Advanced Automation for Space Missions/Chapter 4.7

4.7 Conclusions and Recommendations

The Replicating Systems Concepts Team reached the following technical conclusions:

• The theoretical concept of machine duplication is well developed. There are several alternative strategies by which machine self-replication can be carried out in a practical engineering setting.
• There is also available a body of theoretical automation concepts in the realm of machine construction by machine, in machine inspection of machines, and machine repair of machines, which can be drawn upon to engineer practical machine systems capable of replication.

An engineering demonstration project can be initiated immediately, to begin with simple replication of robot assembler by robot assembler from supplied parts, and proceeding in phased steps to full reproduction of a complete machine processing or factory system by another machine processing system, supplied, ultimately, only with raw materials.

The raw materials of the lunar surface, and the materials processing techniques available in a lunar environment, are probably sufficient to support an automated lunar manufacturing facility capable of self-replication and growth.

Tentative design of a lunar manufacturing facility capable of self-replication can begin, when current knowledge and state-of-the-art technologies are employed, but final design awaits the initial results of the demonstration-development program. Significant further research in lunar materials processing and in the design and operation of automated factories, should be conducted at once.

In addition, the team considers that the replicating systems concept, if implemented, can have the following important consequences:

• It will accelerate the design and development of sophisticated automated assembly techniques useful in carrying out future NASA missions.
• It will accelerate the design and development of improved automated assembly and processing techniques applicable to the problems of achieving increased Earth-based manufacturing productivity.
• By establishing an automated, growing, selfreplicating, multipurpose, multiproduct lunar manufacturing facility, NASA capacity for space exploration and research can be enormously expanded and permanently enhanced with only modest continuing expenditures.
• The virtually cost-free expansion of mining, processing, and manufacturing capacity, once an initial investment is made in an autonomous SRS, makes possible the commercial utilization of the abundant energy and mineral resources of the Moon for the benefit of all mankind.
• The establishment of a replicating lunar manufacturing facility can be a stepping stone to the design and construction of replicating manufacturing complexes on the surfaces of other planets. These new complexes themselves may be products of automated, self-replicating manufacturing facilities located elsewhere.

Finally, the team offers the following general recommendations to NASA in furtherance of the basic objective of achieving practical self-replicating, growing machine systems in the shortest reasonable time:

1. NASA should begin immediately the development of a simple demonstration replicating system on a laboratory scale, with teleoperated to fully automated phased steps to higher levels of sophistication as the technology is proven and matures.
2. The space agency should support significant further research in lunar materials processing, lunar resource exploration, and the design and operation of automated manufacturing facilities.
3. NASA should implement the design, development, and construction of an automated, multiproduct, remotely reprogrammable lunar factory system to begin operation on the lunar surface early in the next century.
4. Studies should be conducted of scenarios in which a succession of replicating, multipurpose, multiproduct, automated, remotely reprogrammable factories could be placed in orbit or on other planets, these systems perhaps themselves products of earlier established nonterrestrial replicating facilities.
5. NASA should initiate additional studies of the social, political, military, and economic consequences of the proposed work, and of various other as yet unresolved issues and concepts (see app. 5K).

4.8 References

Albus, James A.: People's Capitalism: The Economics of the Robot Revolution. New World Books, College Park, Maryland, 1976.

Alvarez, L. W.; Alvarez, W.; Asaro, F.; and Michel, H. V.: Extraterrestrial Cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction. Science, vol. 208, 6 June 1980, pp. 1095-1108.

Arbib, Michael A.: Simple Self-Reproducing Universal Automata. Information and Control, vol. 9, 1966, pp.177-189.

Arnold, James R.; Criswell, David R.; and Waldron, Robert D.: Progress Report on Experimental Program to Develop HF Acid Leach Process for Refining Lunar Soils. Paper presented at the 5th Princeton/AIAA/SSI Conference on Space Manufacturing, 18-21 May 1981, Princeton, NJ.

Asimov, Isaac: I, Robot. Doubleday and Company, N.Y., 1950.

Banks, E. R.: Universality in Cellular Automata. Proc. of the 11th S.W.A.T., 1970, pp. 194-215.

Bejczy, Antal K.: Sensors, Controls, and Man-Machine Interface for Advanced Teleoperation. Science, vol.208, 20 June 1980, pp .1327-1335.

Bekey, Ivan; Naugle, John E.: Just Over the Horizon in Space. Astronautics and Aeronautics, vol.18, May 1980, pp. 64-76.

Bock, Edward: Space-Based Manufacturing from Lunar Derived Materials. Convair/General Dynamics Contractor Report, 1979.

Burger, J.; Brill, D.; and Machi, F.: Self-Reproducing Programs. Byte, vol. 5, June 1980.

