• NASA Ames/Stanford 1975 Summer Study.
• Space Resources and Space Settlements NASA Ames 1977 Summer Study.
• Space Resources Overview NASA-California Space Institute 1992 Summer Study.
• Space Resources Volume 1, Scenarios NASA-California Space Institute 1992 Summer Study.
• Space Resources Volume 2, Energy, Power, and Transport NASA-California Space Institute 1992
• Space Resources Volume 3, Materials Nasa-California Space Institute 1992
• Space Resources Volume 4, Social Concerns NASA-California Space Institute 1992
• CoEvolution Book on space settlement edited by Stewart Brand and published in 1977. This work contains arguments for and against space colonization, very interesting. This is what got me interested in space colonization.
• Dr. Gerard O'Neill's space settlement testimony before Congress 23 July 1975. This lays out early thinking about the feasibility and value of free space settlements. Special thanks to Mahesh Karumudi, India for putting this pdf together.

• Kalpana One space settlement images.
• Porject Ion Video on space settlement featuring the Bernal Sphere. Very nicely done.
• Bryan Versteeg's space settlement 3D and video art.
• NASA Ames summer studies (1970's).
• Space Studies Institute slide set.
• Images of the moon from the National Space Science Data Center.
• Asteroid and Comet Fact Sheets.
• Videos of weightless living.
• Inspirational video, very nicely done, on space, particularly the moon, with a short pitch for Audi.

• High Frontier Computer Game. Design and operate your own space settlements in this high fidelity game.
• Space Habitats, Philip Tomlinson.
• International Space Station (ISS). This is the closest thing we have to a space settlement, six people living and working in space rotating every six months or so.
• National Space Society space settlement page. I'm on the board.
• Project Axis Mundi. A very interesting and beautifully produced space settlement story and proposal. Enjoy!
• Asterank. This web site has a collection of scientific and economic data on over 600,000 asteroids with ver;y nice visualizations of them as well.
• The NSS Space Settlement Library Asteroid Mining Page
• NASA space settlement site.
• Mike Combs' excellent space settlement page. I particlularly like his FAQ
• A collection of space settlement quotes.
• L5 News. The L5 Society was founded to promote space settlement. It eventually merged to become the National Space Society. Back issues of the L5 News can be found at this site.
• Project Ion Space Settlement Blog. Some good links and an overview.
• The Space Frontier Foundation.
• P.E.R.M.A.N.E.N.T.
• Space Studies Institue.
• Wikipedia entries
  • Space colonization
  • Space habitat
  • Space manufacturing
• The Artemis Project to establish a self-sufficient lunar colony.
• Isaac Asimov on space settlement.
• Cygo Space Initiative. CYGO's Space Initiative has to do with planning and deliberate action towards mining near earth asteroids, molding and casting of interlocking pieces, assembly of private interconnectable space vehicles, assembly of space platforms in various configurations (incl. settlements and quarters for residents and tourists) and assisting in the setting up of new commercial and industrial operations in space.
• Bigelow Aerospace, Inc. is developing a private, human-rated space station.
• Burning the Cosmic Commons: Evolutionary Strategies for Interstellar Colonization. A paper by Robin Hanson
• Adaptation of Stereolithography to the In-Situ Construction of Lunar Basalt Structures A novel method of basalt casting with applications towards semi-autonomous robotic processing is presented by William Clawson.
• Space Quotes to Ponder What famous people (and some not famous) have said about why humankind must expand into space.
• Space Future for everyone who wants to go to space.

• SpaceSettlers. A site devoted to space settlement discussion.
• The Space Show. The Space Show focuses on timely and important issues influencing the developmentof outer-space commerce and space tourism, as well as other related subjects of interest to us all.
• Links to solar sail web sites.
• General Public Space Travel and Tourism
• Related web sites.

Parting Words

Arthur C. Clarke once wrote that new ideas pass through three periods:

• "It can't be done."
• "It probably can be done, but it's not worth doing."
• "I knew it was a good idea all along!"

Contact: Al Globus