NASA CONTENT BUILDING FORMAT – TEACHERS REFERENCE

NASA Project Content building involves two parts. They are

 Part-1: Involving Lot of Science & Engineering principals.

 Part-2: Involving Imagination, Innovation & Productive ideas.

Part-1 comprises of 3 Chapters Part-2 comprises of 4 Chapters

Introduction Operations & Automations
Structure Human Life Design
Basic Human needs in Space Revenue making
Cost & Schedule

TITLE PAGE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Brief Report of the Entire project work - Abstract

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Thank saying note

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, student write on Space, its characteristics and on introductory content on his/her
Space Project theme (Colony/Hotel/Asteroid Mining).

It mandatory to cover mainly below specified four Topics:

1.1 NAME OF THE PROJECT

While naming, following criteria must be satisfied:

 Name should have proper meaning.

 Name should resemble the content of the theme selected (Colony/Hotel/Asteroid Mining).

1.2 FEATURES OF THE PROJECT

In this session, one should develop content on facilities and importance related to

 Structure
 Provisions
 Technology
 Engineering etc.

1.3 LOCATION OF OUR SETTLEMENT

Space is of vast area (1Km above Ground level to infinite distance), location of the settlement
can be chosen based on two criteria’s,

1. Earth Orbits: These orbits are mainly three, they are

 LEO – Lower Earth Orbit (up to 2000KM)
 MEO – Middle Earth Orbit (2000KM to 20000KM)
  GEO – Geo Stationary Earth Orbit (36,000KM)

LEO:

PROS CHALLENGES
Transportation from Earth to Settlement and Speed is Very High (Speed of ISS – 8KM/Hour &
Vice Versa is very easy is 150KM away from Earth)
Collection and usage of Materials from earth is Settlement may get effected with Space Debris
very easy.
In case of Emergency, evacuation from
settlement can be done easily and can reach
earth easily

MEO:

PROS CHALLENGES
Transportation from Earth to Settlement and is Speed is High but less compared to LEO
quite easy
Collection and usage of Materials from earth is In case of Emergency, evacuation from
quite easy. settlement is not easy of LEO.

GEO:

PROS CHALLENGES
We are in the vicinity of the Earth Transportation is too complex

2. Lagrangian Points:

Two bodies will have attraction force and another body between this two will oppose, finally the
net force acting on the body will be NULL. That Null point can be termed as Lagrangian point.

Distance between Earth and Lagrangian point: 3,84,000KM.

As the distance is more, it may affect the transportation.

1.4 MATERIALS
 Materials used in construction on earth cannot be used in space Settlement construction.
 Environment in space is different from the Environment on Earth.
 Radiation is the main issue.

While selecting a material for Space Settlement, following properties need to be checked:

 Material should block or absorb radiation.

 Material should have High Melting point.
 Material should have Less Weight.
 Material should have High Tensile Strength.
 Material should be easily available either in space or earth.

Materials that can be used in the construction of Space Settlement are:

  Carbon Nano Tubes
 Graphene
 Silicon Carbide
 Tungsten
 Titanium Carbide
 Lead Glass
 ALUMINUM OXYNITRIDE
 M5 Fibre
 Asbestos Filters
 Aluminium Titanate
 Sailon
 Tawaron
 Polythene Foam
 Silicon Rubber
 Nitinol etc.,

CHAPTER 2: STRUCTURE
The structure of the settlement determines it its rotational stability, shielding mass, living area
available and gravity making it the most important part of the settlement. While designing a
structure, following three points need to be considered

 Structure should be Simple.

 Structure should be Stable.
 Structure should have Symmetry.

2.1 BASIC SHAPES

Basic shapes used for construction of a space settlement that satisfy symmetry are

 Sphere
 Cylinder and
 Torus

Students need to write Definition, Related formulae, Advantages & Disadvantages of shapes in space
colony.Some important formulae:

Sphere:

 Area: 4π (r x r)
 Volume: 4/3(π x r x r)

r = radius

Cylinder:

 Area: 2πrh + 2π (r x r)
 Volume: π x r x r x h

r = radius, h = height
Torus or Tube:

 Area: (2πR) (2πr)

 Volume: (π x r x r) (2πR)

R = Major Radius, r = Minor Radius

2.2 SELECTION OF SHAPE & DESIGNING STRUCTURE

To provide its residents with a hospitable, comfortable, interactional and protective
environment. Providing such an environmental has never been an easy task. There are many
steps involved in the construction of such an environment. One important step involved in the
construction of such a settlement is choosing the right design that satisfies all the needs of the
settlement and is easy to build. While choosing a basic design for our settlement, it is very
important to consider a few factors like pseudo gravity considerations and rotational stability of
the design. We have to explain why we are using the shapes and how we are going to make the
design of our Space settlement (Colony, Hotel or Mining).

