Re: SPACE: Lunar Billboard?
Michael Lorrey (retroman@tpk.net)
Sun, 29 Dec 1996 21:35:27 -0500
Sean Morgan wrote:
>
> Eugene Leitl <Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de> wrote:
>
> >I thought [lunar water] was a hypothesis, they didn't find condensate in polar
> >craters yet. One really ought model this, impact data, geometry,
> >illumination, all being available. But then, no accurate model how Luna
> >loses gases exist, afair.
>
> Yes it's a hypothesis, from radar data. Illumination is only starlight,
> since the crater shades it from the sun (don't know about reflected
> earthlight). Modeling is OK, but I would prefer to see a more direct
> confirmation ...
>
> >> linear induction accelerators for putting lunar resources into orbit,
> >
> >Yes! yes! Good, old linear motors.
>
> I can't see there being a need for a large population on the Moon. It
> doesn't take many people to load dirt into accelerator buckets. There isn't
> much worth mining, and you'll need to import a lot of raw materials (the
> water reserve isn't large, and you would still probably have to import
> nitrogen).
>
> In his L5 days, Eric Drexler wrote an essay in print that spoke to the
> asteroid vs. moon development debate in the National Space Society (I think
> it might have been in one of those Pournelle fiction/non-fiction space books
> in paperback format). It convinced me that the Moon isn't good for much, and
> that we should be planning for the near-earth asteroids instead.
>
> I've found it hard to get excited about the concept of moon colonies since
> then. It/they will look like mine sites in Northern Canada, with
> dozens/hundreds of people at most, but no long-term prospect for development.
>
> I've been to northern minesites. No matter how well set-up they are, no one
> who wants to live there. They have a heavy crew rotation schedule (in the
> case of the moon, to L5?).
Ah, but with 1/6th G, you can build HUGE domes! Imagine multiple domes,
each the size of Seattle. Just the retirement possibilities alone are
stupendous. Since old folks tend to be a bit set in their ways,
adjusting to lunar gravity would be a far bit easier than any asteroid,
while still offering the ability to operate in earthlike ways.
The big difference between lunar colonies and say northern Canadian
mines is that it will still be more expensive to shuttle people around,
and since the resources come from there, your management and support
infrastructures will be permanently assigned, so they will start it, and
as they have kids, the population will expand.
In any case, if people get pissed at seeing the moon lit up like the
Texaco Sign over Fenway Park, wait till we start projecting holograms
into earths upper atmosphere! That will be for more targeted advertizing
in local areas....
--
TANSTAAFL!!!
Michael Lorrey
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Northstar Technologies Agent Lorrey@ThePentagon.com
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http://www.tpk.net/~retroman/
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