Colonization of Ceres

4/17/24:

News about Ceres from Behind the Black blog.

Comment upon the original post down below:

This one didn't have a speculation alert. What I wrote may not have been accurate. I don't seem to mind popping off from time to time. Thus, the need for a speculation alert.

It's pretty dated, in the sense that I don't know how much research I did in creating it. Nor did I include any information that would support that speculation, in some way.

What does it all mean? Without going back and re-inventing the wheel, I'm pretty much screwed with posts like this. It may have had merit, but without the means by which to evaluate it, it's hard to tell. Looks like I'm just popping off.

It's nothing but sloppiness. Drat it. I think the blog link above is probably a better source than this blog. It mentions lots of water of Ceres. There may be plenty of resources on Ceres. The problem is how to get there.

Update a little while later (after 9:56 am) : I clicked through all the links, and one of the links clicked from Behind the Black is no longer there. That's also a hazard on the web. Stuff has a way of disappearing. Why would that be??? Hint: The internet definitely has a dark side.

10:50 am

This link still works. It links to a video by Jeff Greason, which I believe to be important enough to keep fresh. The link still works, and the ideas are still valid. Perhaps even more valid today than ever.

Just one thing to say here: it's that you must stick to a strategy. If you give up too easily, you cannot succeed. If a tactic isn't feasible, then change tactics. But if the strategy is sound, then don't drop it because a tactic failed. Greason was at XCOR. By his own words, he meant to get to orbit cheaply as a tactic, not as a settlement strategy. XCOR was making a space plane. XCOR went bankrupt. This doesn't negate his good words on settlement strategy. "Island hopping" was his recommended settlement strategy. Making a space plane was a tactic to get to orbit. Not the same thing.

Greason is still working on tactics. I suppose there's a reason for that, but the island hopping strategy is sound. But that's my opinion.



2/6/14:

After looking at the previous post and the chart, it would seem to be a very great challenge.  There would be little room for cargo for a direct trip from Earth.  The only configuration that give a reasonable cargo capacity would be a nuclear thermal rocket.  Even then, there would have to be refueling capability on the planetoid that would allow a trip back to Earth.

A bigger rocket would help, but even a fully tricked out SLS with 260k pounds of heavy lift would only be able to put 100k lbs in orbit around Ceres.  That 100k lbs would have to include the nuclear core and rocket casing itself.  It would have to include a lander.

If you included the entire structure as just one piece, it would have to be about the size of an SIVB rocket stage that went to the moon during Apollo.

Life support would be an issue.  Total trip time is about 16 months.  You'd have to feed a crew and keep them alive for that long with only that much mass to work with.  Without total recycling, it would seem to be a stretch.

Ceres will have to wait.

Even Mars is a stretch at this time and for a long time to come.