PmWiki.Exovivaria History
Show minor edits - Show changes to markup
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/92/Anousheh_Ansari_after_landing.jpg/320px-Anousheh_Ansari_after_landing.jpg | We can't all go.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/92/Anousheh_Ansari_after_landing.jpg/320px-Anousheh_Ansari_after_landing.jpg | We can't all go.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c7/Iss005e16295.jpg/320px-Iss005e16295.jpg | A meal on ISS
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ee/Expedition_61_crew_celebrates_Christmas_day_in_the_Unity_module.jpg/320px-Expedition_61_crew_celebrates_Christmas_day_in_the_Unity_module.jpg | A meal on ISS
- Fundamentals of Space Biology: Research on Cells, Animals, and Plants in Space, Gilles Cl�ment, Springer, 2006/09/01, ISBN 1441922016
- Fundamentals of Space Biology: Research on Cells, Animals, and Plants in Space, Gilles Clément, Springer, 2006/09/01, ISBN 1441922016
(:amazonpl wwwtamaryokan-20 1441922016 :)(:amazonpl wwwtamaryokan-20 0415299985 :)(:amazonpl wwwtamaryokan-20 B005IZOB5M :)
Exovivaria - vivaria in outer space.
Origins of the term
"Exovivarium" is a Project Persephone neologism.
Introduction
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/92/Anousheh_Ansari_after_landing.jpg/320px-Anousheh_Ansari_after_landing.jpg | We can't all go. Life in space is an exciting prospect. Project Persephone aims to bring it down to Earth: to see if exovivaria - ecosystems in orbit, collectively governed but also hosting private property and commerce - can become an economical pastime for those of us who can't go. Teams on Earth would tend these ecosystems through video links and teleoperation, using the Internet to update each other on "the state of our worlds." Some members (mostly in the developing world) might be paid for their efforts. Others (mostly in the developed world) would pay to take part. Much of the "game value," whether it derived from earnings or just sheer fun, would be in feeling part of a team and in competing with other teams. However, the problem of keeping an ecosystem alive would also make this a Serious Game, one requiring some cooperation from all. You might think of it as a microcosmic Spaceship Earth.
The exovivarium is a compelling vision for a few, but still a blurry one for most. To be truly successful, designers of exovivaria must strive to meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". How to get there from here? (Assuming it's even possible?) Technology demonstration projects in (near-) space, virtual exovivaria, and ground-based prototypes should all help Project staff, paying members and volunteers decide which exovivarium design features lend themselves to sustainable growth in demand, long before any launch of the first real exovivarium. The problem must be approached from several different angles at once: technological, social and economic.
If exovivaria succeed even modestly, they could help reduce the costs of (human) life support in space. If they become very popular, they might help reduce the costs of space launch by increasing the demand for space launch, which would improve the economies of scale of conventional (rocket) launch operations. If exovivaria experience overwhelming success, they would justify serious investment in speculative launch technologies that now languish unfunded, such projectile space launch. But even if exovivaria turn out not to be technologically or socially viable, we'll all learn useful lessons.
History
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Biosat3.jpg | NASA's Biosatellite 3 Serious discussion of sending other living things to space for biological studies dates back as far as 1946.1 Sending other living creatures into space began even before manned spaceflight. The purpose was to study the effects of spaceflight on living things, and to experiment with systems for keeping them alive and healthy. The main focus of the earliest experiments was to get some idea of how human beings might cope with microgravity?. Even after human spaceflight began, however, studies on non-human life in space continued, with unmanned satellite launches. These included the Bion series of the USSR, with NASA cooperation, begun in 1966 and continuing until 1996, and NASA's own Biosatellite series in the mid-to-late 60s.
A more recent biosatellite effort was the Mars Gravity Biosatellite. The aim was to learn more about the effects of Mars-level gravity (38% that of Earth's) on small mammals, the better to understand how it might affect larger mammals like us. This project, which grew to include many student activities, was canceled in 2009. It was probably rendered obsolete by JAXA's Kibo (ki-BOH - "hope") module for ISS.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/STS132_Kibo_Lab.jpg/320px-STS132_Kibo_Lab.jpg | JAXA's Kibo biology lab, finally in place. Kibo's Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) hosts a number of elements that prefigure Project Persephone needs, including
- a centrifuge module (CAM) that can produce between 0.1 and 2 Earth gravities;
- the Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF);
- the Aquatic Habitat (AQH), a small research aquarium.
Kibo will see a number of low-gravity/microgravity experiments on plants and silkworms in its Cell Biology Experiment Facility in its first phase of utilization. In the second phase, there will be yet more plant experiments, and the first experiments on fish using the AQH.
At least one exovivarium featuring some degree of public access via video transmission has been proposed, though not launched: the Experiment Biosfera contract activity at Energia?.
Categories of interim goals
Exovivaria can only come together by inching from one interim goal to the next. Exovivaria will be complex, and will cost a lot to launch. It would be extremely expensive and failure-prone to evaluate exovivarium designs by simply launching various complete designs to see how well they work. The design problems must be approached incrementally, over periods of years, and from several different directions at once, well in advance of orbiting a full system.
Among the concurrent approaches to be taken:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/DRAGONSat_deployed.jpg/159px-DRAGONSat_deployed.jpg | DRAGONSat, a student project Real (or near-) space experiments. The Project might try for early launch of small experimental systems, possibly in Cubesat configurations to begin with, or even smaller, in the case of biomagnetorquing experiments. These would not be expected to have any "game value" while on orbit, although competition might still be an element, insofar as teams compete to come up with the most fruitful experiments.
Stratosphere platforms will provide a relatively cheap way to test technology and concepts, especially those involving ground communications, and deployment and telebotic operations in a (near-) vacuum. Telebotic operations in microgravity might be tested in drop tower experiments, then move to suborbital flights? when longer uninterrupted periods of microgravity are required.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Aquaria_-_Screenshot_01.jpg/320px-Aquaria_-_Screenshot_01.jpg | Aquaria videogame screenshot Virtual exovivaria. An important (and more easily realized) goal is to simulate a wide variety of user experiences, to the extent possible, in a kind of MMORPG?. The computing power required is only going to become cheaper. Much could be learned about what might go wrong socially in such systems.
Also, insofar as virtual exovivaria are physically accurate simulations, they should help expose technological pitfalls before they became expensive real-world failures.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/HPIM3869.JPG/320px-HPIM3869.JPG | Terrarium denizens Terrestrial prototypes. These can't simulate artificial low-gravity conditions, but they might otherwise closely resemble an orbiting exovivarium. The need might be great. Even the most detailed CGI rendering of the interiors of virtual exovivaria will probably fall short of perfect realism. But even if they didn't, they still wouldn't be "psychologically real": users would know that it was "all a game," that no real harm could be done (except perhaps to feelings, and perhaps to finances if some people are paying for privileges). In a real vivarium, things can break and creatures can die.2
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/Buddel-Dschunke.JPG/320px-Buddel-Dschunke.JPG | Built with long tweezers Solo telerobotic pastimes. Many exovivarium users might enjoy telebotic interaction only with their "pets," gardens and microfarms, and other things they own in the exovivarium; the only social dimension for such users would be in simply trading to get what's needed to do those things. One purpose of private property is "freedom from association;" it allows people accomplish things on their own. Arts and crafts, hobbies fed with biomaterials reaped within an exovivarium, from its "livestock" and its microfarms, might become delightful individual pastimes, even if the results only decorated the interior, never to be delivered to anyone on Earth. Even some purely functional exovivarium maintenance tasks might be compelling hobbies for some. Designing specialized terrestrial-prototype exovivaria for personal use should help in determining what kinds of enjoyment can be gotten individually, within systems that are larger in scale and more social in operation.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Wikimeetup-ru_20090412_Discussion.jpg/320px-Wikimeetup-ru_20090412_Discussion.jpg | Wikipedia volunteers Governance experiments. Orbit is expensive. For exovivaria to be economical, the designs must optimize the number of users that can be attracted and retained per orbited unit of payload. As much as anything else, this makes exovivarium design a hard problem. The more that people are forced to share a scarce resource, the more likely it is that they will either fight over it unproductively or simply move on, in search of more satisfying experiences. In general, the goal should be to make the experience of ecosystem management as recreational as possible for users in the developed world, and as much a source of gainful employment as possible for users from poorer places, while affording opportunities for other fruitful exchanges between the two user bases. It's inevitable that these design constraints will give rise to some form of government, to resolve the resulting conflicts. Experiments in governance need not be tied closely to exovivarium physical design, though they should eventually converge on it.
To be truly successful, exovivaria must meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". Among the desiderata: Change, Engagement, Purpose, Connection -- all continously renewing themselves.
Longer-term results
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c7/Iss005e16295.jpg/320px-Iss005e16295.jpg | A meal on ISS Exovivarium development could help reduce the costs of extraterrestrial habitats for human beings. Insofar as the greater expense of human spaceflight owes to its stricter safety requirements, exovivaria - requiring only unmanned launch - could offer significant economies per pound of launched biomass and human life-support materials. In the case of projectile space launch, the launches need not even be survivable human beings, never mind issues of reliability. To meet basic human needs on orbit, edible plants and dead animals might be frozen instead of allowed to decay naturally; the oxygen that the dead animals would otherwise recycle might instead be absorbed chemically and stored. Exovivaria could also be a market for exports from manned orbital habitats: the surplus waste products of human visitors (sewage, CO2 exhalation, solids filtered from wash water) could be sent exovivaria, to replace what was lost by exports to those habitats.
References
1 Preliminary Design of an Experimental Worldcircling Spaceship, Ch. 2: L.N. Ridenour, "Significance of a Satellite Vehicle". Douglas Aircraft Co., May 2, 1946. "Biologists [...] would want to study life in the acceleration-free environment of the satellite. This is an important pre-requisite for space travel by man, and it may also lead to important new observations in lower forms of life." (p.14) ⇑
2 Experience so far suggests that such concerns can be evoked even with telebotic tending of a single plant, by school children in developing nations, using only small-screen mobile devices. See, e.g., "ROSE: Remotely Operated Science Experiment", Paul Kim, Aaron Sharp, Kevin Bing-Yung Wong, Arafeh Karimi, Kamakshi Duvvuru; Stanford University, Feb 2011. ⇑
Further reading
- Vivaria on Wikipedia
- Orbiting Frog Otolith on Wikipedia
- "Animals in space" on Wikipedia
- Fundamentals of Space Biology: Research on Cells, Animals, and Plants in Space, Gilles Cl�ment, Springer, 2006/09/01, ISBN 1441922016
I'm so glad I found my solution onnile.
At last, smoenoe who knows where to find the beef
I'm so glad I found my solution onnile.
Tell your friend not to move the cmarea around so much. I'm getting dizzy.Great response to the question. You did great.Your feelings were correct. The launch did happened.He tried to trick you with the fake handshake by taking his hand away. That sneaky guy! lolz.
At last, smoenoe who knows where to find the beef
The guy in the red shirt is like that annoying kid who alayws thinks he knows more than the professor in university lectures. He mind is full of preconceived notions; therefore, he is unable to learn anything. Impatient and incapable of abstract thought as he is trapped in his ego unconcerned with anything that lies outside of his immediate circle of experience. SBSP requires foresight and long term thinking, unlike venomous mainstream thought and politics which only deals in short term.
Tell your friend not to move the cmarea around so much. I'm getting dizzy.Great response to the question. You did great.Your feelings were correct. The launch did happened.He tried to trick you with the fake handshake by taking his hand away. That sneaky guy! lolz.
Cheers pal. I do appreciate the wriitng.
The guy in the red shirt is like that annoying kid who alayws thinks he knows more than the professor in university lectures. He mind is full of preconceived notions; therefore, he is unable to learn anything. Impatient and incapable of abstract thought as he is trapped in his ego unconcerned with anything that lies outside of his immediate circle of experience. SBSP requires foresight and long term thinking, unlike venomous mainstream thought and politics which only deals in short term.
