Consuming ever outwards

      A vision of the far future might include humanity living on colonies on various moons, as well as in solar-orbiting habitats. These human colonies will need raw materials, including water, metals, and stock minerals and materials for soil to grow crops. Materials for various manufacturing needs, especially for fabricating large structures, will be needed. Asteroids rich in certain materials will likely become rare and precious, as more and more are sought out and used up.

It is not so hard to visualize a time when humanity must search ever outward, to the edges of the Solar system and beyond, in the ceaseless hunt for more raw materials to support human habitation. While the Kiuper belt will keep us busy for quite a while, it could conceivably become exhausted of certain ores and such in high demand – especially water ice.

Looking further in the future, it is not such a stretch that humanity will head ever farther out in search of raw materials. Perhaps all the way to neighboring star systems. And just perhaps, humanity is not alone in such a need for raw materials. Other civilizations might experience similar needs!

So if large moons or objects begin disappearing at the edge of our own Solar System, we may have an explanation of why. Every intelligent civilization/race needs room to grow, and raw materials to eat and consume.

I just hope we get out there first, before THEY do.

Xenophobia or Truth, you decide

The Chinese are going to Mars,

with help from a few other countries.

New territory to set up factories, perhaps;

plenty of virgin manufacturing space.

A new superpower is rising out of the dust

of "collective mao-ism" and five-year plans.

Capitalist institutions are being ruled

by communist committees.

And it seems to be working.

Could we have anticipated this monster?

After all, we helped create it!

Now we must find a way to make

simple items cheaply in the USA again:

Supply chains that start and end here at home.

With all that talk of robotics and 3-D

printers and automation, we are still

eating Chinese dust nowadays.

Everyone looks at everyone else,

wonders what the heck happened?

Someone sold someone else the rope

to hang themselves with.

I think Mao said something like that, once.

Last Tuesday's Weather Event

A super radar tracks wind velocity;

Some blow east and show angry red.

Others blow west and display green.

Lots of rain falls – up to 7 inches an hour.

Severe weather update captivates me tonight.

The altitude, wind-speed, shear, hail size;

data flows like rainwater from the TV screen.

They zoom in and zoom out, you can see it all.

Watches go in and out as the storm center moves,

cold front keeps storm chances low, and

gives us all a break from the heat.

The sirens wail to keep pace with it all,

it soon seems safer even though it is raining still.

Minutes crawl ahead with continuous updates,

and soon the rain tapers off, the angry red mass

moves eastward, slow and massive, inexorable.

A pink dusk gleams through, letting us know it

is finally over with – for tonight anyway.

More rain is forecast tomorrow. A lot more.

(August 10th was the Derecho - that Cat 3 land hurricane.)

(photo credit - Dave Wolz)

Iowa Space Program

     How about if we create a cross-institutional entity, the Iowa Space program. This would fund and increase materials science work at our universities, with a focus on using advanced composite panels and materials for construction of Moon bases. These materials could be built right here in Iowa, employing Iowans in high-paying permanent jobs. Other research could aid in communications between the Moon presences and Earth, and food science to help feed occupants of the Moon with viable sources of protein. 

      Starting with plants and perhaps fish products, some eventual animal proteins could be made available, perhaps via artificial protein culturing, and then subsequent meat flavoring and so forth. Iowa excels in food and veterinary sciences, as well as engineering. We could contribute our expertise to the Moon-Mars program, and also generate high-paying local jobs. The ISP could eventually be renamed and incorporated. A public-private entity, it might eventually spin off private companies – but mainly get Iowa full-on into space industrial development, to the benefit of NASA and the state of Iowa both.

     We are all dealing with the Covid-19 emergency as I write this, and it will take some time to contain this pandemic. Perhaps every scientific resource needs to be tasked to get on top of this epidemic. But someday we will get this behind us, and gain the upper hand. When when we do, we will be seriously working on going back to the Moon to stay. In fact, work continues along these lines despite the pandemic – NASA must look to the future. And at that time, Iowa would do well to get up front about offering our knowledge and resources to help in this effort, and help ourselves at the same time. Thanks for reading.

Links:

https://physics.uiowa.edu/research/space-physics U of Iowa space physics.

https://www.mse.iastate.edu/ Iowa State materials Science labs.

https://fshn.hs.iastate.edu/ Food sciences – Iowa State U.

Go Iowa