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Jun 9, 2022

Krafft Ehricke: “Lunar Industrialization & Settlement—Birth of Polyglobal Civilization”

Posted by in categories: government, military, nuclear energy, space

During my research, preparing my next presentations, i found this beautiful speech by Krafft Ehricke, in 1984, before he passed away.

Every single word is a precious teaching, a beautiful lecture on natural philosophy.

Ehricke was discussing against the claimed “limits to growth\.


The great space visionary Krafft A. Ehricke gave this comprehensive presentation on the industrialization and settlement of the Moon at the “Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century” conference, held Oct. 29–31, 1984, at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC.

Ehricke’s accompanying paper can be found here: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/books/lunar_bases/LSBchapter12.pdf.

Full Conference Papers here: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/books/lunar_bases/

Krafft Ehricke worked at Peenemünde as a propulsion engineer from 1942 to 1945 with Walter Thiel, then went to the United States with other German rocket scientists and technicians under “Operation Paperclip” in 1947. He worked for a short time with the Von Braun Rocket Team at Huntsville.
In 1948, while working for the U.S. Army, Ehricke wrote a story about a manned mission to Mars called “Expedition Ares”. It anticipated the many challenges that still face explorers who will make the journey in the future. In the same year he wrote a book with Wernher von Braun, The Mars Project, which detailed how man could travel to Mars using a ferry system.
Upon leaving government service Ehricke worked at Bell Aircraft, and then for Convair in 1952. While at Convair, he designed the D-1 Centaur, the world’s first upper-stage-booster that used liquid hydrogen and oxygen. [1][2] He also created an early space station design, based on launch by Convair’s Atlas rocket. The NEXUS reusable rocket was a 1960s concept design by a group at General Dynamics led by Krafft Ehricke. Also, during his stay at General Dynamics, he participated on Project Orion (nuclear propulsion).
Krafft Ehricke undertook a major, multi-decade study of the industrial development of the Moon, which he described as Earth’s “seventh continent.” His lunar industrialization concept was based on the most advanced technologies, such as nuclear-powered freight transporters, and using fusion energy to power his city, Selenopolis, on the Moon.
Ehricke received a space burial on April 21, 1997, when a rocket sent a small amount of his cremated remains into Earth orbit.

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