2.3 NAMING THE PARTS OF STRUCTURE & THEIR FUNCTIONING

 Habitation Zone
 Industrial Zone
 Agricultural Zone
 Control Unit
 Waste Management
 Research & Development Zone
 Recreation & Entertainment Zone
 Docking Ports

Each zone representing one of the important aspects of the life of humans and it is convenient
for us also if we allot each purpose a zone.

2.4 DIMENSIONS
The dimensions of the space colony will give us the clarity on how much area and volume we have to
allocate for different purposes. So all the teacher in charges are advised to give the detailed table
with the values of dimensions.

For example: Example 1

Dimensions
Name of component Major Radius (m) Minor radius Height
(m) (m)
Habitation zones 895m 150m -
Industrial torus 545m 150m -
Central cylinder 150m - 450m
Docking station 175m - 75m
Spokes 20m - 245m
Connector 20m - 90m
Holder 150m 20m -
Example 2:

Length of arc = Ө / 360o × 2 × × r = 40/360 × 2 × ×772 =538.95767m

Width= 270 m, surface area = (538.95767 × 270) m2 = 145518.57171427 m2

The length of atmospheric separation corner is exactly 1/180th the total perimeter,

Length = 1/180 × 2 ×r

=180 × 2 × × 772

= 26.94788356 m

Curved surface area = 26.94788 × 270 = 7275.9285612 m2

Surface area of the region between 2 seals (total utilizable agricultural area) = (total

area including belts - area of 2 belts) = 145518.57171427m2 - (2 × 7275.9285612) =130966.7146203

Total agricultural area = area of each Piraso × 9 = 1178700.4315827m2

2.5 CONSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE

It is not only that giving dimensions to the settlement would give the design of “project” but
also we have to owe the responsibility of constructing it in different stages of different phases.

2.6 THRUSTERS & BOOSTERS

For a firm living, we need a proper settlement and for a proper settlement it is necessary to
have few significant but obligatory features. To keep up with these, much equipment is to be used.
One of this equipment is thrusters. Thrusters play a vital role in provision of gravity.
There are two types of thrusters that are adopted in any space colony project are, VASIMR
(Variable Specific Impulse Magneto plasma Rocket) and MPD (Magneto Plasma Dynamic Thrusters).
There are two further classifications in MPD thrusters, they are:-
 Applied field MPD thrusters
 Self- Field MPD thrusters

2.7 DOCKING PORTS

Docking port is the place where all the external activities including transportation and the
import-export of goods, industrial machineries and other resources will take place. Any colony will
have generally two to four docking ports lying at the extreme ends of the central cylinder (or)
sphere etc.,.
 CHAPTER 3: HUMAN NEEDS IN SPACE
3.1 GRAVITY
People might always have a desire to lead their life in microgravity, which seems to be
amazing for space enthusiasts but there lies a dark side. It may be crazy to live in microgravity but it
effects we humans in a variety of manners in long terms as observed by NASA`s missions in the ISS.
ISS being the size of an American football field is lot smaller when compared with a space settlement
with a radius of around 1km. When scaled up to massive scale it is practically impossible to
comfortable accommodate all its residents in microgravity.
It’s better to provide gravity for better accommodation, transportation, management of the
entire space settlement and to prevent health effects due to microgravity. There are various ways to
provide artificial gravity in space. 2 Major ways are:
Rotation: In Comparison to earth where gravity is inwards towards the center, here the entire
settlement rotates to create centrifugal force which acts outwards and away from the center of axis
to provide gravity.
Linear Acceleration: In this the entire settlement accelerates in a straight line. This acceleration
forces the objects in the opposite direction.

3.2 FOOD
Food is a substance that helps in the functioning of the human body. As food is an essential
part of the human life the food should be produced in a large amount for all the residents. The
production of the food would be done in the agricultural base.
Hydroponics: In space as there is no soil for the agricultural growth of the plants the growth of
plants can be accomplished by Hydroponics. In the process of Hydroponics the plants are grown
without the help of soil. They are grown by spraying of minerals on them. These plants would grow
automatically without soil if the sprayed with minerals and water at a proper time. Hydroponics has
many advantages when it is compared to the plants that she grown by soil. The process of
Hydroponics increases the yield of the crop and is 30-50% faster in the growth that that of the plants
compared to the soil. There are 6 basic types of hydroponic systems; Wick, Water Culture, Ebb and
Flow (Flood & Drain), Drip (recovery or non-recovery), N.F.T. (Nutrient Film Technique) and
Aeroponics. There are hundreds of variations on these basic types of systems, but all hydroponic
methods are a variation (or combination) of these six. Scroll down this page (or click on the system
names) to see drawings and a description of each type of hydroponic system.

