Dr. Hermann Koelle sent us the following very interesting communication.

INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY OF ASTRONAUTICS Moon - Mars Committee

Co-chairs: H.H.Koelle, Berlin, G.W.Morgenthaler, Boulder, CO

Subcommittee on Lunar Development

Co-Chairs:

William H.Siegfried, 1805 Oriole Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626-4749, USA Tel.: US 714/896 2532 FAX: 714 896 1094;-e-mail: william.siegfried@west.boeing.com

Uwe Apel,Kölnerstr.30,D-28844 Weyhe; e-mail: uapel@fbm.hs-bremen.de

ANNUAL REPORT - 1999

Summary of previous years

The first attempt of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) to establish an international effort towards a permanent lunar laboratory was undertaken at the First Special Meeting of the Academy at Stockholm on August 1960. F.J.Malina was appointed chairman of the Lunar International Laboratory (LIL) Committee. The LIL Committee held meetings in Washington, D.C. on October 4, 1961 and in Paris on October 21, 1963. The Committee reported about its activities in a panel discussion during the 15th International Congress at Warsaw in September 1964. Participants were: F.J.Malina, R.Angiboust, V.V.Beniuh, N.Boneff, C.S.Draper, I.F.Florow, S.Gorgolewski, A.G.Haley, C.W.Henderson, G.L.Mitcham, W.H.Pickering, L.I.Sedow and J.C.Stoddart.

This effort was discontinued soon afterwards after it became clear, that the chances for such an enterprise in the forseeable future were very poor. The panel "estimated that work on an Lunar International Laboratory could begin in the decade between 1975 and 1985". As an interim result of the deliberations, a special issue of the Astronautica Acta was devoted to "Lunar Bases" as number 5-6, volume 12, September -December 1966, comprising 10 contributions.

A second attempt was initiated twenty years after this first panel meeting. During the 36th IAF Congress in 1985, again in Stockholm, an Ad-hoc Committee on Return to the Moon was established to concentrate on the following aspects :

  1. Why to Return to the Moon ?
  2. How to Return to the Moon ?
  3. Non-technical aspects of returning to the Moon.
  4. Scenarios for Return to the Moon, leading to a Permanent Lunar Base.

This Committee, chaired by H.H.Koelle, organized sessions during the following Congresses and began compiling relevant information concerning future lunar activities. A multi-year effort resulted in a preliminary report published in the May 1988 issue of ACTA ASTRONAUTICA, vol.17, no.5, pp.463-490, 1988 entitled "The Case for an International Lunar Base. The final report was approved by the Board of Trustees in October 1990 at the Dresden Congress and published as a special report of 64 pages in spring of 1991. More than 1,500 copies were distributed to the members of the Academy and the interested public.

The current "Subcommittee on Lunar Development", is one of two Subcommittees of the IAA MOON-MARS COMMITTEE comprising the active membership of a LUNAR FORUM. This FORUM are the receipints of the Lunar Base Quarterly, contributing as they see fit. A second round of lunar planning activities was initiated late in 1992 at the request of the Academy President Dr. George Mueller. Four issues per year of a Lunar Base Quarterly, have been sent to the members of the FORUM during the years 1993 to 1998 with a total of over 323 pages. In April 1997 the Academy approved a new charter for the joint MOON-MARS Committee with the assignment of preparing the road towards developing attractive integrated Moon-Mars Exploration and Development Program options. A report was presented to the IAA President during the 50th IAF Congress at Amsterdam in October 1999. Within this frame of reference, it remains to be the primary objective for the years to come, to compile a comprehensive up-to-date LUNAR DATABASE for professional program planners, updated annually. It is hoped, that a new round of political decision-making in this area of space flight development will take place shortly after the turn of the century. By then, the up-to-date documentation compiled by the IAA Committee and designed as a comprehensive decision aid, will hopefully be useful in future planning efforts. This partial activity will be integrated into the overall effort to develop a proposal for integrated Moon-Mars programs when the opportunity arrises. The present status of the current efforts is documented below. For those interested, it is possible to request copies of individual documents of the lunar data base, details are given in our homepage.

Activities during the year 1999

It is the pleasure of the chairman to recognize first the following active members of the Moon-Mars task force who have frequently contributed to the deliberations of the Committee during the past year: S.Abitzsch, R.Amekrane, U.Apel, H.Benaroya, R. Cesarone, M.Craig, P. Eckart, F.Eilingsfeld, Chr. Gritzner, N.Jarvstrat, R.Laufer, O. Liepack, R. Lo, H.Mandell, M. Reichert, E. Repic, E. de Schrijver, W.Siegfried, D. Stephenson, U.Thomas, G.Vulpetti.

