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October 19, 2005
L5 News Online
To Chapter Leaders,
I'm forwarding the following note from Fred Becker (mach25 AT cfl.rr.com), for your information. There are a number of interesting articles from the late 1970's in the old L5 News available online from http://www.l5news.org/. Fred has started selecting some recent articles for their technical content and relevance to the same subject matter as the old L5 News: space settlement, space solar power, orbiting colonies, etc, and created a couple of sample issues for a restarted L5 News at http://www.l5news.org/new/. If you are interested in this, either to write articles for it or supplement your own chapter newsletter, please contact Fred and let him know.
Newsletter options sound like a good topic for discussion on our bulletin board too - I've added a newsletters topic in the chapter resources forum: http://www.nss.org/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=5
Arthur Smith
NSS VP for Chapters
Dear NSS Volunteer:
In case you have not heard of it, L5 News was once a publication of
the L5 Society. It dealt with space solar power, space settlements
and space manufacturing. This classic publication has been
wonderfully archived by David Brandt-Erichsen and is hosted by him online here:
www.L5news.org
I have restarted this publication and produced two issues. I was
really inspired by the original version and want to see it
continue. This will also be a free online publication hosted at
David's site. Production is not in gear yet, but I've created two
draft issues that can be seen here:
www.L5news.org/new
NSS has approved this effort and eventually this will become an
official monthly publication. I ask for articles and links. I also
seek volunteers who are interested in doing paste-up and production
tasks. I'm also open to anyone interested in being associate editors
or co-editors. I will make this publication happen, but if anyone
has more time and energy and wants to be editor, I'm also open to
that. So let everyone know: L5 News is back.
Here is a mission statement and list of subject areas for L5 News:
Why L5 News? L5 News can serve as a more technical or scholastic
journal capturing progress on space development. This publication is
part of the L5 Society heritage of NSS, and the original L5 space
colony and space solar power idea is part of the energizing
motivation for a generation of space activists that can be recaptured
to energize college students of today. L5 News will maintain a focus
on Space Colonies, Solar Power Satellites, and Planetary
Settlement. It will also have topicality to the current Vision for
Space Exploration, space tourism, Mars missions, and so on. L5 News
will also publish student studies from the NIAC and space settlement
design competitions that have been going on for years at colleges and
high schools. This will engage NSS with the energy of
activism. There are a lot of older people as well who fondly
remember L5 News, and perhaps some will rejoin NSS when they hear the
old publication is back. While the newsletter concept is a bit old
in the age of weblogs and massive space resources websites, the idea
of a monthly printable journal lends a permanence and respectability
to the subject matter.
1. Space Settlements. What are the ideas? When will we go? How?
Sources of information:
SSI
NSS
ISDC
NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts
http://www.niac.usra.edu/studies/
Space Settlement Design Contests
Historical studies: Tsiolkovsky, Cole, O'Neill
2. Planetary and Lunar Settlement. Again: What are the
ideas? When will we go? How?
National Vision for Space Exploration
Mars Society - conferences and base analogs
Return to the Moon Conferences
3. Space Solar Power.
NASA Fresh Look Study
DOE assessments
2004 SPS International Conference
Powersat Corp
http://www.powersat.com/white_papers.html
Peter Glaser
Spaceref--
"http://www.spaceref.com/directory/future_technology/solar_power_satellites/"
Space Future--
"http://www.spacefuture.com/power/power.shtml"
Outreach and publicity on the SPS concept
4. Why and Who? i.e., Philosophy and Politics
2004 SEA Moon/Mars Blitz (ready to report on what you achieve)
NSS actions
Bush Space Speech and reactions
Presidential Commission
NASA Reorganization
Space Quotes
http://www.sylviaengdahl.com/space.htm
Tsiolkovsky
O'Neill
Clarke
5. Space Tourism and Space Generation X
X-Prize
Space Tourism
Private Launch Companies
Space Hotels
State Space Ports
6. Current Events and People News
NSS Online Report - archived via L5 News
Chapter Meetings - reports on speakers and happenings
Conferences - recent, current and upcoming
Related organizations and opportunities for outreach or coordination
Non-space events where outreach would be worthwhile
General discussion--
Synergy with Ad Astra. The question arises as to how it will be
different from Ad Astra. My recommendation is to keep publishing the
paper Ad Astra which would remain the broad-based magazine that it
is. L5 News would focus on more technical and philosophical articles
plus monthly news bits much like the original L5 News. The articles
would mostly be future-oriented, just beyond or well beyond where we
actually are in space. On a spectrum, theme 1 above is closest to
pure L5 news, and 6 is closer to Ad Astra. As I view it the two
publications would co-exist with content sorted in some appropriate
way. Occasionally, articles from L5 News might be used for Ad Astra.
Fred
Posted by apsmith at 10:29 AM
October 11, 2005
Rocket Bikes Win Award
Congratulations to Tim Pickens and his daughter Sarah, for winning the Popular Mechanics Reader Award at their recent Breakthrough Awards meeting! A bigger photo of the winners and their bikes is there too. The Pickens's are members of the Huntsville Alabama L5 Society. Tim is also the guy behind Orion Propulsion, and the rocket design in his bikes also made its way into the propulsion system for Spaceship One.
The rocket bikes also showed up in the NSS booth at the X Prize Cup this past weekend, drawing quite a crowd of interested people. Hmm, maybe the start of a new business?
Posted by apsmith at 09:50 PM