Anyone want $16,000 US from the UAE to write an essay about space ?
The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Settlement Challenge (MBR Space Settlement Challenge) is a global grant fund to support preliminary research into ambitious ideas and concepts that unlock the future of human space habitation. It aims to attract brilliant minds from all over the world and is open to everyone regardless of discipline, background, or origin.
The United Arab Emirates is committed to accelerating the global development of space exploration and space habitation through several space-related initiatives, including UAE Mars City and the Mars 2117 Project.
Submitted proposal must cover at least one of the suggested topics but can also extend over several if relevant :
-Identify and prepare a plan for locations that could support a thriving, sustainable settlement of at least 100 people.
-Propose innovative systems and solutions for power generation and environmental control for the inhabitants and their activities.
-Propose ethical, philosophical or legal studies on the issues and opportunities involved in creating new ecosystems in these environments.
-Propose an economically viable plan for In Situ resource utilization and manufacturing on planetary or asteroid surface that allows for an import/export commodity market.
-Introduce new governmental institutions and models of collaboration that enable adept colonisation of space settlements.
A final summary of the work will be submitted through http://Guaana.com platform. Final summary is a publishable report of the entire project and should include the executive summary, project context and objectives, overview of the main results and potential impact or implementation opportunities... Final summary must be submitted within 30 days from the end of grant duration and recommended length is between minimum 10 and maximum 15 printed pages. The final summary must be written in an understandable style for a non-specialist audience.
Right, this is easy. Let's just all send them links to different parts of Atomic Rockets and we'll claim the entire $540,000 fund between us. Job done.
... and then Winchell Chung will quite rightly sue us all for plagiarism.
https://www.guaana.com/funding/grants/mbrchallenge/details
Hmm. I would use Winchell Chung 's excellent write-up on Cape Fear.
ReplyDeleteConcentrated photovoltaics for power, with an alternative mode that can used focused sunlight to boil water as a prerequisite for cracking
into rocket fuel. If the solar cells operate at above 300K, you can boil water at low pressure to cool them down anyway (and thereby reach 100% utilization of solar energy).
The 'settlement' would both allow new modules to dock and expand its facilities under Free Trade Zone rules, while operating as an offshore platform in international waters terms of regulations.
Wow. It took me a good 15 seconds to figure out what that was a picture of. The lighting choice is to blame I think. The lit area which, obviously, attracts the attention carries no useful information for figuring out the image. The key feature, the eye, is in shadow.
ReplyDeleteActually I have a paper scheduled (2 papers out from what I'm currently working on) that's just up this alley. I think I'll try to apply and if I win, possibly delay one of the papers (can't delay the other, it's already late!).
ReplyDeleteI could benefit from collaborators, who would of course be paid out of the grant money. Specifically: orbital mechanics (various propulsive maneuvers between various orbits) and rendering (turning my OpenSCAD into beautiful figures).
My concept is algae-based air and grey/black water recycling coupled to propellant and/or food production.
Dean Calahan
ReplyDeleteThe great thing about orbital mechanics is that if you pile on the deltaV capacity, you can absorb errors in calculation by using more deltaV. The transfer windows are larger and the calculations more simplistic.
As for rendering, I am sure one of the 3D artists of our community would be glad to help... but I doubt they will put in professional effort for a chance at a pay-off in the end. Perhaps you can allocate a budget to this?
Life support is one aspect of a viable settlement. A more important one would be to make it economically self-sustaining. If you achieve the latter, you can pay for food deliveries to cover the former, which is much easier to implement than a closed-cycle life support system.