Absolutely first rate and copper-bottomed, getnelmen!
Cheers pal. I do appreciate the wriitng.
Unparalleled accuracy, unequivocal clarity, and udneianlbe importance!
Absolutely first rate and copper-bottomed, getnelmen!
Appreicatoin for this information is over 9000-thank you!
Unparalleled accuracy, unequivocal clarity, and udneianlbe importance!
Exciting !!!! Have a crude clip of telemetry pieckd up and recorded last night 19h10UTC with elementary antenna and Icom FM radio on 145980 M Hz?.My son was over the moon to hear his satellite !He is also part of history with ceritficate no 00003436Regards ZS 1 YZ?
Appreicatoin for this information is over 9000-thank you!
There is no such factor as a fenielg higher then walking by means of a grocery retailer, famished from an extended day at work, and seeing a free food sample. Everyone loves free samples. Companies like Costco and different grocery shops offer free food samples in the store to get a buyer enthusiastic a couple of new product. Oddly sufficient, these free food samples are also obtainable online. Granted they do not appear to be the same ones that you can find within the store, but they are free food samples nonetheless. You may strive new merchandise from huge, identify model corporations on a every day basis. Merely fill out your info, and these firms will send free samples straight to your door.
That hits the teargt perfectly. Thanks!
There is no such factor as a fenielg higher then walking by means of a grocery retailer, famished from an extended day at work, and seeing a free food sample. Everyone loves free samples. Companies like Costco and different grocery shops offer free food samples in the store to get a buyer enthusiastic a couple of new product. Oddly sufficient, these free food samples are also obtainable online. Granted they do not appear to be the same ones that you can find within the store, but they are free food samples nonetheless. You may strive new merchandise from huge, identify model corporations on a every day basis. Merely fill out your info, and these firms will send free samples straight to your door.
I live in saint cloud central frldioa and just in my back yard you can see in a pond a bunch of cichlid fishes introduce by someone who do not care about the consequences of such an action, they survive even gators snapping and alligator turtle and bass 7 to 8 pounds it seen to be that we take the easy we out when we do not want ours pets any longer.
That hits the teargt perfectly. Thanks!
Hi there and thanks for your comnemt!Yep, we definitely find the Cube Sat? to be a cool product! What kind of fasteners do these kits that you mention come with or use?We always find it interesting to hear about the many different applications that people use our products for, and the Cube Sat? is no different!
I live in saint cloud central frldioa and just in my back yard you can see in a pond a bunch of cichlid fishes introduce by someone who do not care about the consequences of such an action, they survive even gators snapping and alligator turtle and bass 7 to 8 pounds it seen to be that we take the easy we out when we do not want ours pets any longer.
First off no other power source bisdees fusion as anyway near the potential. fossil fuels is a sinking ship, wind sloar and tidal have limits and are just second teir solar.From an american debt point of view, its a worthy risk as relying on fusion is just a risky all others are insufficient to maintain global economic growth, Finally not once did they even ball park the econmics in terms of launch, transmision, and mass to launch.
Hi there and thanks for your comnemt!Yep, we definitely find the Cube Sat? to be a cool product! What kind of fasteners do these kits that you mention come with or use?We always find it interesting to hear about the many different applications that people use our products for, and the Cube Sat? is no different!
I must express my thnaks to the writer just for bailing me out of such a challenge. As a result of scouting through the world wide web and getting ideas which were not helpful, I assumed my entire life was gone. Living devoid of the answers to the issues you've resolved through the report is a serious case, and the kind which could have badly affected my entire career if I hadn't discovered the website. Your own personal ability and kindness in handling everything was helpful. I'm not sure what I would have done if I had not encountered such a stuff like this. I am able to at this time relish my future. Thanks for your time so much for this specialized and sensible help. I will not think twice to recommend your web page to anybody who needs and wants care about this area.
First off no other power source bisdees fusion as anyway near the potential. fossil fuels is a sinking ship, wind sloar and tidal have limits and are just second teir solar.From an american debt point of view, its a worthy risk as relying on fusion is just a risky all others are insufficient to maintain global economic growth, Finally not once did they even ball park the econmics in terms of launch, transmision, and mass to launch.
For a sustainable Agriculture it is esanetisl to act on adaptation as well as respect to habit and habitat, Without these nothing will be successful rather we can destroy the biodiversity and the ecosystem services. Please ask the developed world to stop the technology trading business. MA Rahman
I must express my thnaks to the writer just for bailing me out of such a challenge. As a result of scouting through the world wide web and getting ideas which were not helpful, I assumed my entire life was gone. Living devoid of the answers to the issues you've resolved through the report is a serious case, and the kind which could have badly affected my entire career if I hadn't discovered the website. Your own personal ability and kindness in handling everything was helpful. I'm not sure what I would have done if I had not encountered such a stuff like this. I am able to at this time relish my future. Thanks for your time so much for this specialized and sensible help. I will not think twice to recommend your web page to anybody who needs and wants care about this area.
Correction, (about 25:00 ish) Rainbow Dash swallows one of the cubcmuer slices, so spike doesn't just reach into her mouth to retrieve it, he reaches down her throat. Which makes it even more unrealistic, and a little creepy.
For a sustainable Agriculture it is esanetisl to act on adaptation as well as respect to habit and habitat, Without these nothing will be successful rather we can destroy the biodiversity and the ecosystem services. Please ask the developed world to stop the technology trading business. MA Rahman
I thougt that wiidiepka would be a good site to searcho thing's like that.But I'm wrong.So .it's dificulty to say to you,by the way,you searched on wiidiepka too Although you can find it,on web sites of industried that make nootebook's..who know's.Hug's.
Correction, (about 25:00 ish) Rainbow Dash swallows one of the cubcmuer slices, so spike doesn't just reach into her mouth to retrieve it, he reaches down her throat. Which makes it even more unrealistic, and a little creepy.
Tell your friend not to move the cermaa around so much. I'm getting dizzy.Great response to the question. You did great.Your feelings were correct. The launch did happened.He tried to trick you with the fake handshake by taking his hand away. That sneaky guy! lolz.
I thougt that wiidiepka would be a good site to searcho thing's like that.But I'm wrong.So .it's dificulty to say to you,by the way,you searched on wiidiepka too Although you can find it,on web sites of industried that make nootebook's..who know's.Hug's.
This is out of season, but in Spring, get an aqiruuam with bubblers and regular fish tank gravel. Go find some frog eggs. Take them to school. Don't get TOO many 2 or 3 clusters of them. The water doesn't need to be heated, but it should be mostly swamp water. Put a little sea weed in there, and a few small rocks. The eggs will hatch, there will be polywogs, and when the legs start to emerge, it's time to put them back in the swamp or a small lake. They will learn about metamorphisis. You can talk to the DNR and do more research before the experiment it was 50 years ago when I did this in elementary school, so I don't remember what we used for food. Before the eggs are hatched, the swamp water has enough nutrients in it to support any nutrition they might need. It was neat. We had pictures of frogs, and replica frogs (leopard) displayed around the aqiruuam. It was an awesome project and exhibit. Did this in 2nd or 3rd grade in the 50 s. Also, with technology as it is today, the "past" is fading away. Kids need to know about Ben Frankilin, Thomas Edison, and Alexander Graham Bell. They need to know about "tin can telephones" and make some at school.References :
Tell your friend not to move the cermaa around so much. I'm getting dizzy.Great response to the question. You did great.Your feelings were correct. The launch did happened.He tried to trick you with the fake handshake by taking his hand away. That sneaky guy! lolz.
Yours is a clveer way of thinking about it.
This is out of season, but in Spring, get an aqiruuam with bubblers and regular fish tank gravel. Go find some frog eggs. Take them to school. Don't get TOO many 2 or 3 clusters of them. The water doesn't need to be heated, but it should be mostly swamp water. Put a little sea weed in there, and a few small rocks. The eggs will hatch, there will be polywogs, and when the legs start to emerge, it's time to put them back in the swamp or a small lake. They will learn about metamorphisis. You can talk to the DNR and do more research before the experiment it was 50 years ago when I did this in elementary school, so I don't remember what we used for food. Before the eggs are hatched, the swamp water has enough nutrients in it to support any nutrition they might need. It was neat. We had pictures of frogs, and replica frogs (leopard) displayed around the aqiruuam. It was an awesome project and exhibit. Did this in 2nd or 3rd grade in the 50 s. Also, with technology as it is today, the "past" is fading away. Kids need to know about Ben Frankilin, Thomas Edison, and Alexander Graham Bell. They need to know about "tin can telephones" and make some at school.References :
Exovivaria - vivaria in outer space.
Origins of the term
"Exovivarium" is a Project Persephone neologism.
Introduction
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/92/Anousheh_Ansari_after_landing.jpg/320px-Anousheh_Ansari_after_landing.jpg | We can't all go. Life in space is an exciting prospect. Project Persephone aims to bring it down to Earth: to see if exovivaria - ecosystems in orbit, collectively governed but also hosting private property and commerce - can become an economical pastime for those of us who can't go. Teams on Earth would tend these ecosystems through video links and teleoperation, using the Internet to update each other on "the state of our worlds." Some members (mostly in the developing world) might be paid for their efforts. Others (mostly in the developed world) would pay to take part. Much of the "game value," whether it derived from earnings or just sheer fun, would be in feeling part of a team and in competing with other teams. However, the problem of keeping an ecosystem alive would also make this a Serious Game, one requiring some cooperation from all. You might think of it as a microcosmic Spaceship Earth.
The exovivarium is a compelling vision for a few, but still a blurry one for most. To be truly successful, designers of exovivaria must strive to meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". How to get there from here? (Assuming it's even possible?) Technology demonstration projects in (near-) space, virtual exovivaria, and ground-based prototypes should all help Project staff, paying members and volunteers decide which exovivarium design features lend themselves to sustainable growth in demand, long before any launch of the first real exovivarium. The problem must be approached from several different angles at once: technological, social and economic.
If exovivaria succeed even modestly, they could help reduce the costs of (human) life support in space. If they become very popular, they might help reduce the costs of space launch by increasing the demand for space launch, which would improve the economies of scale of conventional (rocket) launch operations. If exovivaria experience overwhelming success, they would justify serious investment in speculative launch technologies that now languish unfunded, such projectile space launch. But even if exovivaria turn out not to be technologically or socially viable, we'll all learn useful lessons.
History
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Biosat3.jpg | NASA's Biosatellite 3 Serious discussion of sending other living things to space for biological studies dates back as far as 1946.1 Sending other living creatures into space began even before manned spaceflight. The purpose was to study the effects of spaceflight on living things, and to experiment with systems for keeping them alive and healthy. The main focus of the earliest experiments was to get some idea of how human beings might cope with microgravity?. Even after human spaceflight began, however, studies on non-human life in space continued, with unmanned satellite launches. These included the Bion series of the USSR, with NASA cooperation, begun in 1966 and continuing until 1996, and NASA's own Biosatellite series in the mid-to-late 60s.
A more recent biosatellite effort was the Mars Gravity Biosatellite. The aim was to learn more about the effects of Mars-level gravity (38% that of Earth's) on small mammals, the better to understand how it might affect larger mammals like us. This project, which grew to include many student activities, was canceled in 2009. It was probably rendered obsolete by JAXA's Kibo (ki-BOH - "hope") module for ISS.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/STS132_Kibo_Lab.jpg/320px-STS132_Kibo_Lab.jpg | JAXA's Kibo biology lab, finally in place. Kibo's Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) hosts a number of elements that prefigure Project Persephone needs, including
- a centrifuge module (CAM) that can produce between 0.1 and 2 Earth gravities;
- the Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF);
- the Aquatic Habitat (AQH), a small research aquarium.
Kibo will see a number of low-gravity/microgravity experiments on plants and silkworms in its Cell Biology Experiment Facility in its first phase of utilization. In the second phase, there will be yet more plant experiments, and the first experiments on fish using the AQH.
