Peace on Earth, Peace off Earth, Peace with Earth
The Space Peace Star Mission
The mission is three-fold:
1.) to become a communication vehicle for global solidarity in the cause of peace and tolerance at a time when geopolitical tensions signal there is a serious threat to human civilization.
2.) to symbolically connect - through its development - the promise of space development with the future well-being of humanity through an awareness of the Space Option – a concept that has been under development for more than 25 years by the project’s authors.
3.) to allow the public to become directly involved in a global initiative that opposes the forces of militarization and repression.
The message that is embedded in the project and which will be communicated to a global audience is:
Peace on Earth, Peace off Earth, Peace with Earth
This message connects the promise of space development with hopes and aspirations of the world population in an effort to move beyond war and into space. It also connects the ecological and environmental benefits that space development promises when addressing these critical concerns. In addition to its symbolic form representing the astronomical symbol of the Earth, this message will be integrated into the spacecraft development in various ways including an electronic archive of messages from the public, video of the deployment in the space environment, through the Internet and via ground activities with a high public awareness potential which may begin in the early developmental phases of the project.
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In addition to the above main objectives, the Space Peace Star will also be example of an Alternative Space Program - where private citizens and not only their governments have access to space and to space technologies.
Technologically, the Space Peace Star will serve as an orbital demonstration for large space structures' technology, possibly utilizing membrane concepts (“gossamer structures”). Such a technology development was undertaken in the past under an European Space Agency technology program for Inflatable Space Rigidized Structures (ISRS) which began in the 1980’s and primarily carried out by the Swiss space company Contraves AG (today part of RUAG Aerospace).
Worldwide, numerous technical studies have continued the subsequent development of this technology currently referred to as Chemically Rigidized Expandable Structures (CRES).
As such, the orbital Space Peace Star mission would also contribute as:
- a demonstration of the installation of an expandable structure in orbit, given that still a very limited number of items in the envisaged size range have actually flown in space – and even fewer have reached this level of complexity;
- as a minimal basis the deployment of the Space Peace Star would demonstrate the release of the container for a toroidal structure, deployment, pressurization and cure of the torus, as well as venting of torus;
- and provide additional technical and scientific measurements, in line with the open philosophy of the mission.
Because of the limited technical aims, lifetime in Earth orbit would be restricted to one year, allowing the implementation of a low-cost lightsat philosophy. The mission will use spacecraft bus elements of conventional technology.
For a background information and previous expereince.
The O.U.R.S. and OUR-SPS projects
For more information and a list of references and related contracts about Chemically Rigidized Expandable Structures involving the authors please see:
Chemically Rigidized Expandable Structures
Inflatable Technologies for Sculpture in Earth Orbit
Inflatable structure technologies & arts in space : A synopsis
