The purpose of this article is to outline the requirements for the space infrastructure needed to achieve the core ICSO (International Civilian Space Organization) vision. The goal of the ICSO is to eliminate scarcity on Earth by utilizing the benefits of space in four main areas:
Energy
Space Agriculture
Natural Resources of Space
Political & Economic Stability
All of these objectives require some form of space logistical infrastructure to achieve ICSO goals. The overall design philosophy I propose for creating this infrastructure is to build interchangeable modular components that are part of a unified space system.
First, consider the basic components needed. All of the four objectives require a space transportation system to shuttle cargo to and from Earth orbit and the practical limits of the Solar System.
Secondly, the bulk of the ICSO work will be carried out in space or on other celestial bodies. This requires a human habitat in orbit or on an extraterrestrial base of operations.
Let us look at each component in more detail. A spacecraft is needed to ferry crew & cargo from Earth to ICSO space stations in Earth orbit or other planets in the solar system. Spacecraft and launch facility development cost can be reduced if we use existing commercial airports. This implies that our spacecraft must have features similar to commercial aviation aircraft such as
Runway takeoff and landing
Spacecraft re-usability
Airport crew and cargo loading operations
Single stage to orbit (SSTO)
In orbital refueling
While we are at it, let's also throw out the idea of using chemical rockets as the propulsion system. Exotic fuels and propulsion systems are the future of practical long duration missions deep into the outer solar system and beyond. We should start gaining experience with them now since we already know that chemical rockets are not part of that future. Warp drive is also out because we want to use near term technology and established physics. This implies some form of nuclear propulsion using fission or fusion reactions. Antimatter propulsion is also in the near term technology category because it is the end game in spacecraft propulsion. Producing small quantities of antimatter in the early stages of space infrastructure development will result in a ROI in the long term. Read the blog article Energy and the Missing link for a brief introduction on how small quantities of antimatter can be used to initiate fusion reactions for thermal fusion rocket propulsion. This has the benefit of using a near term technology like nuclear fusion energy and incubating the antimatter technology on a small scale until we become better at producing it in larger quantities.
We need cargo containers to haul cargo and crews to work in space. I propose that the cargo container modules should also serve as habitat modules for building blocks of a space station in orbit about the various celestial bodies. These same modules should also be adaptable for use to construct the planetary bases needed to do ICSO work on other planets.
How will the three major components of the ICSO space infrastructure: SSTO space shuttle, nuclear fusion/antimatter hybrid propulsion, space station/bases function together? One possible scenario is a habitat cargo module is loaded into the SSTO shuttle cargo bay and serves as the crew habitat for the journey into orbit. The SSTO shuttle takes off from any world international airport. Once in orbit, the habitat module can be added to complete construction of an orbiting space station or delivered to the surface of the Moon or Mars to complete construction of a planetary base.
Once we have a surplus of space stations in Earth orbit they can be converted to interplanetary spaceships by attaching an entire SSTO shuttle or only the engine modules to provide propulsion to place the station in orbit about another planet in the solar system. A series of interplanetary space stations will form a space infrastructure network capable of achieving the current ICSO objectives and any new ones conceived for the future.
One last thing, as space station technology becomes more mature and the production efficiency of antimatter increases and is stockpiled. Space stations can be retro fitted with pure antimatter beam propulsion systems for interstellar travel in addition to the fusion/antimatter engines as secondary propulsion. Converting some of the ICSO space infrastructure into star ships in this manner could reach the nearest star system in 6 or 7 years with crews and space station hardware that has already proven itself capable of such a mission after decades of use in our own solar system.