Click here to visit the Kickstarter
There are any number of plans for the exploration of space out there in the marketplace of ideas. In the absence of much real-world progress, there is an inclination to plan for when there might be progress in the future. This often becomes a competition in the marketplace of ideas as agendas come into play, and some aspects of space exploration (and maybe development) are highlighted to the detriment of others as personal goals come into play.
One effort to address this was the Integrated Space Plan, which tried to take a meta approach to looking at our space efforts and determine which activities and technologies fed into what aspects of humanity’s move out into the Solar System. Which aspects of exploration and development should be highlighted? How might they connect? What can help enable what else? Where are the synergies?
There are any number of plans for the exploration of space out there in the marketplace of ideas. In the absence of much real-world progress, there is an inclination to plan for when there might be progress in the future. This often becomes a competition in the marketplace of ideas as agendas come into play, and some aspects of space exploration (and maybe development) are highlighted to the detriment of others as personal goals come into play.
One effort to address this was the Integrated Space Plan, which tried to take a meta approach to looking at our space efforts and determine which activities and technologies fed into what aspects of humanity’s move out into the Solar System. Which aspects of exploration and development should be highlighted? How might they connect? What can help enable what else? Where are the synergies?
The Integrated Space Plan (ISP) was created in the 1980s as a wall-sized poster that ended up in universities and aerospace offices across the country and around the world. Its voluminous content encouraged exploration of how different goals could be achieved, almost like the technology tree structure of many civilization-type video games. It also encouraged many systems engineers, who thrive on complexity.
Now it’s time to revisit the Integrated Space Plan for a new generation of future space explorers, and update it for the new companies, new technologies, and new ideas in regards to things like the cislunar economy, interplanetary superhighways, and relevant resources.
The Kickstarter project to update the ISP can be found on the web at:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/486671231/integrated-space-plan-envisioning-humanitys-future
With one week left to go in the campaign, Ron Jones and his team remain about $4,000 shy of their goal. With your pledge, we can help this iteration of the Integrated Space Plan include the Lunar aspects of what we need to work on to get ourselves and life itself out into the cosmos.
[Full Disclosure: Moon Society President Ken Murphy is a partner in a company invested in Integrated Space Analytics, which is running the Kickstarter campaign project.]