At least one exovivarium featuring some degree of public access via video transmission has been proposed, though not launched: the Experiment Biosfera contract activity at Energia?.
Categories of interim goals
Exovivaria can only come together by inching from one interim goal to the next. Exovivaria will be complex, and will cost a lot to launch. It would be extremely expensive and failure-prone to evaluate exovivarium designs by simply launching various complete designs to see how well they work. The design problems must be approached incrementally, over periods of years, and from several different directions at once, well in advance of orbiting a full system.
Among the concurrent approaches to be taken:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/DRAGONSat_deployed.jpg/159px-DRAGONSat_deployed.jpg | DRAGONSat, a student project Real (or near-) space experiments. The Project might try for early launch of small experimental systems, possibly in Cubesat configurations to begin with, or even smaller, in the case of biomagnetorquing experiments. These would not be expected to have any "game value" while on orbit, although competition might still be an element, insofar as teams compete to come up with the most fruitful experiments.
Stratosphere platforms will provide a relatively cheap way to test technology and concepts, especially those involving ground communications, and deployment and telebotic operations in a (near-) vacuum. Telebotic operations in microgravity might be tested in drop tower experiments, then move to suborbital flights? when longer uninterrupted periods of microgravity are required.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Aquaria_-_Screenshot_01.jpg/320px-Aquaria_-_Screenshot_01.jpg | Aquaria videogame screenshot Virtual exovivaria. An important (and more easily realized) goal is to simulate a wide variety of user experiences, to the extent possible, in a kind of MMORPG?. The computing power required is only going to become cheaper. Much could be learned about what might go wrong socially in such systems.
Also, insofar as virtual exovivaria are physically accurate simulations, they should help expose technological pitfalls before they became expensive real-world failures.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/HPIM3869.JPG/320px-HPIM3869.JPG | Terrarium denizens Terrestrial prototypes. These can't simulate artificial low-gravity conditions, but they might otherwise closely resemble an orbiting exovivarium. The need might be great. Even the most detailed CGI rendering of the interiors of virtual exovivaria will probably fall short of perfect realism. But even if they didn't, they still wouldn't be "psychologically real": users would know that it was "all a game," that no real harm could be done (except perhaps to feelings, and perhaps to finances if some people are paying for privileges). In a real vivarium, things can break and creatures can die.2
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/Buddel-Dschunke.JPG/320px-Buddel-Dschunke.JPG | Built with long tweezers Solo telerobotic pastimes. Many exovivarium users might enjoy telebotic interaction only with their "pets," gardens and microfarms, and other things they own in the exovivarium; the only social dimension for such users would be in simply trading to get what's needed to do those things. One purpose of private property is "freedom from association;" it allows people accomplish things on their own. Arts and crafts, hobbies fed with biomaterials reaped within an exovivarium, from its "livestock" and its microfarms, might become delightful individual pastimes, even if the results only decorated the interior, never to be delivered to anyone on Earth. Even some purely functional exovivarium maintenance tasks might be compelling hobbies for some. Designing specialized terrestrial-prototype exovivaria for personal use should help in determining what kinds of enjoyment can be gotten individually, within systems that are larger in scale and more social in operation.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Wikimeetup-ru_20090412_Discussion.jpg/320px-Wikimeetup-ru_20090412_Discussion.jpg | Wikipedia volunteers Governance experiments. Orbit is expensive. For exovivaria to be economical, the designs must optimize the number of users that can be attracted and retained per orbited unit of payload. As much as anything else, this makes exovivarium design a hard problem. The more that people are forced to share a scarce resource, the more likely it is that they will either fight over it unproductively or simply move on, in search of more satisfying experiences. In general, the goal should be to make the experience of ecosystem management as recreational as possible for users in the developed world, and as much a source of gainful employment as possible for users from poorer places, while affording opportunities for other fruitful exchanges between the two user bases. It's inevitable that these design constraints will give rise to some form of government, to resolve the resulting conflicts. Experiments in governance need not be tied closely to exovivarium physical design, though they should eventually converge on it.
To be truly successful, exovivaria must meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". Among the desiderata: Change, Engagement, Purpose, Connection -- all continously renewing themselves.
Longer-term results
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c7/Iss005e16295.jpg/320px-Iss005e16295.jpg | A meal on ISS Exovivarium development could help reduce the costs of extraterrestrial habitats for human beings. Insofar as the greater expense of human spaceflight owes to its stricter safety requirements, exovivaria - requiring only unmanned launch - could offer significant economies per pound of launched biomass and human life-support materials. In the case of projectile space launch, the launches need not even be survivable human beings, never mind issues of reliability. To meet basic human needs on orbit, edible plants and dead animals might be frozen instead of allowed to decay naturally; the oxygen that the dead animals would otherwise recycle might instead be absorbed chemically and stored. Exovivaria could also be a market for exports from manned orbital habitats: the surplus waste products of human visitors (sewage, CO2 exhalation, solids filtered from wash water) could be sent exovivaria, to replace what was lost by exports to those habitats.
References
1 Preliminary Design of an Experimental Worldcircling Spaceship, Ch. 2: L.N. Ridenour, "Significance of a Satellite Vehicle". Douglas Aircraft Co., May 2, 1946. "Biologists [...] would want to study life in the acceleration-free environment of the satellite. This is an important pre-requisite for space travel by man, and it may also lead to important new observations in lower forms of life." (p.14) ⇑
2 Experience so far suggests that such concerns can be evoked even with telebotic tending of a single plant, by school children in developing nations, using only small-screen mobile devices. See, e.g., "ROSE: Remotely Operated Science Experiment", Paul Kim, Aaron Sharp, Kevin Bing-Yung Wong, Arafeh Karimi, Kamakshi Duvvuru; Stanford University, Feb 2011. ⇑
Further reading
- Vivaria on Wikipedia
- Orbiting Frog Otolith on Wikipedia
- "Animals in space" on Wikipedia
- Fundamentals of Space Biology: Research on Cells, Animals, and Plants in Space, Gilles Clément, Springer, 2006/09/01, ISBN 1441922016
Yours is a clveer way of thinking about it.
Terrestrial prototypes. These can't simulate artificial low-gravity conditions, but they might otherwise closely resemble an orbiting exovivarium. The need might be great. Even the most detailed CGI rendering of the interiors of virtual exovivaria will probably fall short of perfect realism. But even if they didn't, they still wouldn't be "psychologically real": users would know that it was "all a game," that no real harm could be done (except perhaps to feelings, and perhaps to finances if some people are paying for privileges). In a real vivarium, things can break and creatures can die.1
Terrestrial prototypes. These can't simulate artificial low-gravity conditions, but they might otherwise closely resemble an orbiting exovivarium. The need might be great. Even the most detailed CGI rendering of the interiors of virtual exovivaria will probably fall short of perfect realism. But even if they didn't, they still wouldn't be "psychologically real": users would know that it was "all a game," that no real harm could be done (except perhaps to feelings, and perhaps to finances if some people are paying for privileges). In a real vivarium, things can break and creatures can die.2
Terrestrial prototypes. These can't simulate artificial low-gravity conditions, but they might otherwise closely resemble an orbiting exovivarium. The need might be great. Even the most detailed CGI rendering of the interiors of virtual exovivaria will probably fall short of perfect realism. But even if they didn't, they still wouldn't be "psychologically real": users would know that it was "all a game," that no real harm could be done (except perhaps to feelings, and perhaps to finances if some people are paying for privileges). In a real vivarium, things can break and creatures can die.
Terrestrial prototypes. These can't simulate artificial low-gravity conditions, but they might otherwise closely resemble an orbiting exovivarium. The need might be great. Even the most detailed CGI rendering of the interiors of virtual exovivaria will probably fall short of perfect realism. But even if they didn't, they still wouldn't be "psychologically real": users would know that it was "all a game," that no real harm could be done (except perhaps to feelings, and perhaps to finances if some people are paying for privileges). In a real vivarium, things can break and creatures can die.3
- "Animals in space" on Wikipedia
- "Animals in space" on Wikipedia
- Fundamentals of Space Biology: Research on Cells, Animals, and Plants in Space, Gilles Clément, Springer, 2006/09/01, ISBN 1441922016
Governance experiments. Orbit is expensive. For exovivaria to be economical, the designs must optimize the number of users that can be attracted and retained per orbited unit of payload. As much as anything else, this makes exovivarium design a hard problem. The more that people are forced to share a scarce resource, the more likely it is that they will either fight over it unproductively or simply move on, in search of more satisfying experiences. In general, the goal should be to make the experience of ecosystem management as recreational as possible for users in the developed world, and as much a source of gainful employment as possible for users from poorer places, while affording opportunities for other fruitful exchanges between the two user bases. It's inevitable that these design constraints will give rise to some form of government, to resolve the resulting conflicts. Experiments in governance need not be tied closely to exovivarium physical design, though they should eventually converge on it.
Governance experiments. Orbit is expensive. For exovivaria to be economical, the designs must optimize the number of users that can be attracted and retained per orbited unit of payload. As much as anything else, this makes exovivarium design a hard problem. The more that people are forced to share a scarce resource, the more likely it is that they will either fight over it unproductively or simply move on, in search of more satisfying experiences. In general, the goal should be to make the experience of ecosystem management as recreational as possible for users in the developed world, and as much a source of gainful employment as possible for users from poorer places, while affording opportunities for other fruitful exchanges between the two user bases. It's inevitable that these design constraints will give rise to some form of government, to resolve the resulting conflicts. Experiments in governance need not be tied closely to exovivarium physical design, though they should eventually converge on it.
Exovivaria could lead to a reduction of the costs of developing and maintaining extraterrestrial habitats for human beings. To the extent that the expense of human spaceflight owes to its safety requirements, exovivaria could offer significant economies per pound of launched biomass and human life-support materials. This would be in part because launches for building up and resupplying an exovivarium need not be as nearly reliable as -- or even, in the case of projectile space launch survivable for -- human beings. To meet basic human needs on orbit, exovivaria might be made to produce food and oxygen surpluses, at least temporarily -- dead animals and plants might be stored frozen instead of allowed to decay naturally, and the oxygen the animals would otherwise consume might be absorbed chemically and stored. The surplus waste products of human visitors (sewage, CO2 exhalation, solids filtered from wash water) might be imported to exovivaria, to replace what was lost by exports of food grown in exovivaria.
Exovivarium development could help reduce the costs of extraterrestrial habitats for human beings. Insofar as the greater expense of human spaceflight owes to its stricter safety requirements, exovivaria - requiring only unmanned launch - could offer significant economies per pound of launched biomass and human life-support materials. In the case of projectile space launch, the launches need not even be survivable human beings, never mind issues of reliability. To meet basic human needs on orbit, edible plants and dead animals might be frozen instead of allowed to decay naturally; the oxygen that the dead animals would otherwise recycle might instead be absorbed chemically and stored. Exovivaria could also be a market for exports from manned orbital habitats: the surplus waste products of human visitors (sewage, CO2 exhalation, solids filtered from wash water) could be sent exovivaria, to replace what was lost by exports to those habitats.
If it's a compelling vision for a few, it's still a blurry one for most. To be truly successful, designers of exovivaria must strive to meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". How to get there from here? (Assuming it's even possible?) Technology demonstration projects in (near-) space, virtual exovivaria, and ground-based prototypes should all help Project staff, paying members and volunteers decide which exovivarium design features lend themselves to sustainable growth in demand, long before any launch of the first real exovivarium. The problem must be approached from several different angles at once: technological, social and economic.
The exovivarium is a compelling vision for a few, but still a blurry one for most. To be truly successful, designers of exovivaria must strive to meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". How to get there from here? (Assuming it's even possible?) Technology demonstration projects in (near-) space, virtual exovivaria, and ground-based prototypes should all help Project staff, paying members and volunteers decide which exovivarium design features lend themselves to sustainable growth in demand, long before any launch of the first real exovivarium. The problem must be approached from several different angles at once: technological, social and economic.
