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The Next Moon Landing Is Near, Thanks to Pioneering Engineers
61–70 of 73 posts
Re: The Next Moon Landing Is Near, Thanks to Pioneering Engineers
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
The purpose of being on the moon is having it as a massive manufacturing place for building things to move outward in the solar system. Lifting things out of the earth's gravity well is just too expensive. The cost of shipping factories (and many raw materials) in pieces from the Earth to the Moon and then assembling them there should certainly outweigh just building and launching from Earth, especially as private co…
> scarcity of any resources All we know about that is from a few bags of rocks. Nobody knows what the real situation is there, not even close. It might be like the proverbial caveman freezing to death sitting on a coal deposit.
There are also a lot of information get by various type of spectrometers in satellites. For example, you can read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Prospector#Scientific_ex...
> The Lunar Prospector GRS produced the first global measurements of gamma-ray spectra from the lunar surface, from which are derived the first "direct" measurements of the chemical composition for the entire lunar surface. This data effectively maps the distribution of various important elements across the Moon. For example, the Lunar Prospector GRS has identified several regions with high iron concentrations.
Re: The Next Moon Landing Is Near, Thanks to Pioneering Engineers
#63Or possibly first /s
Re: The Next Moon Landing Is Near, Thanks to Pioneering Engineers
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
> adds a lot of difficulty and risk That's a vast understatement. Don't forget expense and time! Orders of magnitude more. I don't think there's any realistic way of getting a sustainable base on Mars without doing it first on the moon. On the moon you can learn from mistakes. On Mars you die from the first mistake.
Mars will be a dangerous environment, but it won't be as dangerous as the moon. For example, if your Mars base is set up near the polar cap or near easily mineable permafrost, then a major atmospheric loss can be replaced by combining oxygen cracked from the ice using electrolysis and nitrogen sourced from the martian atmosphere. It is unlikely that a moonbase would have a similar option. The martian atmosphere may n…
Radiation shielding on the moon can be done by living in a crevasse.
We have yet to know what can be produced from Moon materials. A couple bags of rocks tell is pretty much nothing about the variety that may be available. After all, what would a couple bags tell you about Earth?
Re: The Next Moon Landing Is Near, Thanks to Pioneering Engineers
#65The foreseeable future for man in space is the moon, not Mars. The moon is close - orders of magnitude easier to get there and back again. Its gravity well isn't a prison. You can probably launch stuff from there to earth with a linear accelerator. It's full of natural resources that can be used to build colonies and space ships. There's no environment to degrade. Mars doesn't make any sense. The moon does. And besid…
There are advantages and disadvantages. Closeness is a big issue, I'll grant you that. Robots on the Moon's surface can get quick guidance form humans on Earth much more quickly than robots on Mars. And if something goes wrong you can get home more quickly. The gravity well difference is a thing but isn't straightforward. You need twice as much delta-v to take off from Mars as from the Moon (3800 m/s versus 1730 m/s)…
> [low gravity] human health
I'm sure it won't be good. But with a moon colony you can rotate people back to earth. Not practical with Mars.
> solar
The poles are one solution. Another is to put a large mirror in orbit to reflect power to the moon base.
Re: The Next Moon Landing Is Near, Thanks to Pioneering Engineers
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
> scarcity of any resources All we know about that is from a few bags of rocks. Nobody knows what the real situation is there, not even close. It might be like the proverbial caveman freezing to death sitting on a coal deposit.
There are also a lot of information get by various type of spectrometers in satellites. For example, you can read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Prospector#Scientific_ex... > The Lunar Prospector GRS produced the first global measurements of gamma-ray spectra from the lunar surface, from which are derived the first "direct" measurements of the chemical composition for the entire lunar surface. This data effecti…
That says nothing at all about what is under the topsoil.
Re: The Next Moon Landing Is Near, Thanks to Pioneering Engineers
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
100 percent agree. The most logical plan I heard was the following: Solar power works way better, and potentially nonstop at the poles of the moon. Use that energy to cook moonrock into building materials and lauch it all into orbit on an electromagnetic mass driver. Then design and build Oniell cylinders, once we have rigorous tests of artificial gravity on humans. If you want a Mars base after the fact, go for it.…
> The most logical plan I heard was the following: Solar power works way better, and potentially nonstop at the poles of the moon. the problem is, unless you're at the pole, you have 2 weeks of power followed by 2 weeks of pitch black darkness, so you have to have a lot of batteries or the station isn't livable 50% of the time.
Run a power cable from the pole. Put a mirror in orbit. Put a nuclear reactor on the moon (don't have to worry about safety issues, which should lighten it considerably).
Re: The Next Moon Landing Is Near, Thanks to Pioneering Engineers
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
> before we explored mars for indiginous life first! We already have. It's a liveless rock. How much more do we keep moving the goal posts and beating that dead horse?
Maybe until we explored a bit more, than a few areas on the surface? Mars is HUGE. Potential areas for life might be in vulcanic areas underground. Might not be a high chance, granted. But the chances that anything from your project survives are far lower - but it would definitely damage research on current or historic life on mars a lot.
> Maybe until we explored a bit more, than a few areas on the surface? Mars is HUGE.
That's true. But life does have a way of spreading around. And beware of constantly shifting the goal posts.
Re: The Next Moon Landing Is Near, Thanks to Pioneering Engineers
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
"we have two moon rover missions from India" How can India justify a moon mission when you can barely walk round Delhi with tripping over homeless children ?
I'm guessing that's the reason they are doing a moon mission. Have to give them hope, have to jump start the economy. Can't saw trousers for eternity, can they? Educated people will continue fleeing if nothing is done to keep them in. You cannot solve homelessness by giving out houses, jobs are the biggest help.
You cannot solve homelessness by giving out houses
https://medium.com/homes-for-the-homeless/solving-homelessne...
"If you take one thing away from this post, remember that the very best way to help the homeless, and how we can turn things around, is to provide them housing in safe areas surrounded by supportive services."
Re: The Next Moon Landing Is Near, Thanks to Pioneering Engineers
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are advantages and disadvantages. Closeness is a big issue, I'll grant you that. Robots on the Moon's surface can get quick guidance form humans on Earth much more quickly than robots on Mars. And if something goes wrong you can get home more quickly. The gravity well difference is a thing but isn't straightforward. You need twice as much delta-v to take off from Mars as from the Moon (3800 m/s versus 1730 m/s)…
> [low gravity] human health I'm sure it won't be good. But with a moon colony you can rotate people back to earth. Not practical with Mars. > solar The poles are one solution. Another is to put a large mirror in orbit to reflect power to the moon base.
Don't bother reflecting light when the moon base is in darkness, just beam down power.