3.3 WATER
Production of water: can be done in two ways 1. Laboratory preparation and 2. Extraction or
mining from moons.
1. Sabatier Reaction:
Sabatier reaction involves hydrogen reacting with carbon dioxide to give methane and water. It
involves temperatures over 350 ○C and presence of a nickel catalyst.
CO2 + 4H2 → CH4 + 2H2O

2. Bosch reaction:
Bosch reaction involves hydrogen reacting with Carbon Dioxide to give water and graphite. It
involves temperatures around temp 630○C and presence of an iron catalyst.
CO2 (g) + 2 H2 (g) → C(s) + 2 H2O (g)
3. Combustion of methane
By the combustion of methane, water and carbon dioxide will be produced. Here Carbon
dioxide is produced by the complete burning of methane.
4. Ilmenite reduction with hydrogen
This is an efficient and abundant way to produce oxygen and water. In this reaction, ilmenite
is reduced using hydrogen producing water, Iron and titanium-oxide. Water is either used as it is or
further produced into oxygen by hydrolysis.
It has been proved by the Indian Chandrayaan Impact Probe that lunar craters have water. The
Shackleton Crater is 20% water. Vastitas Borealis Region in Mars has around 99% of pure water and
only 1% dirt in the available water. There is around million cubic kilometers of water in this region.
Water will be procured from the sweat from the people’s bodies. After it has been disinfected it can
again be used for drinking. Recycling Urine [Part of Black Water] will be useful in space colony. Urine
is free of bacterium till 15 minutes of excretion and recycling it before this time limit would put
much less load on the filtration system.

3.4 OXYGEN/ATMOSPHERE
Martian atmosphere is 95% carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxide will be captured using
molecular sieve with pore size of 0.4nm which would decompose into carbon monoxide and oxygen
using the following methods:
Davis' Method: CO2 can be decomposed using Davis’ method, in which Argon-Carbon Dioxide
mixture would be taken in a shock tube and would be heated to 6527oC. Shock waves would be
passed through the system which would lead to decaying infrared emissions. Carbon Dioxide would
be decomposed into Carbon Monoxide and Oxygen. Carbon Monoxide can be later released into
Martian atmosphere.
Ultrasonic Electrolysis: Ultrasonic sound with a frequency of ~ 42.7 kHz would be passed through
heated water making it unstable and disassociate it into O2 and H2.

3.5 TEMPERATURE
The Weather would completely depend on time and season. The weather conditions would
be functioning as the union of various individual systems. The seasons would be replicated and
simulated precisely. Visual simulation would include: Sunlight replicated by the SSl, Sky by the
transparent LED, light is spread by the aerogel and finally smart glass controls the amount of light
coming. Ambient sensing would be achieved by simulating temperature, humidity, rainfall, snowfall
and frost

3.6 DAY & NIGHTS AND SEASONS

The cycle of day and night is very important for both plants and animals. On Earth, this is
caused by rotation about its axis. To create the effect of day we are using grow lights as they provide
conditions similar to the sun. We shall increase or decrease the brightness as per the requirements
to create the variations in the day. As we know the variation of day and night is quite necessary as it
reminds the person that the day has ended and they should go to sleep.
So when everyone sleeps at a specific time, we can have definite timings for work and office
in the day. During the day the temperatures would be about 28 o to 32o and 17 o to 23 o at night. To
save energy we can also create sunlight by the means of TOLED (Transparent Organic light Emitting
Diodes).
3.7 THERMAL MANAGEMENT
The source from which acoustic waves are produced is known as the “driver”. The driver
emits a sound frequency in a tube filled with high pressure gases. This tube is known as the
resonator. Between the tubes there is a “stack” of porous material which is solid in order to block
the path of the sound frequencies. Then thermoacoustic effect takes place in order to cool down the
other end and produce refrigeration. Planting this technique on large scale can produce artificial air-
cooling in colony so that the people could experience winter. Thermal Induction (for increasing
temperature): Water will be used to increase the temperature of the living areas. This will be done
using Thermal Induction. Waste water will be heated using thermal induction and then the air
produced in the heating will be directly supplied to the residential hybrid tori

CHAPTER 4: OPERATIONS AND AUTOMATIONS

4.1 CONTROLLING AND MONITORING SYSTEM
The central or main control system of the entire settlement will be situated in the central nucleus or
sphere. The whole department will be divided into various where each department will have a
particular function to operate. This will operate the entire colony with different types of house will
be provided by colony for families and individuals. The different types of houses are-
 Villas
 Apartments
 Independent houses
 Mansions
These houses will be having many facilities or may be luxury.