Also, insofar as virtual exovivaria are physically accurate, they should expose a few technological pitfalls before they became expensive real-world failures.
Also, insofar as virtual exovivaria are physically accurate simulations, they should help expose technological pitfalls before they became expensive real-world failures.
If it's a compelling vision for a few, it's still a blurry one for most. To be truly successful, designers of exovivaria must strive to make them meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". How to get there from here? (Assuming it's even possible?) Technology demonstration projects in (near-) space, virtual exovivaria, and ground-based prototypes should all help Project staff and volunteers decide which exovivarium design features lend themselves to sustainable growth in demand, long before any launch of the first real exovivarium. The problem must be approached from several different angles at once: technological, social and economic.
If it's a compelling vision for a few, it's still a blurry one for most. To be truly successful, designers of exovivaria must strive to meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". How to get there from here? (Assuming it's even possible?) Technology demonstration projects in (near-) space, virtual exovivaria, and ground-based prototypes should all help Project staff, paying members and volunteers decide which exovivarium design features lend themselves to sustainable growth in demand, long before any launch of the first real exovivarium. The problem must be approached from several different angles at once: technological, social and economic.
Project Persephone aims to bring the excitement of space travel down to Earth: to see if exovivaria, ecosystems in orbit, collectively governed but also hosting private property and commerce, can become an economical pastime for those of us who can't go. Teams on Earth would tend these orbital ecosystems through video links and teleoperation, using the Internet to update each other on "the state of our worlds." Some members (mostly in the developing world) might be paid for their efforts. Others (mostly in the developed world) would pay to take part. Much of the "game value," whether it derived from earnings or just sheer fun, would be in feeling part of a team and in competing with other teams. However, the problem of keeping an ecosystem alive would also make this a Serious Game, one requiring some cooperation from all. You might think of it as a microcosmic Spaceship Earth.
Life in space is an exciting prospect. Project Persephone aims to bring it down to Earth: to see if exovivaria - ecosystems in orbit, collectively governed but also hosting private property and commerce - can become an economical pastime for those of us who can't go. Teams on Earth would tend these ecosystems through video links and teleoperation, using the Internet to update each other on "the state of our worlds." Some members (mostly in the developing world) might be paid for their efforts. Others (mostly in the developed world) would pay to take part. Much of the "game value," whether it derived from earnings or just sheer fun, would be in feeling part of a team and in competing with other teams. However, the problem of keeping an ecosystem alive would also make this a Serious Game, one requiring some cooperation from all. You might think of it as a microcosmic Spaceship Earth.
Governance experiments. Orbit is expensive. For exovivaria to be economical, the designs must optimize the number of users that can be attracted and retained per orbited unit of payload. As much as anything else, this makes exovivarium design a hard problem. The more people must share a scarce resource, the more likely it is that they will either contend for it unproductively or simply move on, in search of better substitute experiences. In general, the goal should be to make the experience of ecosystem management as recreational as possible for users in the developed world, and as much a source of gainful employment as possible for users from poorer places, while affording opportunities for other fruitful exchanges between the two user bases. It's inevitable that these constraints will give rise to governance structures of some sort, to resolve the resulting conflicts. Experiments in governance need not be tied closely to exovivarium physical design, though they should eventually converge on it.
Governance experiments. Orbit is expensive. For exovivaria to be economical, the designs must optimize the number of users that can be attracted and retained per orbited unit of payload. As much as anything else, this makes exovivarium design a hard problem. The more that people are forced to share a scarce resource, the more likely it is that they will either fight over it unproductively or simply move on, in search of more satisfying experiences. In general, the goal should be to make the experience of ecosystem management as recreational as possible for users in the developed world, and as much a source of gainful employment as possible for users from poorer places, while affording opportunities for other fruitful exchanges between the two user bases. It's inevitable that these design constraints will give rise to some form of government, to resolve the resulting conflicts. Experiments in governance need not be tied closely to exovivarium physical design, though they should eventually converge on it.
Kibo's Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) has many elements that prefigure Project Persephone needs
- a centrifuge module (CAM) that can produce between 0.1 and 2 Earth gravities
- the Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF)
Kibo's Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) hosts a number of elements that prefigure Project Persephone needs, including
- a centrifuge module (CAM) that can produce between 0.1 and 2 Earth gravities;
- the Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF);
Real (or near-) space experiments. The Project might try for early launch of small experimental systems, possibly in Cubesat configurations to begin with. These would not be expected to have any "game value" while on orbit, although competition might still be an element, insofar as teams compete to come up with the most fruitful experiments.
Stratosphere platforms? will provide a relatively cheap way to test technology and concepts, especially those involving ground communications, and deployment and telebotic operations in a (near-) vacuum. Telebotic operations in microgravity might be tested in drop tower? experiments, then move to suborbital flights? when longer uninterrupted periods of microgravity are required.
Real (or near-) space experiments. The Project might try for early launch of small experimental systems, possibly in Cubesat configurations to begin with, or even smaller, in the case of biomagnetorquing experiments. These would not be expected to have any "game value" while on orbit, although competition might still be an element, insofar as teams compete to come up with the most fruitful experiments.
Stratosphere platforms will provide a relatively cheap way to test technology and concepts, especially those involving ground communications, and deployment and telebotic operations in a (near-) vacuum. Telebotic operations in microgravity might be tested in drop tower experiments, then move to suborbital flights? when longer uninterrupted periods of microgravity are required.
Serious discussion of sending other living things to space for biological studies dates back as far as 1946.4 Sending other living creatures into space began even before manned spaceflight. The purpose was to study the effects of spaceflight on living things, and to experiment with systems for keeping them alive and healthy. The main focus of the earliest experiments was to get some idea of how human beings might cope with microgravity?. Even after human spaceflight began, however, studies on non-human life in space continued, with unmanned satellite launches. These included the Bion series of the USSR, with NASA cooperation, begun in 1966 and continuing until 1996, and NASA's own Biosatellite series in the mid-to-late 60s.
Serious discussion of sending other living things to space for biological studies dates back as far as 1946.5 Sending other living creatures into space began even before manned spaceflight. The purpose was to study the effects of spaceflight on living things, and to experiment with systems for keeping them alive and healthy. The main focus of the earliest experiments was to get some idea of how human beings might cope with microgravity?. Even after human spaceflight began, however, studies on non-human life in space continued, with unmanned satellite launches. These included the Bion series of the USSR, with NASA cooperation, begun in 1966 and continuing until 1996, and NASA's own Biosatellite series in the mid-to-late 60s.
Sending other living creatures into space began even before manned spaceflight. The purpose was to study the effects of spaceflight on living things, and to experiment with systems for keeping them alive and healthy. The main focus of the earliest experiments was to get some idea of how human beings might cope with microgravity?. Even after human spaceflight began, however, studies on non-human life in space continued, with unmanned satellite launches. These included the Bion series of the USSR, with NASA cooperation, begun in 1966 and continuing until 1996, and NASA's own Biosatellite series in the mid-to-late 60s.
Serious discussion of sending other living things to space for biological studies dates back as far as 1946.6 Sending other living creatures into space began even before manned spaceflight. The purpose was to study the effects of spaceflight on living things, and to experiment with systems for keeping them alive and healthy. The main focus of the earliest experiments was to get some idea of how human beings might cope with microgravity?. Even after human spaceflight began, however, studies on non-human life in space continued, with unmanned satellite launches. These included the Bion series of the USSR, with NASA cooperation, begun in 1966 and continuing until 1996, and NASA's own Biosatellite series in the mid-to-late 60s.
References
1 "ROSE: Remotely Operated Science Experiment", Paul Kim, Aaron Sharp, Kevin Bing-Yung Wong, Arafeh Karimi, Kamakshi Duvvuru; Stanford University, Feb 2011. ⇑
2 Experience so far suggests that such concerns can be evoked even with telebotic tending of a single plant, by school children in developing nations, using only small-screen mobile devices. See, e.g., "ROSE: Remotely Operated Science Experiment", Paul Kim, Aaron Sharp, Kevin Bing-Yung Wong, Arafeh Karimi, Kamakshi Duvvuru; Stanford University, Feb 2011. ⇑
3 "ROSE: Remotely Operated Science Experiment", Paul Kim, Aaron Sharp, Kevin Bing-Yung Wong, Arafeh Karimi, Kamakshi Duvvuru; Stanford University, Feb 2011. ⇑
4 "Preliminary Design of an Experimental Worldcircling Spaceship", L.N. Ridenour, et al., RAND Corp., May 2, 1946; Ch.2, p.14: "Biologists [...] would want to study life in the acceleration-free environment of the satellite. This is an important pre-requisite for space travel by man, and it may also lead to important new observations in lower forms of life." ⇑
5 Preliminary Design of an Experimental Worldcircling Spaceship, Ch. 2: L.N. Ridenour, "Significance of a Satellite Vehicle". Douglas Aircraft Co., May 2, 1946. "Biologists [...] would want to study life in the acceleration-free environment of the satellite. This is an important pre-requisite for space travel by man, and it may also lead to important new observations in lower forms of life." (p.14) ⇑
6 "Preliminary Design of an Experimental Worldcircling Spaceship", L.N. Ridenour, et al., RAND Corp., May 2, 1946; Ch.2, p.14: "Biologists [...] would want to study life in the acceleration-free environment of the satellite. This is an important pre-requisite for space travel by man, and it may also lead to important new observations in lower forms of life." ⇑
If it's a compelling vision for a few, it's still a blurry one for most. To be truly successful, designers of exovivaria must strive to make them meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". How to get there from here? (Assuming it's even possible?) Technology demonstration projects in (near-) space, virtual exovivaria, and ground-based prototypes should all help Project staff and volunteers decide which exovivarium design features lend themselves to sustainable growth in demand, long before any launch of the first real exovivarium. The problem will need to be attacked from several different angles at once: technological, social and economic.
If it's a compelling vision for a few, it's still a blurry one for most. To be truly successful, designers of exovivaria must strive to make them meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". How to get there from here? (Assuming it's even possible?) Technology demonstration projects in (near-) space, virtual exovivaria, and ground-based prototypes should all help Project staff and volunteers decide which exovivarium design features lend themselves to sustainable growth in demand, long before any launch of the first real exovivarium. The problem must be approached from several different angles at once: technological, social and economic.
Project Persephone aims to bring the excitement of space travel down to Earth: to see if exovivaria, ecosystems in orbit, collectively governed but also hosting private property and commerce, can become an economical pastime for those of us who can't go. Teams on Earth would tend these orbital ecosystems through video links and teleoperation, using the Internet to update each other on "the state of our worlds." Some members (mostly in the developing world) might be paid for their efforts. Others (mostly in the developed world) would pay to take part. Much of the "game value," whether it derived from earnings or just sheer fun, would be in being part of a team and in competing with other teams. However, the problem of keeping an ecosystem alive would also make this a Serious Game, one requiring some cooperation from all. You might think of it as a microcosmic Spaceship Earth.
If it's a compelling vision for a few, it's still a blurry one for most. To be truly successful, designers of exovivaria must strive to make them meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". How to get there from here? Assuming it's even possible? Technology demonstration projects in (near-) space, virtual exovivaria, and ground-based prototypes should all help Project staff and volunteers decide which exovivarium design features lend themselves to sustainable growth in demand, long before any launch of the first real exovivarium,
If exovivaria succeed even modestly, they could help reduce the costs of (human) life support in space. If they become very popular, they might help reduce the costs of space launch by increasing the demand for space launch, which would improve the economies of scale of conventional (rocket) launch operations. If exovivaria are an overwhelming success, they would justify serious investment in speculative launch technologies that now languish unfunded, such projectile space launch. But even if exovivaria turn out not to be technologically or socially viable, we'll all learn useful lessons.