Burhoe, Ralph Wendell: What Specifies the Values of the Man-Made Man? Zygon, vol. 6, September 1971, pp.224-246.

Burks, Arthur W.: Von Neumann's Self-Reproducing Automata. In Essays on Cellular Automata, A. W. Burks, ed., University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Illinois, 1970, pp.3-64.

Business Week, 9 June 1980.

Calder, Nigel: Spaceships of the Mind. Viking Press, New York, 1978.

Carson, Gordon B.: Production Handbook. Ronald Press Company, New York, 1959.

Cliff, Rodger A.: An Hierarchical System Architecture for Automated Design, Fabrication, and Repair. Paper presented at the 5th Princeton/AIAA/SSI Conference on Space Manufacturing, 18-21 May 1981, Princeton, NJ. (See also app.5H.)

Codd, E. F.: Cellular Automata. Academic Press, N.Y., 1968.

Donata, G.; and Camera, A.: A High Level Programming Language for a New Multi-Arm Assembly Robot. First International Conference on Assembly Automation,

Brighton, England, D.E.A. SPA, CSO, Torino, 21-27 March 1980.

Dunning, Jeremy D.; and Snyder, Robert S.: Electrophoretic Separation of Lunar Soils in a Space Manufacturing Facility. Paper presented at the 5th Princeton/ AIAA/SSI Conference on Space Manufacturing, 18-21 May 1981,Princeton,NJ.

Dyson, Freeman J.: Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation. Science, vol. 131, 1959, pp. 1667-1668.

Dyson, Freeman J.: Disturbing the Universe. Harper and Row Publishers, N.Y.,1979.

Freitas, Robert A., Jr.: A Self-Reproducing Interstellar Probe. J. of the British Interplanetary Soc., vol. 33, July 1980a, pp.251-264.

Freitas, Robert A., Jr.: Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Life, Intelligence, and Civilization in the Universe. Xenology Research Institute, 1980b. 1400 pp.

Freitas, Robert A. Jr.: Alien Sex. In Xenology, chapter 12; 1980c. 33 pp. Also Analog, vol.102, May 1982.

Freitas, Robert A., Jr.: Interstellar Probes: A New Approach to SETI. J. of the British Interplanetary Soc., vol. 33, March 1980d, pp.95-100.

Freitas, Robert A., Jr.: Xenobiology, Analog, vol. 101, 30 March 1981, pp. 30-41.

Freitas, Robert A., Jr.; Healy, T. J.; and Long, J. E.: Advanced Automation for Space Missions. Proc. of the 7th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence,24-28 August 1981, Vancouver, Canada.

Freitas, Robert A., Jr.; and Valdes, Francisco: Search for Natural or Artificial Objects Located at the Earth-Moon Libration Points. Icarus, vol. 42, June 1980, pp.442-447.

Freitas, Robert A., Jr.; and Zachary, William B.: A Selfreplicating, Growing Lunar Factory. Paper presented at the 5th Princeton/AIAA/SSI Conference on Space Manufacturing, 18-21 May 1981, Princeton, NJ.

Gardner, M.: Mathematical Games. Scientific American, vol. 224, February 1971, pp. l 12-117.

George, Frank H.: Machine Takeover. Pergamon Press, New York, 1977.

Gettlemen, K. M., ed.: Modern Machine Shop 1979 NC/CAM Guidebook,1979.

Goeller, H. E., and Weinberg, A. M.: The Age of Substitutability. Science, vol. 191, 20 February 1976, pp. 683-689.

Good, Irving John: Speculations Concerning the First Ultraintelligent Machine. Advances in Computers, vol. 6, 1965, pp. 31-88.

Hamilton, W. D.: The Genetical Theory of Social Behavior (I and II). J. Theoret. Biol., vol. 7, 1964, pp. 1-16, 17-52.

Hay, Louise: Self-Reproducing Programs. Creative Computing, vol. 6, July 1980, pp.134-136.

Heer, Ewald: Prospects for Robots in Space. Robotics Age, vol. 1,Winter 1979,pp.20-28.

Heiserman, David L.: Build Your Own Working Robot. Tab Books, Blue Ridge Summit, PA, 1976.

Hogan, James P.: The Two Faces of Tomorrow. Ballantine Books, N.Y.,1979.

IAF Conference: Robots To Produce Robots At Fujitsu. From an English-language newspaper handout at the Conference, Tokyo, 21-28 September 1980.

Ingel, L. Kh.: Gravitational Focussing. Soviet Astronomy, vol.17, 1974, p. 836.

Industrial Robots International, vol. I, no. 5, August 1980, p.2.

Jacobson, Homer: On Models of Reproduction. American Scientist, vol. 46,1958, pp.255-284.

Johnsen, Edwin G.: Man, Teleoperators, and Robots: An Optimum Team for Space Exploration. J. Spacecraft and Rockets, vol.9, July 1972, pp. 554-556.

