[General] Fwd: DARPA wants to fund hackerspaces and biosphere work

[ainut at hiwaay.net]

Quoting Ethan Chew <spacefelix at gmail.com>:

> Yo,
>
>       Some more ears to the ground info on the DARPA grant of HackerSpaces
> in Space Program.  Jerrry Isdale of Maui Makers now has $500,000.00 he will
> be using to give $30,000 grants every 3 months for  "education and research
> projects that enhance humanity's survivability, on earth and in space."
>
>                   Fare Onwards & Upwards, ML256,
>                   Ethan/spacefelix
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Edward Wright <edward.v.wright at gmail.com>
> Date: Wed, May 16, 2012 at 11:49 AM
> Subject: DARPA wants to fund hackerspaces and biosphere work
> To: Robin Snelson <robin.snelson at gmail.com>, Michael Clive  
> <zeinin at gmail.com>,
> Ethan Chew <spacefelix at gmail.com>, Scott Nietfeld <snietfeld at gmail.com>,
> Gary Hudson <gary at ssi.org>
>
>
> I just got a message from Jerry Isdale, who is DARPA lead for a new
> project, Hackerspaces in Space. He wants to meet us at Maker Faire.
>
> Jerry has $500,000, which he'll be using to give $30k grants every 3 months
> for "education and research projects that enhance humanity's survivability,
> on earth and in space."
>
> The following is from the DARPA project proposal:
>
> *There are three investment areas we want to focus on in the first decade:
> education, space economy and biospheres.
> **The first area is creating new generations of makers and researchers who
> can research and implement the necessary technologies. This will be in the
> form of an open source education program, with both self-education and
> group-education components, designed to teach successive generations the
> basics of Maker/ Tinker/ Hacker thinking and encourage continual innovation
> and improvement of the program itself. We also want to inspire an interest
> in space development through providing opportunities for applied sciences
> and engineering.
> **
> **Second, investments in projects to create a viable Near-Earth space
> economy:
>
> *
>
>    - Space prospecting and mining: Focusing on automated small body
>    electronics: robotics, remote sensing, navigation.
>
>
>    - Space power station: Providing energy to the Near-Earth space
>    facilities. Solar panels, microwave power transmission
>
>
>    - Space manufacturing: Once provided with power and material, it is
>    possible to start manufacturing in space. To scale up production, research
>    into self-replicating 3D printing machines and fully automated
>    manufacturing.
>
> *
> **Finally, efforts to make it possible to live autonomously in space and
> other planets of the solar system through the creation of self-encapsulated
> biospheres with improvements in hydroponics and waste recycling.*
>