Project Persephone aims to bring the excitement of space travel down to Earth: to see if exovivaria, ecosystems in orbit, collectively governed but also hosting private property and commerce, can become an economical pastime for those of us who can't go. Teams on Earth would tend these orbital ecosystems through video links and teleoperation, using the Internet to update each other on "the state of our worlds." Some members (mostly in the developing world) might be paid for their efforts. Others (mostly in the developed world) would pay to take part. Much of the "game value," whether it derived from earnings or just sheer fun, would be in feeling part of a team and in competing with other teams. However, the problem of keeping an ecosystem alive would also make this a Serious Game, one requiring some cooperation from all. You might think of it as a microcosmic Spaceship Earth.
If it's a compelling vision for a few, it's still a blurry one for most. To be truly successful, designers of exovivaria must strive to make them meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". How to get there from here? (Assuming it's even possible?) Technology demonstration projects in (near-) space, virtual exovivaria, and ground-based prototypes should all help Project staff and volunteers decide which exovivarium design features lend themselves to sustainable growth in demand, long before any launch of the first real exovivarium. The problem will need to be attacked from several different angles at once: technological, social and economic.
If exovivaria succeed even modestly, they could help reduce the costs of (human) life support in space. If they become very popular, they might help reduce the costs of space launch by increasing the demand for space launch, which would improve the economies of scale of conventional (rocket) launch operations. If exovivaria experience overwhelming success, they would justify serious investment in speculative launch technologies that now languish unfunded, such projectile space launch. But even if exovivaria turn out not to be technologically or socially viable, we'll all learn useful lessons.
Solo telerobotic pastimes. Many exovivarium users might enjoy telebotic interaction only with their "pets," gardens and microfarms, and other things they own in the exovivarium; the only social dimension for such users would be in simply buying what's needed to do those things. One purpose of private property is "freedom from society," to let people do things on their own, without needing to coordinate much. Arts and crafts, hobbies with biomaterials reaped within an exovivarium, from its "livestock" and its microfarms, might become delightful individual pastimes, even if the results only decorated the exovivarium and were never physically delivered to anyone on Earth. Even some purely functional exovivarium maintenance tasks might be compelling enough to have some private hobby value. To determine what people would like, designing special-purpose real-world terrestrial prototype exovivaria for personal use should help in determining what sorts of enjoyment could be gotten privately, within systems that are larger in scale and more social in operation.
Solo telerobotic pastimes. Many exovivarium users might enjoy telebotic interaction only with their "pets," gardens and microfarms, and other things they own in the exovivarium; the only social dimension for such users would be in simply trading to get what's needed to do those things. One purpose of private property is "freedom from association;" it allows people accomplish things on their own. Arts and crafts, hobbies fed with biomaterials reaped within an exovivarium, from its "livestock" and its microfarms, might become delightful individual pastimes, even if the results only decorated the interior, never to be delivered to anyone on Earth. Even some purely functional exovivarium maintenance tasks might be compelling hobbies for some. Designing specialized terrestrial-prototype exovivaria for personal use should help in determining what kinds of enjoyment can be gotten individually, within systems that are larger in scale and more social in operation.
Governance experiments. Putting stuff into orbit is expensive. For exovivaria to be reasonably economical, the designs should optimize for the number of users that can be attracted and retained per orbited pound of payload. As much as anything else, this makes exovivarium design a hard problem. The more that people must share a scarce physical resource, the more likely it is that they will either contend for it unproductively or simply move on in search of substitute experiences. In general, the goal should be to make the experience of ecosystem management as recreational as possible for users in the developed world, and as much a source of gainful employment as possible for users from poorer places, while affording opportunities for other fruitful exchanges between the two user bases. It is inconceivable that these constraints won't give rise to governance structures of some sort, to resolve the resulting conflicts. Experiments in governance need not be tied closely to exovivarium design, though they should eventually converge on it.
Governance experiments. Orbit is expensive. For exovivaria to be economical, the designs must optimize the number of users that can be attracted and retained per orbited unit of payload. As much as anything else, this makes exovivarium design a hard problem. The more people must share a scarce resource, the more likely it is that they will either contend for it unproductively or simply move on, in search of better substitute experiences. In general, the goal should be to make the experience of ecosystem management as recreational as possible for users in the developed world, and as much a source of gainful employment as possible for users from poorer places, while affording opportunities for other fruitful exchanges between the two user bases. It's inevitable that these constraints will give rise to governance structures of some sort, to resolve the resulting conflicts. Experiments in governance need not be tied closely to exovivarium physical design, though they should eventually converge on it.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/Buddel-Dschunke.JPG/320px-Buddel-Dschunke.JPG | Built with tweezers
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/Buddel-Dschunke.JPG/320px-Buddel-Dschunke.JPG | Built with long tweezers
Kibo will see a number of low-gravity/microgravity experiments on plants and silkworms in its Cell Biology Experiment Facility in its first phase of utilization. In the second phase, there will be yet more plant experiments, and the first experiments on fish using the AQH.
Kibo will see a number of low-gravity/microgravity experiments on plants and silkworms in its Cell Biology Experiment Facility in its first phase of utilization. In the second phase, there will be yet more plant experiments, and the first experiments on fish using the AQH.
Exovivaria can only come together by inching from one interim goal to the next. Exovivaria will be complex, and will cost a lot to launch. It would be extremely expensive and failure-prone to evaluate exovivarium designs by simply launching various complete designs to see how well they work. The design problesm must be approached incrementally, over periods of years, and from several different directions at once, well in advance of orbiting a full system.
Exovivaria can only come together by inching from one interim goal to the next. Exovivaria will be complex, and will cost a lot to launch. It would be extremely expensive and failure-prone to evaluate exovivarium designs by simply launching various complete designs to see how well they work. The design problems must be approached incrementally, over periods of years, and from several different directions at once, well in advance of orbiting a full system.
If exovivaria succeed even modestly, they could help reduce the costs of (human) life support in space. If they become very popular, they might help reduce the costs of space launch by increasing the demand for space launch, which would improve the economies of scale in conventional launch operations. If exovivaria are an overwhelming success, they would justify serious investment in launch technologies that now languish unfunded, such projectile space launch. But even if exovivaria turn out not to be technologically or socially viable, we'll all learn useful lessons.
If exovivaria succeed even modestly, they could help reduce the costs of (human) life support in space. If they become very popular, they might help reduce the costs of space launch by increasing the demand for space launch, which would improve the economies of scale of conventional (rocket) launch operations. If exovivaria are an overwhelming success, they would justify serious investment in speculative launch technologies that now languish unfunded, such projectile space launch. But even if exovivaria turn out not to be technologically or socially viable, we'll all learn useful lessons.
Project Persephone aims to bring the excitement of space travel down to Earth: to see if exovivaria, ecosystems in orbit, collectively governed but also hosting private property, can become an economical pastime for those of us who can't go. Teams on Earth, through video links, teleoperation, and staying in touch with each other on "the state of our world," would tend these ecosystems in orbit. Some members (mostly in the developing world) might be paid for their efforts. Others (mostly in the developed world) would pay to take part. Much of the "game value," whether it derived from earnings or just sheer fun, would be in being part of a team, and in competing with other teams. However, the problem of keeping an ecosystem alive would also make this a Serious Game requiring some cooperation from all. You might think of it as a microcosmic Spaceship Earth.
If it's a compelling vision for a few, it's still a blurry one for most. To be truly successful, designers of exovivaria must strive to make them meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". How to get there from here -- assuming it's even possible? Technology demonstration projects in (near-) space, virtual exovivaria and ground-based prototypes should help Project staff and volunteers decide which exovivarium design features lend themselves to sustainable growth in demand, long before any launch of the first real exovivarium,
If exovivaria succeed even modestly, they could help reduce the costs of (human) life support in space. If they become very popular, they might help reduce the costs of space launch by increasing the demand for space launch, which would improve the economies of scale in conventional launch operations. If exovivaria are an overwhelming success, they would justify serious investment in launch technologies that now languish unfunded, such projectile space launch. But even if exovivaria turn out not to be technologically or socially viable, valuable lessons will be learned.
Project Persephone aims to bring the excitement of space travel down to Earth: to see if exovivaria, ecosystems in orbit, collectively governed but also hosting private property and commerce, can become an economical pastime for those of us who can't go. Teams on Earth would tend these orbital ecosystems through video links and teleoperation, using the Internet to update each other on "the state of our worlds." Some members (mostly in the developing world) might be paid for their efforts. Others (mostly in the developed world) would pay to take part. Much of the "game value," whether it derived from earnings or just sheer fun, would be in being part of a team and in competing with other teams. However, the problem of keeping an ecosystem alive would also make this a Serious Game, one requiring some cooperation from all. You might think of it as a microcosmic Spaceship Earth.
If it's a compelling vision for a few, it's still a blurry one for most. To be truly successful, designers of exovivaria must strive to make them meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". How to get there from here? Assuming it's even possible? Technology demonstration projects in (near-) space, virtual exovivaria, and ground-based prototypes should all help Project staff and volunteers decide which exovivarium design features lend themselves to sustainable growth in demand, long before any launch of the first real exovivarium,
If exovivaria succeed even modestly, they could help reduce the costs of (human) life support in space. If they become very popular, they might help reduce the costs of space launch by increasing the demand for space launch, which would improve the economies of scale in conventional launch operations. If exovivaria are an overwhelming success, they would justify serious investment in launch technologies that now languish unfunded, such projectile space launch. But even if exovivaria turn out not to be technologically or socially viable, we'll all learn useful lessons.
Exovivaria will only come together by pursuing interim goals. Exovivaria will be complex, and will cost a lot to launch. It would be extremely expensive and failure-prone to evaluate exovivarium designs by simply launching various designs to see how well they work. The design problem must be approached incrementally, over periods of years, and from several different directions at once, well in advance of orbiting a full system. Among the concurrent approaches to be taken:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/DRAGONSat_deployed.jpg/159px-DRAGONSat_deployed.jpg | DRAGON Sat?, a student project
Exovivaria can only come together by inching from one interim goal to the next. Exovivaria will be complex, and will cost a lot to launch. It would be extremely expensive and failure-prone to evaluate exovivarium designs by simply launching various complete designs to see how well they work. The design problesm must be approached incrementally, over periods of years, and from several different directions at once, well in advance of orbiting a full system.
Among the concurrent approaches to be taken:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/DRAGONSat_deployed.jpg/159px-DRAGONSat_deployed.jpg | DRAGONSat, a student project
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/HPIM3869.JPG/320px-HPIM3869.JPG | Terrarium denizen
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/HPIM3869.JPG/320px-HPIM3869.JPG | Terrarium denizens
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/92/Anousheh_Ansari_after_landing.jpg/320px-Anousheh_Ansari_after_landing.jpg Project Persephone aims to bring the idea of outer space recreation down to Earth: to see if exovivaria, collectively governed but also hosting private property, can become a popular pastime for those of us who can't make a trip to space. Teams on Earth, through video links, teleoperation, and staying in touch with each other on "the state of our world," would tend these ecosystems in orbit. Some members might be paid (mostly in the developing world). Others would volunteer (mostly in the developed world). Much of the "game value," whether it derived from earnings or just sheer fun, should be in interacting with one's own team members and in competing with other teams. However, the problem of keeping an ecosystem alive would also make this a Serious Game.
To be truly successful, exovivaria must meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". How to get there from here? Technology demonstration projects in (near-) space, virtual exovivaria and ground-based prototypes should help Project staff and volunteers decide what exovivarium designs lend themselves to sustainable growth in demand, long before a launch of the first real exovivarium,
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/92/Anousheh_Ansari_after_landing.jpg/320px-Anousheh_Ansari_after_landing.jpg | We can't all go. Project Persephone aims to bring the excitement of space travel down to Earth: to see if exovivaria, ecosystems in orbit, collectively governed but also hosting private property, can become an economical pastime for those of us who can't go. Teams on Earth, through video links, teleoperation, and staying in touch with each other on "the state of our world," would tend these ecosystems in orbit. Some members (mostly in the developing world) might be paid for their efforts. Others (mostly in the developed world) would pay to take part. Much of the "game value," whether it derived from earnings or just sheer fun, would be in being part of a team, and in competing with other teams. However, the problem of keeping an ecosystem alive would also make this a Serious Game requiring some cooperation from all. You might think of it as a microcosmic Spaceship Earth.
