OPENING THE HIGH FRONTIER'FOR A BETTER FUTURE SPACE STUDIES INSTITUTE CONFIDENTIAL NEWSLETTER TO SSI SENIOR ASSOCIATES November 10,1989 Dear Friends, A globe of the Moon sits on the conference table here at SSI headquarters. On it, the territory chemically explored by the Apollo missions is marked by a light blue band. A THIN light blue band, I should say, as the Apollo missions chemically mapped only a fraction of the Moon’s surface - mostly around the equator. Elsewhere on this globe, near one of the Moon’s poles, an SSI supporter has pasted a picture of a fire breathing lizard along with the caption "Here Be Dragons." It’s an apt description of our current knowledge of our nearest companion in space. Like the mapmakers of Columbus’s time, we just don’t know what’s out there. We know the Moon’s geography, we know what the Moon looks like, but no one - and no machine - has ever made a geochemical map of the lunar soil over most of the Moon’s surface, especially at the poles. As a key supporter of the Institute, you know the important role the Moon’s resources play in opening the High Frontier. The key ingredient to the success of solar power satellites (which are the single most promising energy source for our future) is the use of lunar materials. And a permanently manned lunar base, endorsed as a new national space goal by President Bush on the 20th anniversary of man’s first footsteps on another world, could be constructed for a fraction of the cost if the Moon’s resources are harvested. SSI: MAKING A REAL CONTRIBUTION Your Institute is doing more than talking about lunar resources - we are actively embarking on an historic mission to conquer those "dragons" I mentioned earlier. How? Through SSI’s lunar prospector mission. As you know from previous issues of this Newsletter and SSI update, we are working to design and fly the first privately financed scientific space probe, called Lunar Prospector, to answer the question of whether frozen water and other volatiles exist at the lunar poles. Answer this question we must - and soon. As the President’s National Commission on Space Report noted, It is a first priority to search the permanently shadowed craters near the lunar poles, where ices containing carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen may be found. We therefore recommend: A robotic lunar polar prospector to examine the entire surface of the Moon from low orbit... The resource development of the moon would be altered drastically if volatile elements were found frozen in ices in permanently shadowed craters near the lunar poles. In principle, all of the propellant needs for hydrogen/oxygen rockets operating between the lunar surface and low Earth orbit could be met from lunar sources if such volatiles were found. The needs of lunar outposts, bases, and their biospheres for water could also be met from those sources. PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==