In his presentation before the aerospace community at the kennedy space center on april 15, 2010, president obama outlined a new vision for america's future in space: a scenario embracing pioneering…

In his presentation before the aerospace community at the kennedy space center on april 15, 2010, president obama outlined a new vision for america's future in space: a scenario embracing pioneering research, innovative technologies and public-private partnerships that collectively can enhance humankind's capacity to "work and learn and operate and live safely beyond the earth ... Ultimately in ways that are more sustainable." in concert with the president's vision, this proposal outlines a program to develop an infrastructure-based model for a sustainable human settlement beyond low-earth orbit (LEO). The goal is to explore options and recommend strategies for designing a long-term, self-supporting outpost on another world, prototyped through terrestrial analogs, that can advance space science, education, exploration, utilization and commerce. The model would be formulated through discussions among principal stakeholders from industry, government, universities and ngos, coordinated through a collaborative effort between the hawaii stale office of aerospace development (OAD) and the pacific international space center for exploration systems (PISCES). JIM crisafulli, director ofoad, will serve as principal investigator for this program. In addition, two CO-principal investigators will be identified at the university of hawaii to provide day-to-day management of the model development process. The infrastructure-based model will outline the scientific, technical, manpower, financial, legal and other challenges to establishing and maintaining a human settlement beyond LEO, as well as identify the educational, research, commercial, workforce training, technology innovation and other benefits to be gained through settlement development. IT also will address specific operational components and requirements for the outpost, including precursor robotics, habitat development, fuel and water, in-situ resource utilization, renewable energy, space-based communications and other critical elements. Hawaii's volcanic geography, world-renown expertise in planetary geosciences and ongoing collaboration with NASA field centers nationwide make IT an ideal site to develop analog facilities that can prototype, test and evaluate technologies and systems that could support the development of human settlements beyond LEO. In particular, PISCES, based at the university of hawaii at hilo and dedicated to supporting the exploration and settlement of space through research, education, and the development, testing and evaluation of next-generation technologies, can provide the laboratory and field environments required to develop prototype analog facilities. I deliverables under this proposal will be produced in two phases. In phase I, PISCES and OAD will develop a white paper to guide the model formulation process. They will collaborate with the NASA research park at ames research center, the NASA johnson space center, NASA headquarters, and other NASA field centers (as appropriate), and both public and private aerospace institutions nationwide to establish project teams that will research and analyze the requirements and challenges (identified above) to establishing a human settlement beyond LEO. These teams will then convene at a planning workshop to be held in hawaii in november 2010, to present their individual analyses and begin formulating the infrastructure-based settlement model. In phase 2, project teams will complete their analyses and recommendations for the model, with final recommendations submitted in a report to NASA during the second quarter of 20 11. We view this proposal as the initial step toward developing an industrial space park, based in hawaii, that would complement and reinforce the research and educational activities currently supported through PISCES toward the design, development, testing and evaluation of both innovative technologies and analog facilities that could be replicated to sustain human settlements on other WOR