If it's a compelling vision for a few, it's still a blurry one for most. To be truly successful, designers of exovivaria must strive to make them meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". How to get there from here -- assuming it's even possible? Technology demonstration projects in (near-) space, virtual exovivaria and ground-based prototypes should help Project staff and volunteers decide which exovivarium design features lend themselves to sustainable growth in demand, long before any launch of the first real exovivarium,
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Biosat3.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Biosat3.jpg | NASA's Biosatellite 3
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/STS132_Kibo_Lab.jpg/320px-STS132_Kibo_Lab.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/STS132_Kibo_Lab.jpg/320px-STS132_Kibo_Lab.jpg | JAXA's Kibo biology lab, finally in place.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/DRAGONSat_deployed.jpg/159px-DRAGONSat_deployed.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/DRAGONSat_deployed.jpg/159px-DRAGONSat_deployed.jpg | DRAGON Sat?, a student project
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Aquaria_-_Screenshot_01.jpg/320px-Aquaria_-_Screenshot_01.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Aquaria_-_Screenshot_01.jpg/320px-Aquaria_-_Screenshot_01.jpg | Aquaria videogame screenshot
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/HPIM3869.JPG/320px-HPIM3869.JPG
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/HPIM3869.JPG/320px-HPIM3869.JPG | Terrarium denizen
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/Buddel-Dschunke.JPG/320px-Buddel-Dschunke.JPG
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/Buddel-Dschunke.JPG/320px-Buddel-Dschunke.JPG | Built with tweezers
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Wikimeetup-ru_20090412_Discussion.jpg/320px-Wikimeetup-ru_20090412_Discussion.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Wikimeetup-ru_20090412_Discussion.jpg/320px-Wikimeetup-ru_20090412_Discussion.jpg | Wikipedia volunteers
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/63/STS-129_crew_members_gather_for_a_meal_at_the_galley_in_the_Unity_node_of_the_International_Space_Station.jpg/320px-STS-129_crew_members_gather_for_a_meal_at_the_galley_in_the_Unity_node_of_the_International_Space_Station.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c7/Iss005e16295.jpg/320px-Iss005e16295.jpg | A meal on ISS
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/92/Anousheh_Ansari_after_landing.jpg/320px-Anousheh_Ansari_after_landing.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Biosat3.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/STS132_Kibo_Lab.jpg/320px-STS132_Kibo_Lab.jpg
- Real (or near-) space experiments. The Project might try for early launch of small experimental systems, possibly in Cubesat configurations to begin with. These would not be expected to have any "game value" while on orbit, although competition might still be an element, insofar as teams compete to come up with the most fruitful experiments. Stratosphere platforms? might provide another relatively cheap way to test technology and concepts.
- Virtual exovivaria. An important (and more easily realized) goal is to simulate a wide variety of user experiences, to the extent possible, in a kind of MMORPG?. Much could be learned about what might go wrong socially in such systems. Also, to the extent that such systems are also physically accurate, they might expose a number of technological pitfalls before they became expensive real-world failures.
- Terrestrial prototypes. These can't simulate artificial low-gravity conditions, but they might otherwise closely resemble an orbiting exovivarium. The need might be great. Even the most detailed CGI rendering of the interiors of virtual exovivaria will probably fall short of perfect realism. But even if they didn't, they still wouldn't be "psychologically real": users would know that it was "all a game," that no real harm could be done (except perhaps to feelings, and perhaps to finances if some people are paying for privileges). In a real vivarium, things can break and creatures can die.
- Solo telerobotic pastimes. Many exovivarium users might enjoy telebotic interaction only with their "pets," gardens and microfarms, and other things they own in the exovivarium; the only social dimension for such users would be in simply buying what's needed to do those things. One purpose of private property is "freedom from society," to let people do things on their own, without needing to coordinate much. Arts and crafts, hobbies with biomaterials reaped within an exovivarium, from its "livestock" and its microfarms, might become delightful individual pastimes, even if the results only decorated the exovivarium and were never physically delivered to anyone on Earth. Even some purely functional exovivarium maintenance tasks might be compelling enough to have some private hobby value. To determine what people would like, designing special-purpose real-world terrestrial prototype exovivaria for personal use should help in determining what sorts of enjoyment could be gotten privately, within systems that are larger in scale and more social in operation.
- Governance experiments. Putting stuff into orbit is expensive. For exovivaria to be reasonably economical, the designs should optimize for the number of users that can be attracted and retained per orbited pound of payload. As much as anything else, this makes exovivarium design a hard problem. The more that people must share a scarce physical resource, the more likely it is that they will either contend for it unproductively or simply move on in search of substitute experiences. In general, the goal should be to make the experience of ecosystem management as recreational as possible for users in the developed world, and as much a source of gainful employment as possible for users from poorer places, while affording opportunities for other fruitful exchanges between the two user bases. It is inconceivable that these constraints won't give rise to governance structures of some sort, to resolve the resulting conflicts. Experiments in governance need not be tied closely to exovivarium design, though they should eventually converge on it.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/DRAGONSat_deployed.jpg/159px-DRAGONSat_deployed.jpg Real (or near-) space experiments. The Project might try for early launch of small experimental systems, possibly in Cubesat configurations to begin with. These would not be expected to have any "game value" while on orbit, although competition might still be an element, insofar as teams compete to come up with the most fruitful experiments.
Stratosphere platforms? will provide a relatively cheap way to test technology and concepts, especially those involving ground communications, and deployment and telebotic operations in a (near-) vacuum. Telebotic operations in microgravity might be tested in drop tower? experiments, then move to suborbital flights? when longer uninterrupted periods of microgravity are required.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Aquaria_-_Screenshot_01.jpg/320px-Aquaria_-_Screenshot_01.jpg Virtual exovivaria. An important (and more easily realized) goal is to simulate a wide variety of user experiences, to the extent possible, in a kind of MMORPG?. The computing power required is only going to become cheaper. Much could be learned about what might go wrong socially in such systems.
Also, insofar as virtual exovivaria are physically accurate, they should expose a few technological pitfalls before they became expensive real-world failures.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/HPIM3869.JPG/320px-HPIM3869.JPG Terrestrial prototypes. These can't simulate artificial low-gravity conditions, but they might otherwise closely resemble an orbiting exovivarium. The need might be great. Even the most detailed CGI rendering of the interiors of virtual exovivaria will probably fall short of perfect realism. But even if they didn't, they still wouldn't be "psychologically real": users would know that it was "all a game," that no real harm could be done (except perhaps to feelings, and perhaps to finances if some people are paying for privileges). In a real vivarium, things can break and creatures can die.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/Buddel-Dschunke.JPG/320px-Buddel-Dschunke.JPG Solo telerobotic pastimes. Many exovivarium users might enjoy telebotic interaction only with their "pets," gardens and microfarms, and other things they own in the exovivarium; the only social dimension for such users would be in simply buying what's needed to do those things. One purpose of private property is "freedom from society," to let people do things on their own, without needing to coordinate much. Arts and crafts, hobbies with biomaterials reaped within an exovivarium, from its "livestock" and its microfarms, might become delightful individual pastimes, even if the results only decorated the exovivarium and were never physically delivered to anyone on Earth. Even some purely functional exovivarium maintenance tasks might be compelling enough to have some private hobby value. To determine what people would like, designing special-purpose real-world terrestrial prototype exovivaria for personal use should help in determining what sorts of enjoyment could be gotten privately, within systems that are larger in scale and more social in operation.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Wikimeetup-ru_20090412_Discussion.jpg/320px-Wikimeetup-ru_20090412_Discussion.jpg Governance experiments. Putting stuff into orbit is expensive. For exovivaria to be reasonably economical, the designs should optimize for the number of users that can be attracted and retained per orbited pound of payload. As much as anything else, this makes exovivarium design a hard problem. The more that people must share a scarce physical resource, the more likely it is that they will either contend for it unproductively or simply move on in search of substitute experiences. In general, the goal should be to make the experience of ecosystem management as recreational as possible for users in the developed world, and as much a source of gainful employment as possible for users from poorer places, while affording opportunities for other fruitful exchanges between the two user bases. It is inconceivable that these constraints won't give rise to governance structures of some sort, to resolve the resulting conflicts. Experiments in governance need not be tied closely to exovivarium design, though they should eventually converge on it.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/63/STS-129_crew_members_gather_for_a_meal_at_the_galley_in_the_Unity_node_of_the_International_Space_Station.jpg/320px-STS-129_crew_members_gather_for_a_meal_at_the_galley_in_the_Unity_node_of_the_International_Space_Station.jpg
Project Persephone aims to bring the notion of space recreation down to Earth, to see if exovivaria, collectively governed but also hosting private property, can become a popular pastime for people who can't afford to go to space themselves. Teams on Earth -- some paid (mostly in the developing world) and others volunteer (mostly in the developed world) -- would help maintain ecosystems in orbit. Much of the "game value" -- whether done for money or just sheer fun -- should be in interacting with one's own team members and in competing with other teams. To be truly successful, exovivaria must meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". Virtual exovivaria and ground-based prototypes should help Project staff and volunteers determine what kinds of exovivarium designs lend themselves to sustainable growth in demand, well in advance of launching the first real exovivarium,
If even modestly successful, exovivaria could eventually help reduce the costs of supporting human life in space. If they become very popular, they might help reduce the costs of space launch by increasing the demand for launch, resulting in economies of scale in launch operations.
Project Persephone aims to bring the idea of outer space recreation down to Earth: to see if exovivaria, collectively governed but also hosting private property, can become a popular pastime for those of us who can't make a trip to space. Teams on Earth, through video links, teleoperation, and staying in touch with each other on "the state of our world," would tend these ecosystems in orbit. Some members might be paid (mostly in the developing world). Others would volunteer (mostly in the developed world). Much of the "game value," whether it derived from earnings or just sheer fun, should be in interacting with one's own team members and in competing with other teams. However, the problem of keeping an ecosystem alive would also make this a Serious Game.
To be truly successful, exovivaria must meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". How to get there from here? Technology demonstration projects in (near-) space, virtual exovivaria and ground-based prototypes should help Project staff and volunteers decide what exovivarium designs lend themselves to sustainable growth in demand, long before a launch of the first real exovivarium,
If exovivaria succeed even modestly, they could help reduce the costs of (human) life support in space. If they become very popular, they might help reduce the costs of space launch by increasing the demand for space launch, which would improve the economies of scale in conventional launch operations. If exovivaria are an overwhelming success, they would justify serious investment in launch technologies that now languish unfunded, such projectile space launch. But even if exovivaria turn out not to be technologically or socially viable, valuable lessons will be learned.
A more recent biosatellite effort was the Mars Gravity Biosatellite. The aim was learn more about the effects of Mars-level gravity (38% that of Earth's) on small mammals. This project, which grew to include many student activities, was canceled in 2009. It was probably rendered obsolete by JAXA's Kibo (ki-BOH - "hope") module for ISS.
A more recent biosatellite effort was the Mars Gravity Biosatellite. The aim was to learn more about the effects of Mars-level gravity (38% that of Earth's) on small mammals, the better to understand how it might affect larger mammals like us. This project, which grew to include many student activities, was canceled in 2009. It was probably rendered obsolete by JAXA's Kibo (ki-BOH - "hope") module for ISS.
- Governance experiments. Putting stuff into orbit is expensive. For exovivaria to be reasonably economical, the designs should should optimize for the number of users that can be attracted per orbited pound of payload. As much as anything else, this makes exovivarium design a hard problem. The more that people must share a scarce physical resource, the more likely it is that they will either contend for it unproductively or simply move on in search of substitute experiences. In general, the goal should be to make the experience of ecosystem management as recreational as possible for users from developed nations, and as much a source of gainful employment as possible for users from poorer countries, while affording opportunities for other exchanges between the two user bases. It is almost inconceivable that these constraints won't give rise to governance structures of some sort, to resolve the resulting conflicts. Experiments in governance need not be tied closely to exovivarium design, though they should eventually converge on it.
