The Race to Develop the Moon • Hacker News Board

Re: The Race to Develop the Moon

#101

Post by rtkwe » Thu, May 02, 2019, 2:22 PM UTC

all2 wrote: post #30

rtkwe wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more that it's a very sensitive process with a lot of very delicate steps that'll be hard to setup. To get it started there will be some challenges adapting the processes to the lower gravity I'm sure and if it's not being manufactured on the moon transitioning the machines to microgravity is an even larger challenge. It's also just that those are some of the lighter components so building them on earth and laun…

Part of what I was thinking of was solar panels. It makes sense (to me) to have large stuff like that manufactured on site.

Yeah ultimately they should be made on site. There's a lot of materials that go into them though that may not be procurable on the moon until there's a much larger mining and refinery operation.

Re: The Race to Develop the Moon

#102

Post by eesmith » Fri, May 03, 2019, 6:11 AM UTC

lorenzhs wrote: post #99

eesmith wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe Symmetry understands that, though the phrase '24 hours a day' should be '24 hours an Earth day' to prevent possible confusion.

I believe Symmetry edited their comment to correct it, or maybe I misread. Anyway, it's correct now.

Not that it makes a difference, but I like to investigate things.

Symmetry has made many comments about the Moon, and they are consistent with the comment made here, and in alignment with my understanding of the physics.

For examples: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8959884 says "the only viable colonization sites on the moon are the north and south poles, where you can get solar power continuously." and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14997459#15002984 "The Moon rotates once every month and Mars once every 24 hours. If you're using solar panels it's a big deal making it though the lunar night, you'll need lots of batteries, maybe 25 times the weight of your panels. ... There are the Peaks of Eternal Light on the south pole of the moon where this isn't an issue and you can just keep pointing your solar panels at different parts of the horizon all month." These were made 4 and 2 years ago, respectively.

Re: The Race to Develop the Moon

#103

Post by lorenzhs » Fri, May 03, 2019, 11:00 AM UTC

eesmith wrote: post #102

lorenzhs wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe Symmetry edited their comment to correct it, or maybe I misread. Anyway, it's correct now.

Not that it makes a difference, but I like to investigate things. Symmetry has made many comments about the Moon, and they are consistent with the comment made here, and in alignment with my understanding of the physics. For examples: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8959884 says "the only viable colonization sites on the moon are the north and south poles, where you can get solar power continuously." and https:/…

Then it must have been my error, and the correction happened in my head upon re-reading :)