Developing the Cislunar Space Traffic Model

Cislunar space is the stuff between the Earth and the moon.

Here's the question: If we're successful in getting the big space traffic economic engine going, what's going where and in what quantities?

What we need is a model showing all the processes of transportation systems in cislunar space -- what goes into each process, what comes out if it, and what the process does to change in the inputs and outputs. Even if the numbers are wrong, the model will be valid. We can always set the values to zero for things we don't think will happen.

The model needs a way to accept a set of different cases so we can compare the space traffic for each case, and add more models to determine the resource requirements to get these materials flowing. For instance, our baseline economic forecasts for the lunar community show that throughout the foreseeable future, the most lucrative export industries will be space tourism and entertainment. However, if it turns out that shipping helium-3 to Earth is a financially viable lunar industry, the space traffic model will change: we'll have just as much tourism -- perhaps even more -- but we also will add a lot of cargo between Earth and the moon.

Task Description:

Task ID

15

Task Name

Cislunar Traffic Model

Updated

27 Nov 1998

Product

Cislunar Traffic Model

Contact

someone@somewhere

Description of Task

1. Research possible paths for development of space traffic
2. Develop model of space traffic (which might purchase resources from the moon, or compete with them) through 2100
3. How to do it
4. How others have done it
5. Illustrations, if applicable
6. Work breakdown for this particular task

Requirments and Specifications

• Mining oxygen on the moon
• Mining helium-3 on the moon
• Doing tourist flights by refueling SSTO rockets in LEO
• Beaming power from the moon to the spacecraft
• Building solar power satellites
• Operating LEO space stations and recreational facilities
• Building Mars-bound scientific missions
• Operating LEO industrial facilities (what industries?)
• Everything else you can think of

Related Tasks

None Currently

Current Investigators

None Currently

Schedules and need dates

None Currently

Links to related information files