- Governance experiments. Putting stuff into orbit is expensive. For exovivaria to be reasonably economical, the designs should optimize for the number of users that can be attracted and retained per orbited pound of payload. As much as anything else, this makes exovivarium design a hard problem. The more that people must share a scarce physical resource, the more likely it is that they will either contend for it unproductively or simply move on in search of substitute experiences. In general, the goal should be to make the experience of ecosystem management as recreational as possible for users in the developed world, and as much a source of gainful employment as possible for users from poorer places, while affording opportunities for other fruitful exchanges between the two user bases. It is inconceivable that these constraints won't give rise to governance structures of some sort, to resolve the resulting conflicts. Experiments in governance need not be tied closely to exovivarium design, though they should eventually converge on it.
Exovivaria is a Project Persephone neologism.
"Exovivarium" is a Project Persephone neologism.
Introduction
Project Persephone aims to bring the notion of space recreation down to Earth, to see if exovivaria, collectively governed but also hosting private property, can become a popular pastime for people who can't afford to go to space themselves. Teams on Earth -- some paid (mostly in the developing world) and others volunteer (mostly in the developed world) -- would help maintain ecosystems in orbit. Much of the "game value" -- whether done for money or just sheer fun -- should be in interacting with one's own team members and in competing with other teams. To be truly successful, exovivaria must meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". Virtual exovivaria and ground-based prototypes should help Project staff and volunteers determine what kinds of exovivarium designs lend themselves to sustainable growth in demand, well in advance of launching the first real exovivarium,
If even modestly successful, exovivaria could eventually help reduce the costs of supporting human life in space. If they become very popular, they might help reduce the costs of space launch by increasing the demand for launch, resulting in economies of scale in launch operations.
Goal
Project Persephone aims to see if exovivaria can be established as a popular recreation. To this end, the Project might try for early launch of small experimental exovivaria, possibly in Cubesat configurations to begin with. However, an important (and more easily realized) goal is to simulate a variety of user experiences, to the extent possible, in a kind of MMORPG? -- in Virtual Exovivaria.
People might enjoy interaction via telebots with pets, gardens and microfarms in orbit. Arts and crafts hobbies with biomaterials reaped within exovivaria, from its livestock and microfarms, might become delightful pastimes, even if the results only decorated the exovivarium and were never physically delivered to anyone on Earth. Some exovivarium maintenance tasks might be interesting enough to have hobby value. One of the stronger prerequisite motivations for such recreations is biophilia.
Exovivaria would feature collectively governed ecosystems, in Earth orbit, and be tended by teams of tele-operators -- expert and amateur, paid (mostly in the developing world) and volunteer (mostly in the developed world) -- on Earth. Management of the ecosystems will require ground control for dedicated, special-purpose fixed equipment, and for small, general-purpose, tele-operated robots - telebots - that will be able to move around untethered within the garden. In general, the goal should be to make the experience of ecosystem management as recreational as possible for users from developed nations, and as much a source of gainful employment as possible for users from poorer countries, while affording opportunities for cultural exchange between the two.
To be truly successful, exovivaria must meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". Among the desirable qualities they should be designed to offer their virtual inhabitants: Change, Engagement, Purpose, Connection.
Exovivaria are also candidates for eventual reduction of the costs of developing and maintaining recreational orbital habitats for human beings. To the extent that the expense of human spaceflight owes to its safety requirements, exovivaria could offer significant economies per pound of launched biomass and life-support materials. This would be in part because launches for building up and resupplying an exovivarium need not be as nearly reliable as -- or even, in the case of projectile space launch survivable for -- human beings. To meet basic human needs on orbit, exovivaria might be made to produce food and oxygen surpluses, at least temporarily -- dead animals and plants might be stored frozen instead of allowed to decay naturally, and the oxygen the animals would otherwise consume might be absorbed chemically and stored. The surplus waste products of human visitors (sewage, CO2 exhalation, solids filtered from wash water) might be imported to exovivaria, to replace what was lost by exports of food grown in exovivaria.
Categories of interim goals
Exovivaria will only come together by pursuing interim goals. Exovivaria will be complex, and will cost a lot to launch. It would be extremely expensive and failure-prone to evaluate exovivarium designs by simply launching various designs to see how well they work. The design problem must be approached incrementally, over periods of years, and from several different directions at once, well in advance of orbiting a full system. Among the concurrent approaches to be taken:
- Real (or near-) space experiments. The Project might try for early launch of small experimental systems, possibly in Cubesat configurations to begin with. These would not be expected to have any "game value" while on orbit, although competition might still be an element, insofar as teams compete to come up with the most fruitful experiments. Stratosphere platforms? might provide another relatively cheap way to test technology and concepts.
- Virtual exovivaria. An important (and more easily realized) goal is to simulate a wide variety of user experiences, to the extent possible, in a kind of MMORPG?. Much could be learned about what might go wrong socially in such systems. Also, to the extent that such systems are also physically accurate, they might expose a number of technological pitfalls before they became expensive real-world failures.
- Terrestrial prototypes. These can't simulate artificial low-gravity conditions, but they might otherwise closely resemble an orbiting exovivarium. The need might be great. Even the most detailed CGI rendering of the interiors of virtual exovivaria will probably fall short of perfect realism. But even if they didn't, they still wouldn't be "psychologically real": users would know that it was "all a game," that no real harm could be done (except perhaps to feelings, and perhaps to finances if some people are paying for privileges). In a real vivarium, things can break and creatures can die.
- Solo telerobotic pastimes. Many exovivarium users might enjoy telebotic interaction only with their "pets," gardens and microfarms, and other things they own in the exovivarium; the only social dimension for such users would be in simply buying what's needed to do those things. One purpose of private property is "freedom from society," to let people do things on their own, without needing to coordinate much. Arts and crafts, hobbies with biomaterials reaped within an exovivarium, from its "livestock" and its microfarms, might become delightful individual pastimes, even if the results only decorated the exovivarium and were never physically delivered to anyone on Earth. Even some purely functional exovivarium maintenance tasks might be compelling enough to have some private hobby value. To determine what people would like, designing special-purpose real-world terrestrial prototype exovivaria for personal use should help in determining what sorts of enjoyment could be gotten privately, within systems that are larger in scale and more social in operation.
- Governance experiments. Putting stuff into orbit is expensive. For exovivaria to be reasonably economical, the designs should should optimize for the number of users that can be attracted per orbited pound of payload. As much as anything else, this makes exovivarium design a hard problem. The more that people must share a scarce physical resource, the more likely it is that they will either contend for it unproductively or simply move on in search of substitute experiences. In general, the goal should be to make the experience of ecosystem management as recreational as possible for users from developed nations, and as much a source of gainful employment as possible for users from poorer countries, while affording opportunities for other exchanges between the two user bases. It is almost inconceivable that these constraints won't give rise to governance structures of some sort, to resolve the resulting conflicts. Experiments in governance need not be tied closely to exovivarium design, though they should eventually converge on it.
To be truly successful, exovivaria must meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". Among the desiderata: Change, Engagement, Purpose, Connection -- all continously renewing themselves.
Longer-term results
Exovivaria could lead to a reduction of the costs of developing and maintaining extraterrestrial habitats for human beings. To the extent that the expense of human spaceflight owes to its safety requirements, exovivaria could offer significant economies per pound of launched biomass and human life-support materials. This would be in part because launches for building up and resupplying an exovivarium need not be as nearly reliable as -- or even, in the case of projectile space launch survivable for -- human beings. To meet basic human needs on orbit, exovivaria might be made to produce food and oxygen surpluses, at least temporarily -- dead animals and plants might be stored frozen instead of allowed to decay naturally, and the oxygen the animals would otherwise consume might be absorbed chemically and stored. The surplus waste products of human visitors (sewage, CO2 exhalation, solids filtered from wash water) might be imported to exovivaria, to replace what was lost by exports of food grown in exovivaria.
- "Animals in space" on Wikipedia
- "Animals in space" on Wikipedia
Exovivaria are also candidates for eventual reduction of the costs of developing and maintaining recreational orbital habitats for human beings. To the extent that the expense of human spaceflight owes to its safety requirements, exovivaria could offer significant economies per pound of launched biomass and life-support materials. This would be in part because launches for building up and resupplying an exovivarium need not be as nearly reliable as -- or even, in the case of projectile space launch survivable for -- human beings. To meet basic human needs on orbit, exovivaria might be made to produce food and oxygen surpluses, at least temporarily -- dead animals and plants might be stored frozen instead of allowed to decay naturally, and the oxygen the animals would otherwise consume might be absorbed chemically and stored. The surplus waste products of human visitors (sewage, CO2 exhalation, wastewater from washing) might be usable as inputs to the ecosystem, to help replace what was lost by consumption of food grown in exovivaria.
Exovivaria are also candidates for eventual reduction of the costs of developing and maintaining recreational orbital habitats for human beings. To the extent that the expense of human spaceflight owes to its safety requirements, exovivaria could offer significant economies per pound of launched biomass and life-support materials. This would be in part because launches for building up and resupplying an exovivarium need not be as nearly reliable as -- or even, in the case of projectile space launch survivable for -- human beings. To meet basic human needs on orbit, exovivaria might be made to produce food and oxygen surpluses, at least temporarily -- dead animals and plants might be stored frozen instead of allowed to decay naturally, and the oxygen the animals would otherwise consume might be absorbed chemically and stored. The surplus waste products of human visitors (sewage, CO2 exhalation, solids filtered from wash water) might be imported to exovivaria, to replace what was lost by exports of food grown in exovivaria.
To be truly successful, exovivaria must meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". Among the desirable qualities they should be designed to offer their virtual inhabitant: Change, Engagement, Purpose, Connection.
To be truly successful, exovivaria must meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". Among the desirable qualities they should be designed to offer their virtual inhabitants: Change, Engagement, Purpose, Connection.
Project Persephone aims to see if exovivaria can be established as a popular recreation. To this end, the Project might try for early launch of small experimental exovivaria, possibly in Cubesat configurations to begin with. However, an important (and more easily realized) goal is to simulate a variety of user experiences, to the extent possible, in MMORPG-like? Virtual Exovivaria.
Project Persephone aims to see if exovivaria can be established as a popular recreation. To this end, the Project might try for early launch of small experimental exovivaria, possibly in Cubesat configurations to begin with. However, an important (and more easily realized) goal is to simulate a variety of user experiences, to the extent possible, in a kind of MMORPG? -- in Virtual Exovivaria.
Exovivaria are also candidates for eventual reduction of the costs of developing and maintaining recreational orbital habitats for human beings. To the extent that the expense of human spaceflight owes to its safety requirements, exovivaria could offer significant economies per pound of launched biomass and life-support materials. This would be in part because launches for building up and resupplying an exovivarium need not be as nearly reliable as -- or even, in the case of projectile space launch survivable for -- human beings. To meet basic human needs on orbit, exovivaria might be made to produce food and oxygen surpluses, at least temporarily -- dead animals and plants might be stored frozen instead of allowed to decay naturally, and the oxygen the animals would otherwise consume might be absorbed chemically and stored. The surplus waste products of human visitors (sewage, CO 2? exhalation, wastewater from washing) might be usable as inputs to the ecosystem, to help replace what was lost by consumption of food grown in exovivaria.