Johnson, Richard D.; and Holbrow, Charles, eds.: Space Settlements: A Design Study. NASA SP413, 1977. 185 pp.

Kemeny, John G.: Man Viewed as a Machine. Scientific American, vol.192, 1955, pp.58-67.

Laing, Richard A.: Some Alternative Reproductive Strategies in Artificial Molecular Machines. J. Theoret. Biol., vol. 54, 1975, pp. 63-84.

Laing, Richard A.: Automation Introspection. J. Comp. System Sci., vol. 13,1976, pp. 172-183.

Laing, Richard A.: Automaton Models of Reproduction by Self-Inspection. J. Theoret. Biol., vol. 66, 1977, pp.437-456.

Laing, Richard A.: Automaton Self-Reference. Dissertation, State Univ. of New York, Binghampton, Univ. Microfilms, Ann Arbor, MI, Publication No. TSZ 78-05, 542, 1978.

Laing, Richard A.: Machines as Organisms: An Exploration of the Relevance of Recent Results. BioSystems, vol.11, 1979, pp.201-21S.

Lee, C. Y.: A Turing Machine Which Prints Its Own Code Script. Mathematical Theory of Automata. Polytechnic Press, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1963, pp.15S-164.

Martin, A. R., ed.: Project Daedalus - The Final Report on the BIS Starship Study, JBIS Supplement. Unwin Brothers Ltd., London,1978.

Matloff, Gregory L.: Utilization of O'Neill's Model I Lagrange Point Colony as an Interstellar Ark. J. of the

British Interplanetary Soc., vol. 29, December 1976, pp.775-785.

McCulloch, W. S.; and Pitts, W.: A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity. Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics, vol.5,1943, pp.115-133.

Miller, James G.: Living Systems. McGraw-Hill Book Company, N.Y., 1978.

Miller, Rene H.; and Smith, David B. S.: Extraterrestrial Processing and Manufacturing of Large Space Systems, NASACR-161293, vols.1-3, September 1979.

Minsky, M.: Toward a Remotely-Manned Energy and Production Economy. MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, A.I. Memo No.544, Boston, MA, September 1979. l9pp.

Minsky, M.: Telepresence. Omni, vol. 2, June 1980, pp.44-52.

Moore, Edward F.: Artificial Living Plants. Scientific American, vol.195, October 1956, pp.118-126.

Morowitz, Harold J.: A Model of Reproduction. American Scientist, vol. 47,1959, pp.261-263.

Myhill, J.: The Abstract Theory of Self-Reproduction. In Essays on Cellular Automata, A. W. Burks, ed., Univ. of Illinois Press, Urbana, Illinois,1970, pp. 206-218.

Numeric Control Equipment, Aviation Week and Space Technology, vol . 113,29 December 1980, p .249.

Oliver, B. N.: Proximity of Galactic Civilizations. Icarus, vol. 25, June 1975, pp.360-367.

O'Neill, Gerard K.: The Colonization of Space. Physics Today, vol.27, September 1974, pp.32-40.

O'Neill, Gerard K.: The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space. William Morrow and Co., New York,1976.

O'Neill, Gerard K.; Driggers, G.; and O'Leary, B.: New Routes to Manufacturing in Space. Astronautics and Aeronautics, vol. 18, October 1980, pp. 46-51.

Parkinson, R. C.: Project Daedalus: Propellant Acquisition Techniques. In Project Daedalus - The Final Report on the BIS Starship Study, JBIS Supplement, A. R. Martin, ed., Unwin Brothers Ltd., London, 1978, pp. S83-S89.

Penrose, L. S.: Self-Reproducing Machines. Scientific American, vol. 200, June 1959, pp. 105-114.

Phinney, W. C.; Criswell, D. R.; Drexler, E.; and Garmirian, J.: Lunar Resources and Their Utilization. In Space Based Manufacturing from Extraterrestrial Materials, Gerard K. O'Neill, ed., AIAA Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics Series, vol. 57, AIAA, New York, 1977, pp.97-123.

Preston, K., Jr.; Duff, M. J. B.; Levialdi, S.; Norgren,

Philip E.; and Toriwaki, Jun-Ichiro: Basics of Cellular Logic with Some Applications in Medical Image Processing. Proc. of the IEEE, vol. 67, May 1979, pp. 826-856. Rao, D. Bhogeswara; Choudary, U. V.; Erstfeld, T. E.;

Sagan, Carl, Chmn.: Machine Intelligence and Robotics: Report of the NASA Study Group, NASA TM-82329, March 1980.

Sagan, Carl; Drake, F. D.; Druyan, A.; Ferris, T.; Lomberg, J.; and Sagan, L. S.: Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record. Ballantine Books, N.Y., 1978.