The 1999 activities concentrated on compiling and complementing relevant facts relevant to a combined Moon-Mars exploration program envisioned for the 21st century. The results of the Committee's activities are regularly distributed by the INTERNET and letter communication via a LUNAR BASE QUARTERLY . At the end of 1999 these Bulletins were distributed to 90 members, organizations and other users. Four communications have been published in 1999, totaling 46 pages, with the following relevant information and documents:

INFO-PACKAGES(12):

The Annual Report for the year 1999

WORKPACKAGES (9)

Our electronic files, available on our homepage of the INTERNET, have been complemented. They include recent documents such as the drafts of the Moon-Mars Final Reports: INTERNET: http://vulcain.fb12.TU-Berlin.de/ILR/personen/hh_koelle.html ˇ

All issues of the Lunar Base Quarterly of the last years including the recpective annual reports.

The Lunar Data Base has been complemented during the past year, the table of Contents and all 10 Parts are available shortly in the INTERNET on our home page (see above).

DATA BASE AND BLUEPRINTS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF LUNAR RESOURCES

A Lunar Base Planning Guide

A comprehensive compilation of the deliberations of the Subcommittee of Lunar Development of the International Academy of Astronautics in the period of 1985 through 1999 compiled by H.H.Koelle (as of December 31st , 1999)

LUNAR DATABASE

LEVEL 1: List of Sections (56 documents, 490 pages, 342 tables, 40 figures, 422 references)

  1. Basic Data (10/71/41/2/14)
  2. Lunar Market (05/25/21/2/43)
  3. Lunar Base Program (06/46/23/2/26)
  4. Lunar Science (05/23/09/ -/29)
  5. Lunar Facilities (09/73/37/1/179)
  6. Lunar Logistics (04 /19/10/ 1/2)
  7. Lunar space transportation systems (06/55/59/17/43)
  8. Lunar cost and benefits (05/48/36/3/21)
  9. Blueprints for Program Alternatives (06/130/106/22/65))

TABLE of CONTENTS -Level 2

0. DATABASE : ( 71 pp.,41 tabs.,2 figs.,14 refs.)

1. PRODUCTS and MARKETS: (25/21/2/43))

2. LUNAR BASE PROGRAM : (46/23/2/26)

3. LUNAR SCIENCE and HUMAN FACTORS: (23/9/0/29)

4. LUNAR FACILITIS : (73/37/1/179)

5. LUNAR LOGISTICS : (19/10/1/2)

6. LUNAR SPACE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS (LSTS)-(55/59/17/43)

7. LUNAR COST and BENEFITS (48/36/3/21)

8. BLUEPRINTS FOR PROGRAM ALTERNATIVES (130/106/22/65)

RETURN TO THE MOON - Tasks still to be accomplished

As we are concluding a century and beginning a new one, it appears approriate to take stock again of the tasks which remain to be done in the near future before a lunar program or a new phase of the Lunar Development Program can be recommended .

TASKS AND ISSUES OF FUTURE LUNAR DEVELOPMENT

  1. Identify the stakeholders interested, or participating in the development of lunar resources and their primary motivations. Estimate their probable relative influence(weight) as players in the political decision process for or against a return of humans to the Moon.
  2. Prepare a list of essential information to be provided to the respective decision-makers enabling them to consider initiating the next phase of the human lunar exploration program in due time.
  3. Determine the objectives and respective experiments of additional precurser missions required before a human crew can be dispached again to the lunar surface.
  4. Define all facilities and pieces of equipment still to be developed enabling people to stay permanently on the Moon. Assign technology readiness factors to those identified.
  5. Define the essential facilities and pieces of equipment which have to be in place on the Moon before the first crew arrives, and those that can be delivered after arrival of the first crew.
  6. Define pieces of equipment developed for the ISS program that can be used in their present form or with modifications in a lunar environment.
  7. Define type and size of surface vehicles required on the Moon for permanent exploration. Prepare preliminary designs with mass, volume and energy requirements.
  8. Develop procedures and strategies on how water ice, in case this is located at the lunar poles and mined, could be converted into water and propellants, and how these products can be transported to the lunar base site?
  9. Conceive a development scenario of an evolutionary life support system to be installed at the lunar base with special emphasis on crew safety and systems economy.
  10. Conceive a development scenario of an evolutionary lunar power plant system to be installed at the lunar base with special emphasis on crew safety and systems economy.
  11. Define and document additional attractive program options for the next phases of lunar development not yet analysed.
  12. Identify commercial opportunities developing in the process of future lunar development phases and draft preliminary business plans.

Those who would like to see people returning to the Moon to stay and develop its resources are encouraged to use their talents to contribute to closing the existing information gap.

TDF 1/2000-11

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