Exovivaria are also candidates for eventual reduction of the costs of developing and maintaining recreational orbital habitats for human beings. To the extent that the expense of human spaceflight owes to its safety requirements, exovivaria could offer significant economies per pound of launched biomass and life-support materials. This would be in part because launches for building up and resupplying an exovivarium need not be as nearly reliable as -- or even, in the case of projectile space launch survivable for -- human beings. To meet basic human needs on orbit, exovivaria might be made to produce food and oxygen surpluses, at least temporarily -- dead animals and plants might be stored frozen instead of allowed to decay naturally, and the oxygen the animals would otherwise consume might be absorbed chemically and stored. The surplus waste products of human visitors (sewage, CO2 exhalation, wastewater from washing) might be usable as inputs to the ecosystem, to help replace what was lost by consumption of food grown in exovivaria.
A more recent biosatellite effort was the Mars Gravity Biosatellite. The aim was learn more about the effects of Mars-level gravity (38% that of Earth's) on small mammals. This project, which grew to include many student activities, was canceled in 2009. It was probably rendered obsolete by JAXA's Kibo (ki-BOH - "hope") module for ISS, which includes a small research aquarium, a cell biology experiment facility, and a centrifuge module that can produce between 0.1 and 2 G's.
Kibo's Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) has a centrifuge module (CAM), a Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF), and an Aquatic Habitat (AQH). Kibo will see a number of low-gravity/microgravity experiments on plants and silkworms in its Cell Biology Experiment Facility in its first phase of utilization. In the second phase, there will be yet more plant experiments, and the first experiments on fish using the AQH.
A more recent biosatellite effort was the Mars Gravity Biosatellite. The aim was learn more about the effects of Mars-level gravity (38% that of Earth's) on small mammals. This project, which grew to include many student activities, was canceled in 2009. It was probably rendered obsolete by JAXA's Kibo (ki-BOH - "hope") module for ISS.
Kibo's Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) has many elements that prefigure Project Persephone needs
- a centrifuge module (CAM) that can produce between 0.1 and 2 Earth gravities
- the Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF)
- the Aquatic Habitat (AQH), a small research aquarium.
Kibo will see a number of low-gravity/microgravity experiments on plants and silkworms in its Cell Biology Experiment Facility in its first phase of utilization. In the second phase, there will be yet more plant experiments, and the first experiments on fish using the AQH.
Before human space travel, other living creatures were launched into space, to study the effects of spaceflight on them, and to experiment with systems for keeping them alive and healthy. The main purpose of these early experiments was to get some idea of how human beings would cope with space travel. Even after human spaceflight began, however, studies on living things continued with unmanned satellite launches. These included the Bion series of the USSR, with NASA cooperation, begun in 1966 and continuing until 1996, and NASA's own Biosatellite series in the mid-to-late 60s.
A more recent effort was the Mars Gravity Biosatellite. The aim was study the effects of Mars-level gravity (38% that of Earth's) on small mammals. This project, which grew to include many student activities, was canceled in 2009. Very likely, it was rendered obsolete by JAXA's Kibo module for ISS, which includes a small research aquarium, a cell biology experiment facility, and a centrifuge module that can produce between 0.1 and 2 G's.
JAXA's Kibo (ki-BOH - "hope") Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) for ISS has a centrifuge module (CAM), a Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF), and an Aquatic Habitat (AQH). Kibo will see a number of low-gravity/microgravity experiments on plants and silkworms in its Cell Biology Experiment Facility in its first phase of utilization. In the second phase, there will be yet more plant experiments, and the first experiments on fish using the AQH.
Sending other living creatures into space began even before manned spaceflight. The purpose was to study the effects of spaceflight on living things, and to experiment with systems for keeping them alive and healthy. The main focus of the earliest experiments was to get some idea of how human beings might cope with microgravity?. Even after human spaceflight began, however, studies on non-human life in space continued, with unmanned satellite launches. These included the Bion series of the USSR, with NASA cooperation, begun in 1966 and continuing until 1996, and NASA's own Biosatellite series in the mid-to-late 60s.
A more recent biosatellite effort was the Mars Gravity Biosatellite. The aim was learn more about the effects of Mars-level gravity (38% that of Earth's) on small mammals. This project, which grew to include many student activities, was canceled in 2009. It was probably rendered obsolete by JAXA's Kibo (ki-BOH - "hope") module for ISS, which includes a small research aquarium, a cell biology experiment facility, and a centrifuge module that can produce between 0.1 and 2 G's.
Kibo's Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) has a centrifuge module (CAM), a Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF), and an Aquatic Habitat (AQH). Kibo will see a number of low-gravity/microgravity experiments on plants and silkworms in its Cell Biology Experiment Facility in its first phase of utilization. In the second phase, there will be yet more plant experiments, and the first experiments on fish using the AQH.
Project Persephone aims to see if exovivaria can be established as a popular recreation. To this end, the Project might try for early launch of small experimental exovivaria, possibly in Cubesat configurations initially. However, the initial focus will be on simulating the user experience on Earth, to the extent possible.
People might enjoy interaction via telebots with pets, gardens and microfarms in orbit. Arts and crafts hobbies with biomaterials reaped from exovivaria, from its livestock and microfarms, might become delightful pastimes, even if the results only decorated the exovivarium and were never physically delivered to anyone on Earth. Some exovivarium maintenance tasks might be interesting enough to have hobby value. One of the stronger prerequisite motivations for such recreations is biophilia.
Exovivaria would feature collectively governed ecosystems, in Earth orbit, and be tended by teams of tele-operators -- expert and amateur, paid (mostly in the developing world) and volunteer (mostly in the developed world) -- on Earth. Management of the ecosystems will require ground control for dedicated, special-purpose fixed equipment, and for small, general-purpose, tele-operated robots - telebots - that will be able to move around untethered within the garden. In general, the goal should be to make the experience of ecosystem management as recreational as possible for users from developed nations, and as much a source of gainful employment as possible for users from poor countries, while affording opportunities for cultural exchange between the two.
To be truly successful, exovivaria must meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". Among the desirable qualities they might feature are the following: Change, Engagement, Purpose, Connection.
Exovivaria are also good candidates for eventual reduction of the costs of developing and maintaining recreational orbital habitats for human beings. To the extent that human spaceflight is expensive because of the safety requirements, exovivaria could offer significant economies per pound of launched biomass and life-support materials. This would be in part because launches for building up and resupplying an exovivarium need not be as nearly reliable as -- or even survivable for -- human beings. To meet basic human needs on orbit, exovivaria might be made to produce food and oxygen surpluses, at least temporarily -- dead animals could be stored frozen instead of allowed to decay naturally, and the oxygen they'd otherwise consume might be absorbed chemically and stored. The waste products of human visitors (feces, urine, CO 2? exhalation, bathwastewater) would be usable as inputs to the ecosystem, to replace what was lost by visitor food consumption.
Project Persephone aims to see if exovivaria can be established as a popular recreation. To this end, the Project might try for early launch of small experimental exovivaria, possibly in Cubesat configurations to begin with. However, an important (and more easily realized) goal is to simulate a variety of user experiences, to the extent possible, in MMORPG-like? Virtual Exovivaria.
People might enjoy interaction via telebots with pets, gardens and microfarms in orbit. Arts and crafts hobbies with biomaterials reaped within exovivaria, from its livestock and microfarms, might become delightful pastimes, even if the results only decorated the exovivarium and were never physically delivered to anyone on Earth. Some exovivarium maintenance tasks might be interesting enough to have hobby value. One of the stronger prerequisite motivations for such recreations is biophilia.
Exovivaria would feature collectively governed ecosystems, in Earth orbit, and be tended by teams of tele-operators -- expert and amateur, paid (mostly in the developing world) and volunteer (mostly in the developed world) -- on Earth. Management of the ecosystems will require ground control for dedicated, special-purpose fixed equipment, and for small, general-purpose, tele-operated robots - telebots - that will be able to move around untethered within the garden. In general, the goal should be to make the experience of ecosystem management as recreational as possible for users from developed nations, and as much a source of gainful employment as possible for users from poorer countries, while affording opportunities for cultural exchange between the two.
To be truly successful, exovivaria must meet the criteria of "a world worth talking about". Among the desirable qualities they should be designed to offer their virtual inhabitant: Change, Engagement, Purpose, Connection.
Exovivaria are also candidates for eventual reduction of the costs of developing and maintaining recreational orbital habitats for human beings. To the extent that the expense of human spaceflight owes to its safety requirements, exovivaria could offer significant economies per pound of launched biomass and life-support materials. This would be in part because launches for building up and resupplying an exovivarium need not be as nearly reliable as -- or even, in the case of projectile space launch survivable for -- human beings. To meet basic human needs on orbit, exovivaria might be made to produce food and oxygen surpluses, at least temporarily -- dead animals and plants might be stored frozen instead of allowed to decay naturally, and the oxygen the animals would otherwise consume might be absorbed chemically and stored. The surplus waste products of human visitors (sewage, CO 2? exhalation, wastewater from washing) might be usable as inputs to the ecosystem, to help replace what was lost by consumption of food grown in exovivaria.
Project Persephone aims to see if exovivaria can be established as a popular recreation. To this end, the Project might try for early launch of small experimental exovivaria, possibly in Cubesat configurations initially. However, the initial focus will be on simulating the user experience on Earth, to the extent possible.
Project Persephone aims to see if exovivaria can be established as a popular recreation. To this end, the Project might try for early launch of small experimental exovivaria, possibly in Cubesat configurations initially. However, the initial focus will be on simulating the user experience on Earth, to the extent possible.
Project Persephone aims to see if exovivaria can be established as a recreation market. To this end, the Project might try for early launch of small experimental exovivaria, possibly in Cubesat configurations initially. However, the initial focus will be on simulating the user experience on Earth, to the extent possible.
Project Persephone aims to see if exovivaria can be established as a popular recreation. To this end, the Project might try for early launch of small experimental exovivaria, possibly in Cubesat configurations initially. However, the initial focus will be on simulating the user experience on Earth, to the extent possible.
Exovivaria are also good candidates for eventual reduction of the costs of developing and maintaining recreational orbital habitats for human beings. To the extent that human spaceflight is expensive because of the higher need for safety, exovivaria could offer significant economies per pound of launched biomass and life-support materials. This would be in part because launches for building up and resupplying an exovivarium need not be as nearly reliable as -- or even survivable for -- human beings. To meet basic human needs on orbit, exovivaria might be made to produce food and oxygen surpluses, at least temporarily -- dead animals could be stored frozen instead of allowed to decay naturally, and the oxygen they'd otherwise consume might be absorbed chemically and stored. The waste products of human visitors (feces, urine, CO 2? exhalation, bathwastewater) would be usable as inputs to the ecosystem, to replace what was lost by visitor food consumption.
Exovivaria are also good candidates for eventual reduction of the costs of developing and maintaining recreational orbital habitats for human beings. To the extent that human spaceflight is expensive because of the safety requirements, exovivaria could offer significant economies per pound of launched biomass and life-support materials. This would be in part because launches for building up and resupplying an exovivarium need not be as nearly reliable as -- or even survivable for -- human beings. To meet basic human needs on orbit, exovivaria might be made to produce food and oxygen surpluses, at least temporarily -- dead animals could be stored frozen instead of allowed to decay naturally, and the oxygen they'd otherwise consume might be absorbed chemically and stored. The waste products of human visitors (feces, urine, CO 2? exhalation, bathwastewater) would be usable as inputs to the ecosystem, to replace what was lost by visitor food consumption.
A more recent effort was the Mars Gravity Biosatellite. The aim was study the effects of Mars-level gravity (38% that of Earth's) on small mammals. This project, which grew to include many student activities, was was canceled in 2009. Very likely, it was rendered obsolete by JAXA's Kibo module for ISS, which includes a small research aquarium, a cell biology experiment facility, and a centrifuge module that can produce between 0.1 and 2 G's.
A more recent effort was the Mars Gravity Biosatellite. The aim was study the effects of Mars-level gravity (38% that of Earth's) on small mammals. This project, which grew to include many student activities, was canceled in 2009. Very likely, it was rendered obsolete by JAXA's Kibo module for ISS, which includes a small research aquarium, a cell biology experiment facility, and a centrifuge module that can produce between 0.1 and 2 G's.