4.2 TRANSPORTATION
 Internal transport
 External transport

4.3 SECURITY
To provide safety measures, we first need to know the aspects that can cause harm to the
settlement. The following are some dangers the settlement needs to be protected from:- Revolving
asteroids or any other heavenly body can crash on the settlement. Harmful radiations from the sun.
Other settlements can attack our colony with intentions of capturing our settlement. People inside
the settlement can have intensions of attempting crimes like theft, robbery etc. Keeping in mind all
the needs for security, these aspects will be divided into two types:-
 Those which cause harm to the settlement from outside.
 Those which internal damage and harm the people and the settlement.
And hence, the security measures will also be divided into two types:-
 Exterior security
 Interior security

4.4 COMMUNICATION
Communication is the way of interchanging thoughts, information or opinions by speech,
writing, or by signs. Communication is the major factor influencing the human life. Human‘s nature is
to communicate with each other.
 Internal communication
 External communication
4.5 WASTE MANAGEMENT
Wastes are of different forms.
 Waste water treatment
 Food and biological waste
 Organic and human waste
 Plastic waste
 E- Waste

4.6 ROBOTICS
Robotics can be described as the zenith of present day‘s technical development. We are
going to use robotics to make life easy in Space colony

CHAPTER 5: HUMAN LIFE DESIGN

5.1 DEMOGRAPHY
Community design is about the planning of land use, which involves the structure and
management of the built environment – buildings, streets, and transport systems that collectively
help to provide a neat & tidy settlement and the perfect method of municipalities. A community
design should be mainly projected towards relationship between people and the environment built
in which day to day activities are undertaken. A positive community outcome can be achieved, only
when design decisions are took according to environmental, economic and social considerations.

5.2 CONSTITUTION
The settlement requires governance in order for the well-functioning of the settlement and
welfare of the resident’s .To that similar on Earth, the assembly has two houses and would carry out
its works independently. It would also consist of executive and legislative members working together
in a union.

5.3 LAW AND ORDER

The legal status of the colonists represents a combination of the concrete legal rights and
duties which every individual have in possession at a given time and moment. In space law it will be
required a special regime of the colonists in the space colonies. The status of the colonists is
specified by the space law which describes them as individuals living and working in space colonies
that are citizens of their countries and come within the jurisdiction and control of the country or
organization which has created and registered the colony.

5.4 POLITICAL SYSTEM

5.5 JUDICIAL SYSTEM

5.6 EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
5.7 EDUCATION SYSTEM
Every child needs education to develop and support their family. To have a proper education
IESS will provide schools having all the modern amenities or facilities and they will use the latest
technology to teach students which will make students have interest on studies and will make them
inspired in all ways. Space colony will have proper universities which will include each and every
branch which educates people and will graduate them for their future occupations or jobs. To assist
the young learners in the right path these young learners will be provided with libraries where they
could achieve their required knowledge.

5.8 HEALTH CARE

Hospitals plays a major role in space colony as provision of health care of humans is being
checked here Medical robots and robotic nurse plays a major and vital role in these hospitals as they
will be used in curing diseases. The doctors or employs working in these hospitals will be well-
qualified and will provide the best services.

5.9 RECREATION AND ENTERTAINMENT

Recreational leisure is what people desire of having. Residential amenities are what make up
a personal brain status. These facilities in the society will provide leisure and entertainment to the
residents.

CHAPTER 6: REVENUE MAKING

6.1 INDUSTRIES
Our settlement will be the first of its kind and as such it won’t have many trade possibilities in its
first few decades, until other settlements are constructed. That’s why the settlement’s economy
is going to be closed (inner) except in the rare occasions when we’ll trade with the Earth. Later,
when more attractive, beneficial and not so hard to reach trade destinations are created, we’re
going to turn to market economy. Our settlement WILL have a specific currency, the same currency,
which is going to be used on all other potential space settlements, planets and as a whole, places
populated by civilized human beings.
 Mining industry
 Electricity industry
 Pharmaceutical industry
 Chemical industry

6.2 BUSINESS
We have to make our space colony ready to become a booming mining metropolis,
expanding her economy at a pace fueled by miners, technicians and students relocating to their new
home. Every new immigrant brings new needs and opportunities for profit.

CHAPTER 7: COST & SCHEDULE

7.1 COST & SCHEDULE
Expenditure planning will help us to calculate the total cost of our settlement. It helps the
investors to estimate the money that would be required for the construction of space colony. Model
1: Go through project Animus or Vona

BIBLIOGRAPHY