Laurinda Bellinger, an engineer working at Blue Origin, a leading aerospace company located in Bellevue, led the students of Highline in a seminar about the predictions of aerospace in the future, including what various industries would appear and continue to grow. 

Bellinger came prepared with stunning and informative visuals, comprehensive explanations, and examples, and allowed for an extensive Q&A at the end of the lecture. Students were able to chat and learn further about their areas of interest.

Bellinger discussed the challenges of space exploration, the possibilities of establishing space colonies, and the effort of mining on other planets. First establishing understanding of the basics to the seminar topic.

“The whole point of getting to outer space is to use the resources on those planets instead of using those resources here on Earth,” said Bellinger. “If we can mine aluminum on Mars, titanim, aluminum, iron… we don’t need to mine the Earth, and we can make the Earth more of a garden-like state and just mine the resources of our galaxy.”

Bellinger, who holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in mechanical engineering, states, “When I majored in engineering, space was always the goal, because of Star Trek.”

She explained the physics involved with both aircraft and space vehicles, including four forces of physics: weight, drag, thrust, and lift.

She elaborated, “You’re going to have weight – that’s the weight of the vehicle. And you’re also going to have drag. And your thrusts need to overcome both the weight and drag of the vehicle, so it can break into the atmosphere and get past the Karmen line.”

Once the basics of aerospace was explained to the audience, Bellinger brought the students into an important topic of challenges to consider and overcome when creating space colonies.

“I think the next big thing in space is not going to be the cool architecture, [it is] how are we going to power our colonies? How are we going to handle trash and recyclability?  [These are] going to be very important,” said Bellinger as she introduced the various challenges of living in outer space.

These challenges included: space radiation, physical issues from living in a lack of gravity, high maintenance waste management, and generating enough energy and power. There is also a concern on the mental faculties required to colonise other planets. It’s no easy task, and the stress associated could lead to diminished health. 

Space radiation, lack of gravity, and mental stress

Bellinger explained space radiation to be the highest on the list of challenges because, “Our atmosphere protects us from the UV rays of the sun, if you’re outside of that you absorb a lot of radiation.” 

A danger to be very cautious of as high exposure to ultraviolet radiation over many years can cause skin cancer and permanently damage eyesight. The clouds in our atmosphere reflect a majority of the sunlight, or shortwave radiation, back into space, protecting us from the brunt of it.

Lack of gravity is the second highest on the list due to the human body being naturally designed to function on a planet with some gravitational pull. Outer space has no gravity, a vastly different gravitational environment compared to Earth’s 9.8 meters per a second squared gravitational pull. Astronauts who spend extended periods in low to zero gravity experience weakened bones and muscles upon their return. 

Not to be overlooked, the mental fortitude necessary to overcome the extreme mental stress prolonged space travel would impose. The mental stress of being inside small confined spaces is a very present deterrent to living in outer space, which is not hard to imagine if one has been on a 6-12 hour plane flight. 

Stress naturally increases both heart rate and blood pressure, and the prolonged effect of these heightened symptoms has led to early cardiovascular fatalities. 

Space trash

One issue that often slips under the radar would be waste management. Bellinger considered this issue a challenge not just in space expansion but in the physical industry of space travel.

“There are no trash pickup days on the moon,” Bellinger reminded the audience. “There is no trash pickup on the international space station. Everything is recycled. If they do have trash and they do bring on trash, right? But you can’t generate the amount of trash that we generate in our day to day lives.” 

“This is a big one,” she added. “There have been citizen science contests through NASA, even at work, we had different contests amongst the employees on how to deal with trash in space.’’

Bellinger explains the reason why various aerospace industries regard waste management with high importance: “One little pea-size piece of trash can impact the space station and cause decompression, that’s a fear that [astronauts] have.” 

To avoid decompression of operating spacecraft, or even worse a series of collisions from random pieces of trash debris in outer space, an area of orbit is dedicated far away from the spacecraft. 

She states, “There’s a graveyard orbit that is, away from the earth and any launch vehicle either has to break up on re-entry or get pushed out to the graveyard orbit, so vehicle or satellite, at the end of life, because they don’t want more junk up in space.” 

On one of the slides, Bellinger shows a model created by The European Space agency, of all the tracked trash (bigger than 1 millimeter) and where it’s orbiting in outer space. 

Long-term energy needs 

Today, most spacecraft use solar power to function while in orbit. To get to that point, rocket fuel is manufactured at an immense cost. But to maintain constant power on a different planet, with no possibility for a hydroelectric dam or windmill-powered generators, there’s very limited options for long-term energy. 

Bellinger lists multiple forms of energy generation that will be likely to be used according to different planet conditions – including Kinetic energy from humans exercising, and more limited usage due to rarer weather conditions, solar and wind energy. 

For the most widely used form of energy source in outer space, she predicts “an RTG radioisotope thermoelectric generator and nuclear power is probably one of the biggest ways we’re going to power any kind of colony.” 

Radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG) creates electricity for spacecraft using the drastic temperature difference between the sizzling hot radioactive decay of plutonium-238 and the natural cold environment of outer space. Requiring no moving parts to be used for generating energy.

Looking toward the future of the industry

The further humanity gets into space exploration, the further other industries are expected to grow with it. Bellinger went on to present the various careers along with industries in space that already exist and will continue to develop. Bellinger discusses in detail why these job fields will continue to grow. 

Food engineering, a field where scientists modify chemicals to create or enhance existing food, is expected to play a large role in proper nutrition in space. Protecting resources from radiation, ensuring there’s little food waste, and that, at the end of the day, the food is palatable. 

Bellinger said, “Humans [working in space] is dangerous, which is why there are a lot of robots on Mars right now. So robotics that can be controlled from Earth is going to continue to grow.”

Bellinger proposes another industry to see high growth in: space transportation. “I think there’s going to be interplanetary delivery systems. Once you drill it on these planets, how do you get it back to Earth so we can use it and consume it? So those are areas that are being researched now: mining and delivery systems.”

Bellinger also summarized the current goal for technological improvements in various space industries (including Blue Origin and SpaceX) in the field of spacecraft transportation.

If industries are able to achieve the goal of reusable boosters or rockets, then the generation rate of leaving behind spacecraft junk in outer space would decrease significantly. Reducing the rate of risk for spacecraft decompression and saving industries money in the long run. 

Space exploration would not only grow as an industry itself, but would lead to growth in food production, textile/fashion industries, architecture, manufacturing, and even tourism. Prada recently partnered with Axiom Space on a new spacesuit design. 

The Aerospace Medical Association, originally created to study the physiological effects of flying in a plane, have expanded into microgravity effects. Their website states,“Through the efforts of the AsMA members, safety in flight and man’s overall adaptation to adverse environments have been more nearly achieved.”

Bellinger said in conclusion, “Always look to the scientists despite what politics say – look to the scientists. As long as there’s collaboration amongst the scientists we’re in good shape.”

The future of space exploration can be uncertain and perhaps turbulent, but maintaining peaceful relations between space programs as advancements continue to grow will ensure a much more stable outcome – perhaps bring humans into a future where space travel is much more common than it is today. Although, only time will truly tell.