Sandell, N. R., Jr.; Varaiya, P.; Athans, M.; and Safonov, M. G.: Survey of Decentralized Control Methods for Large Scale Systems. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, vol. AC-23, April 1978, pp. 108-128.

Smith A. R., III: Cellular Automata and Formal Languages. IEEE Conference Record of 11th Annual Symposium on Switching and Automata Theory, Santa Monica, 28-30 Oct. 1970. N.Y., IEEE, 1970, pp. 216-224.

Smith, J. Maynard: The Evolution of Sex. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1978.

Stakem, Patrick H.: Life Versus Computer Capacity. Byte, vol. 4, February 1979, p. 58.

Taneja, Vidya S.; and Walsh, Peter J.: Growth Considerations of a Self-Replicating Field Dependent on External Factors. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, vol. SMC-11, Aug. 1981, pp. 558-563.

Thatcher, James: The Construction of a Self-Describing Turing Machine. Mathematical Theory of Automata. Polytechnic Press, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1963, pp. 165-171.

Thatcher, James: Universality in the von Neumann Cellular Model. In Essays on Cellular Automata, A. W. Burks, ed., Univ. of Illinois Press, Urbana, Illinois, 1970, pp. 132-186.

Trivers, R. L.: The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism. Quart. Rev. of Biology, vol. 46, 1971, pp. 35-57.

Turing, Alan: On Computable Numbers with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem. Proc. London Math. Soc., vol. 42, 1936, pp. 230-265.

U.S. Bureau of the Census: Statistical Abstract of the United States, 98th Annual Ed., Washington, D.C., 1977

U.S. Bureau of the Census: Statistical Abstract of the United States, 99th Annual Ed., Washington, D.C., 1978.

U.S. Bureau of the Mines: Metals, Minerals, and Fuels. In Minerals Yearbook 1976, vol. I, GPO, Washington, D.C., 1978.

Valdes, Francisco; and Freitas, Robert A., Jr.: Comparison of Reproducing and Nonreproducing Starprobe Strategies for Galactic Exploration. J. British Interplanetary Soc., vol. 33, November 1980, pp. 402-408.

Vondrak, Richard R.: Creation of an Artificial Atmosphere on the Moon. In Advances in Engineering Science, vol. 3, NASA CP-2001, 13th Annual Meeting of the Society of Engineering Science, sponsored by JIAFS, Hampton, Virginia, 1-3 November 1976, pp. 1215-1223.

Vondrak, Richard R.: Environmental Impact of Space Manufacturing. In Proceedings of the Third Princeton/AIAA Conference on Space Manufacturing Facilities, Princeton, N.J., 9-12 May 1977, Paper no. 77-539.

Von Neumann, John: The General and Logical Theory of Automata. In Cerebral Mechanisms in Behavior - The Hixon Symposium, L. A. Jeffress, ed., John Wiley & Sons, N.Y., 1951, pp. 1-31. Also in Collected Works, vol. 5, pp. 288-328.

Von Neumann, John: Probabilistic Logics and the Synthesis of Reliable Organisms from Unreliable Components. In Automata Studies, C. E. Shannon, J. McCarthy, eds., Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, N.J., 1956, pp. 43-98. Also in Collected Works, vol. 5, pp. 329-378.

Von Neumann, John: Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata. Edited and completed by A. W. Burks. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Illinois, 1966.

Von Tiesenhausen, Georg; and Darbro, Wesley A.: Self-Replicating Systems - A Systems Engineering Approach. NASA TM-78304, July 1980.

Waldron, R. D.; Erstfeld, T. E.; and Criswell, D. R.: The Role of Chemical Engineering in Space Manufacturing. Chemical Engineering, vol. 86, 12 February 1979, pp. 80-94.

Wesley, J. P.: Ecophysics: The Application of Physics to . Biology. Charles C. Thomas, Publ., Springfield, Illinois, 1974.

Williams, R. J.; and Chang, Y. A.: Extraction Processes for the Production of Aluminum, Titanium, Iron, Magnesium, and Oxygen from Nonterrestrial Sources. In Space Resources and Space Settlements, J. Billingham, W. P. Gilbreath, B. O'Leary, and B. Gossett, eds., NASA SP428,1979, pp.257-274.

Williams, R. J.; McKay, D. S.; Giles, D.; and Bunch, T. E.: Mining and Beneficiation of Lunar Ores. In Space Resources and Space Settlements, J. Billingham, m W. Gilbreath, B. O'Leary, and B. Gossett, eds., NASA SP428, 1979, pp. 275-288.

Zachary, William B.: A Feasibility Study on the Fabrication of Integrated Circuits and Other Electronic Components in Space Utilizing Lunar Materials. Paper presented at the 5th Princeton/AIAA/SSI Conference on Space Manufacturing, 18-21 May 1981, Princeton, NJ.