Thanks Gary! I covered the first of Jensen’s papers a couple of years ago: https://spacesettlementprogress.com/autonomous-conversion-of-asteroids-into-rotating-space-settlements/ but missed the other two. At least I got 1 out of 3!. I appreciate the links!

Almost all food is grown NOT using the ecological approach. In a wheat field, do farmers add and manage a complex web of multiple species (predators, prey, pollinators, etc)? Of course not. They just grow plants.

Remember, the biggest challenge with Biosphere 2 was the ecological side of their project and not the garden side of their project. After they had serious problems with their ecology, they changed their garden to grow more sweet potatoes which significantly increased the caloric intake of the crew. So, why unnecessarily complicate matters?

The Prototype Lunar Greenhouse project at the University of Arizona just uses the straightforward greenhouse approach which is far, far smaller and far, far less costly than Biosphere 2 and yet they are look at providing for all of the nutritional and life support needs of the crew while requiring far less maintenance than managing a facility as large as Biosphere 2 for the same number of crew.

I was always uncertain about how Sowers would seal the edges of his cover and then move it again. In this Americium rover, the seal is small and incorporated within the rover. So, it’s a simple matter of dropping and lifting the seal.

Thanks for finding and sharing this concept.

So, I foresee the high energy processes as being done at the poles and the resulting product transported to more equatorial bases / settlements using self-driving vehicles.

Thanks Gregory. Your point is well taken, however, I was not looking for the economic system that would be adopted on the frontier. Rather, I was looking more for the philosophical reasons why we want to settle space . BTW, I did answer your question though on The Space Show as David Livingston saw your comment here and read it on the air. If you have not listened to the show, you can access the archived episode here: https://www.thespaceshow.com/show/15-oct-2023/broadcast-4103-john-jossy.

Regarding the Metrocirsus, I’ve covered similar concepts previously. Check out Gregory Dorais’ artificial gravity facility https://spacesettlementprogress.com/artificial-gravity-space-settlement-ground-analog/ and Kent Nebergall’s duel centrifuge concept in his Mars-based Eureka Space Settlement https://spacesettlementprogress.com/creating-a-space-settlement-cambrian-explosion-interview-with-kent-nebergall/