Intrasolar/Interplanetary Travel

Shipping Lanes

I know that traffic is light now on the Earth2Mars route, but one day, I envision major traffic from settlements and planets to other locales and destinations.

There will be major routes designated by the intrasolar habitats that will become crowded (relatively speaking of course). There will be a temptation to make excessive port fees. This is good for competition where multiple settlements share similar routes, but a hub-settlements, where all routes must pass will have no competition and therefore no external natural forces dictating prices. At this juncture I hope the ground work I have laid down on previous posts help eliminate extremes, however, it is possible that the other settlements and shipping industry will need to seek injunctions against extreme costs. I will not comment on the validity of this possibility beyond pointing it out.

Nomenclature

While scientists poke about

It may be no suprise to many of you that scientists do not know what the difference is between a planet, gas giant, star, or asteroid is. I have a simple solution to the definition problem that will also play heavily into stellar colonization in the future.

1. Cosmic Dust - Dust, just like on earth usually fractions of an inch in particle size.


2. Cosmic Rubble - Particles between dust and bolder sizes (say 5 metric tons)


3. Asteroid - Any object larger than rubble whose own gravity does not force the object into a spheroid, or very close approximation.


4. Minor planet - Any spheroidal rocky object incapable of sustaining more than .5G


5. planet - Any spheroidal rocky object sustaining .5G - 2G (essentially being livable gravity)


6. Major planet - Any spheroidal rocky object sustaining greater than 2G


7. Minor Gas Planet - Any spheroidal object incapable of sustaining more than .5G at surface with no rocky core, or whose rocky core comprises less than 2% of its total mass


8. Gas Planet - Any spheroidal object sustaining .5G - 2G at surface with no rocky core, or whose rocky core comprises less than 2% of its total mass


9. Gas Giant - Any spheroidal object sustaining greater than 2G with no rocky core, or whose rocky core comprises less than 2% of its total mass


10. [Added 05/23/2006]Minor Liquid Planet - Any spheroidal object incapable of sustaining more than .5G at surface with a rocky core comprising more than 2% of its total mass and none of the surface area.


11. [Added 05/23/2006]Liquid Planet - Any spheroidal object sustaining .5G - 2G at surface with a rocky core comprising more than 2% of its total mass and none of the surface area.


12. [Added 05/23/2006]Liquid Giant - Any spheroidal object sustaining greater than 2G with a rocky core comprising more than 2% of its total mass and none of the surface area.


13. [Changed 05/23/2006]Gas Super Giant/Dwarf Star - Any spheroidal object capable of self-sustaining fusion that does not consume or involve enough mass to maintain a specific absolute brightness.


14. [Changed 05/23/2006]Star - Any spheroidal object whose fusion consumes or involves enough mass to maintain a specific absolute brightness.

Beyond this, according to currently held views, is just collections of these objects. Please comment or refine these definitions below.

Taxes and Tarriffs

Fair Use Tarriffs and Taxation

A parent goverment (the settlements or corporations which were responsible for the development of the settlement in question) may charge a tax on the settlement not to exceed the Gross Settlement Product (equivalent the the GNP) until the construction debt is paid off at a reasonable rate.

Settlements may tax their utilities in proportion to usage not to exceed 20% of a family units income. One time taxes (ie: sales tax) may be applied to purchased items and luxuries through either (but not both) tarriffs or direct-purchase taxes, again, not to exceed a combined 20% of the purchase cost as received at their port(s).

Export taxes may be assessed at no more than 20% of the settlements internal prices for goods produced. Port fees may also be assed for goods docked, but not entering the settlement and not to exceed fair use value for the docking hatch, utilities, and taxes equal to that applied to residents for utilities and services used. No port fees will be assessed on the goods themselves unless they will be stored within the settlement and will be treated according to fair use rates for the storage, utilities and services in accordance to resident rates.

Colonists Right #10

Ownership of Technologies

Any technology developed by a settlement or one of its members shall be entered into the patent system to help provide each settlement additional funds from patent usage fees, unless the developer declares it public domain for the settlement.

The settlement government may pickup one of its public domain patents or declare it fully public domain. Only the originating settlement may pick the patent up and only during the first standard earth-solar day after the declaration of public domain. It is presumed that settlements will have one of three policies on this issue: Automatically assume ownership of the public domain technology patents, assumption of patent based on application of technology, and automatically releasing to the general public domain.

Colonist Right #9

Safety Training

As part of settlement safety, each colonist must be able to quickly outfit themselves in space/pressure suits, be able to seal their location against vaccuum/contamination in case of hull/atmospheric breach, and have access to first aid tools and supplies.

Colonist Right #8

Safe Habitat Design

As part of settlement safety, each contained habitat or settlement must contain individual modules with full airlocks in case of breaches to the habitat hull or containment system. Each module must contain a minimum of 2 hatches or docking ports to enable quick removal or respositioning of damaged sections. Larger sections, such as a central hub of a station, will by definition have more hatches unless the specialized usage of the module prohibits this.

Specialized usages that may prohibit sufficient hatches from being placed on a section may include:

• engineering systems
• gymnasiums
• research facilities
• escape or shuttle pods

This is by no means to say that these facilities may not have more hatches, but that their construction may make such hatches unusable.

Colonist Right #7

Education and communication are essential needs of all people.

Any self-sufficient settlement should provide a sufficient education to prepare its citizens for the available work both in and out of their home settlements. This education must include disaster prevention and safety skills such as first aid, airlock safety, and depressurization survival skills.

Sufficient communications should include multiply redundant communications arrays including separate personal, media, corporate, and governmental systems. Each settlement will be responsible for its own Fair Communications regulations.

It is suggested that settlements have 8 communication tranceivers, at the designated

• North
• South
• 45° Lat 0° Lon
• -45° Lat 0° Lon
• 45° Lat 120° Lon
• -45° Lat 180° Lon
• 45° Lat 240° Lon
• -45° Lat 300° Lon

when possible. Any other transciever setup that provides full coverage to the settlement between all close neighboring settlements without relying on retransmission through an intervening settlement or communication system unless the connection can not be established otherwise.

It should be noted that there is no current way to produce duplex transmissions to any settlement further than a few lightseconds from sender to receiver. By the time this becomes an issue, it is hoped that research into tachyons, superstrings, or an undiscovered branch of physics will have addressed this issue.

Colonist Right #6

Clean Space/Safe Space-Lanes

Existing man-made objects off-earth will have at the time of ratification of this charter, 25 earth-solar years to be removed or made compliant with the provisions herein contained.

There exists in this category a goldmine of raw materials for use in the development of new settlements that could otherwise become a danger to any orbital facility if it does not fall to earth (with all possibility, hopefully, of disentegrating in the atmosphere).

Other useful links

Please see:

http://peaceinspace.blogs.com/space_preservation_treaty/2005/10/space_preservat.html

This page likely to change.

Colonist Rights #5

Separation of Penal system

An existing self-sufficient colony can not be converted to penal colony status. This would be a great inconvenience to the industry, agriculture, and citizens of the colony.

Penal colonies may exist as seperate, govermentally run settlements and must never be self-sufficient. It is envisioned that once a penal colony reaches self-sufficient status either the convicts will be transported to a new colony or the colony will be granted independence to be run according to this charter.

A labor intensive penal colony will be one of the following types:

1. Low Security: Maintenance and EVO-type duties


2. Medium Security: Terraforming, on-site development of new colonies


3. High Security: Trade Goods manufacturing

Expansion of this list is expected to occur as technology improves. It is advised that penal colonies be administered by a multi-governmental body to prevent violations of this charter.