>> The organisms inside have a supply of air, water and nutrients to help them grow. Challenge is with respect to maintaining temperature which swing wildly between -173C and 100C or more.
And, you know, cosmic radiation.
China's Moon mission sees first seeds sprout
151–160 of 164 posts
Re: China's Moon mission sees first seeds sprout
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
Solving just about any of our sustainability problems on earth will be easier and less work than establishing a self-sustaining colony any place else.
Learning to swim in a shallow pool is _easier_ than just getting thrown into the deep end, but it's not faster, and the learning isn't as likely to occur.
Why would colonizing the moon in a self-sufficient way be faster than doing the same thing on Antarctica or the bottom of the ocean? The only thing I can think that would make it faster is that people will romanticize space colonization so much that they will volunteer for a suicide mission.
Re: China's Moon mission sees first seeds sprout
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
He3 would be a very profitable export for the moon if we ever develop commercial fusion power on Earth
We put helium in children’s balloons and it’s down here with us at the bottom of the gravity well. It’s cheaper to refine the Earth’s helium than import it from the moon. And we have no use for Helium 3 now nor for the next 30 years. http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/08/moonshin... > Firstly, nobody's built a commercially successful fusion reactor yet. ITER plan to build a working test-bed; it's logica…
Looks like we both touched a nerve there but I’ve no idea why!
Re: China's Moon mission sees first seeds sprout
#154Re: China's Moon mission sees first seeds sprout
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's funny, I really thought that I just coined the word. I guess that rule 34 really applies!
It's more to do with dissing any -stan country by using the phrase I reckon. I think we strive to be better than that here.
I see, thanks. The term -stan just means -land, I used it to deliberately have a foreign-sounding place for "other". I now know to be more politically correct.
I'm sitting in a room with people from Uzbekistan and Kazahstan, they have absolutely no problem with the use of the term!
Re: China's Moon mission sees first seeds sprout
#156> The plants are in a sealed container on board the lander. For a moment I thought they were in the open... Since they are enclosed is there a reason why they should not sprout? The gravity is less but that should not make a difference.
Answers all my questions about the experiment https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-grows-first-plants-on-...
Re: China's Moon mission sees first seeds sprout
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
But why should you have a 100% complete industry, a colony can trade with Earth like countries trade with each other, a colony could trade some rare resources and buy high tech stuff. The main obstacle a colony will have is the initial buildings/bunker with all the life support and safety tech, plus extra redundancy and a backup plan if something bad happens there or on Earth . If the colony would manage to generate…
You can ship a 40ft container with about 25t capacity for about $2000-$5000 between any major ports on Earth, and probably for even less for bigger volumes. SpaceX BFR has about 100t capacity to Mars. While the total cost of a Mars mission has not been publicized, I suspect it would be fair bit more than $20k. Biggest container ships these days carry about 20k TEU, or about 500000 tons of cargo. You can try putting t…
>SpaceX BFR has about 100t capacity to Mars. While the total cost of a Mars mission has not been publicized, I suspect it would be fair bit more than $20k.
While we don't have SpaceX numbers, Zubrin said in 2012 that if given to NASA Mars Direct (A Mars proposal from 1990-1991, updated in 1996 in Zubrin's book The Case for Mars) would cost 30-50 billion but a private company could do it for around 5bn. That still put you at several million dollars per metric ton delivered to the Martian surface BUT that included all design and administrative costs.
You can see some of the Mars Direct figures here http://www.astronautix.com/m/marsdirect.html
We also know what SpaceX quotes 90 million dollars for 16.8 metric tons to Mars with Falcon heavy which puts us at 5.35 million dollars per ton which is already quite a bit cheaper than the most optimistic Mars Direct figures. https://www.spacex.com/about/capabilities
BFR should be able to do way better than that if it ever becomes a viable system.
Re: China's Moon mission sees first seeds sprout
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think Einstein might have something to say about that one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivalence_principle
Linear acceleration is equivalent to gravity. Spinning is not; it introduces the Coriolis psuedo-force or however you prefer to look at it, which allows it to be distinguished from gravity.
I concede the point, but counter with the fact that completely flat gravitational fields are implausible, so you could technically distinguish between linear acceleration (which has the same acceleration everywhere) and acceleration due to gravity (which doesn't, and hence generates a tide).
The effect on a stationary point sized object is equivalent in all three cases. When your object moves then the spinning artificial gravity can be distinguished. When your object is no longer point sized then both gravity and spinning fake gravity can be distinguished from linear acceleration fake gravity.
Re: China's Moon mission sees first seeds sprout
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
Linear acceleration is equivalent to gravity. Spinning is not; it introduces the Coriolis psuedo-force or however you prefer to look at it, which allows it to be distinguished from gravity.
I concede the point, but counter with the fact that completely flat gravitational fields are implausible, so you could technically distinguish between linear acceleration (which has the same acceleration everywhere) and acceleration due to gravity (which doesn't, and hence generates a tide). The effect on a stationary point sized object is equivalent in all three cases. When your object moves then the spinning artifi…
I concede you have out-pedantic'd me. :)
Re: China's Moon mission sees first seeds sprout
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pure drinking water literally falls from the sky on this planet.
*for now
When/How do you anticipate that stopping? Unless the entire planet freezes over, then you'll have even more fresh water in the form of ice. As long as it's above freezing, and 2/3 of our planet is covered in water, it will be raining somewhere.