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 Fri Aug 17, 2012 @ 1:02 am |
 Thu Apr 18, 2024 Updated at 1200 GMT each day |
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Fri Aug 17, 2012 @ 1:02 am |
Thu Apr 18, 2024 Updated at 1200 GMT each day |
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In very general terms, the L5 Development Group space program can be broken down into four steps:
- We go from the Earth to the Moon and build a minimal base there.
- The Lunar base launches Lunar materials to L5.
- Once there's enough material accumulated at L5, we set up smelting and manufacturing operations there, and build a space colony.
- The space colonists living at L5 build solar power satellites, which are then dropped into geostationary orbit to beam electricity down to the Earth, and pay for the whole thing at ten cents per kilowatt-hour.
Obviously, there are many layers of details to define and implement between the above description and the reality we are creating. This Web site was built to explain those details, and as a vehicle for conducting the business of bringing the plan to fruition.
In the course of building space colonies at L5 and delivering solar power satellites into the Earth's energy production system, a wide variety of other things will occur. For example, as space flight becomes more routine, operating costs can be expected to fall dramatically, opening the possibility of space tourism to a wider range of participants. With many people living in space, satellite repair will become feasible, making "faster, better, cheaper" satellite production more easily attainable. The colonists, and those supplying them with provisions, are undoubtably going to bring a range of innovations about we cannot yet imagine, boosting the world's economy with a crop of new products and services.
With established colonies at L5, expansion of the human sphere of influence beyond our immediate planetary realm will become the reality so many have dreamed of. Working from the shallow gravity well of L5, substantial exploratory missions will head to Mars, Jupiter, the asteroids, Saturn, and beyond. Having learned a set of new skills for off-world mining and production in developing the colonies, settlers will soon follow to tap into the resources available throughout the solar system. The diversity of opportunity and range of choices in living environments can be expected to grow continuously, which will attract many people to the new frontiers. Cultural development, fostered by the influx of ideas and materials, will result in a level of achievement that far surpasses anything our experience has ever seen before.
There are no scientific breakthroughs necessary to make any of this possible. We even have most, if not all, of the technology to complete the task. What's missing is what Fred Koschara, founder of The L5 Development Group, calls "the 'I' factor:" There are many people talking about space colonies, space development,solar power satellites, etc., and have been for a long time. However, in nearly every conversation, the space colonists are spoken of as "they" or "them," anonymous, faceless creatures of the future. That attitude will never build anything in space - it has to be done by people who are saying "I am doing this" and "we are building it" - individuals speaking in the first person, not the third. This Web site, the people working on and through it, are the result of that paradigm shift: We have the 'I factor' working on our side: WE are doing this.
Please, take a look through the site. Join us if you would like to be part of the adventure!
One of the things we're going to do here, as a way of networking people that want to participate in this project, is to have links between our on-line virtual reality models - so that each person can build their own "store" (or home, or ...) in the space community. After all, the colonies are going to have to be complete societies, and there's no better person for explaining what their space will be like than the one who plans to live there.
Go to the Virtual Space Colony
In the longer term, in addition to building the online virtual space colony described above, the L5 Development Group is the business vehicle that is going to implement the FKE Space Program. Anyone interested in participating in the effort should contact us.