Colonize the moon first: 1. plenty of solar power 2. close to earth 3. easy to launch out of its gravity well 4. lunar base technology can be iterated far more rapidly
So what about the radiation then?
That's why you build the base underground.
Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live
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Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live
#102Colonize the moon first: 1. plenty of solar power 2. close to earth 3. easy to launch out of its gravity well 4. lunar base technology can be iterated far more rapidly
Still a couple challenges though:
- some important elements (nitrogen for example) are mostly missing from the Moon, necessitating import (nicely illustrated in the Artemis novel)
- no atmosphere means any grain of interplanetary dust in collision course with the Moon impacts its surface (and possibly any astronauts on the surface) directly at high velocity
- by not having atmosphere you can't use atmospheric reentry/aerocapture/aerobraking to shed velocity like you can with a body with an atmosphere; all speed changing maneuvers need a thruster impulse or similar
- no atmosphere means serious temperature extremes; even the very thin atmosphere on Mars events the day/night temperatures quite a bit
- you need retranslation from the far side of the Moon to Earth
- only a few fine tuned orbits around the Moon are stable, all others will quickly crash any satellite orbiting on them to the lunar surface due to the uneven gravity field of the Moon caused by sub-surface mass concentrations ("mascons")
All in all Moon has a lot of benefits, even just by being close to Earth. Still a couple things to watch for though. :)
Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live
#103Let's first ensure we do all possible things as a species and a collection of communities to restabilise Earth and give ourselves a 99.5% chance of healthful survival for the next 200 years, which is probably the reasonable timeline until we can establish more or less independent non-Earth habitats that can survive without Earth indefinitely. This is like expressing the wish of wanting to run while simultaneously ign…
Because 7 billion people can only do a single thing simultaneously.
Because only one person is actually attempted to colonize space at the moment.
Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live
#104Colonize the moon first: 1. plenty of solar power 2. close to earth 3. easy to launch out of its gravity well 4. lunar base technology can be iterated far more rapidly
Colonize the top of Mt Everest first? Even closer to Earth. Similar challenged. 250,000 miles closer to resupply. Very hard, a good test of colonizing technology.
Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live
#105> The weak gravity—similar to the Moon’s—combined with the thick atmosphere would allow individuals to aviate with wings on their backs.
Sign me up.
Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live
#106Is it impractical to protect space colonizes with powerful superconducting magnets to deflect harmful radiation?
Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live
#107Let’s colonize Mercury. It’s not actually hot at the poles - it’s shaded enough from the consistent low angle to the sun that there’s even water ice. And the planet is full of useful metals (more than earth), and as much solar energy as you can handle. The article dismisses Mercury out of hand as “too hot” but I think it’s our best bet. https://www.universetoday.com/130109/how-do-we-colonize-merc...
I think it was in Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars" universe that they colonize Mercury by making an equatorial train, that's pushed along by the thermal expansion of the tracks. Always struck me as nifty, if kinda silly, when you could do the polar thing like you're suggesting.
That was in the novel 2312. Highly recommended for the scope of ideas, however far fetched they're presented well.
I'm currently struggling 200 pages into Blue Mars. Great series though (I'm struggling with it due to life getting in the way, as opposed to it becoming a grind - although there's a bit of that too, but it's three 700-odd page novels...)
Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live
#108If you can you should check out the TV series Avenue 5. It’s a sci-fi comedy and whoever they hired to do their science is really knocking it out the park. Some of the true science I’ve seen in the shown: the ship is massive enough to have its own gravity. Objects that get lost in space don’t float away. They orbit the ship. They use passenger effluent as a cosmic radiation shield. And due to an anomaly they don’t ge…
I watched the first 3-4 episodes. It was a polished show and the realistic take on science was a breath of fresh air, but it seemed like the story stopped going anywhere.
Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live
#109Let’s colonize Mercury. It’s not actually hot at the poles - it’s shaded enough from the consistent low angle to the sun that there’s even water ice. And the planet is full of useful metals (more than earth), and as much solar energy as you can handle. The article dismisses Mercury out of hand as “too hot” but I think it’s our best bet. https://www.universetoday.com/130109/how-do-we-colonize-merc...
It's devoid of volatiles though? And in a deep gravity well. I may be very expensive to leave. So it would feel a little lonely, and psychologically I think it would be scary to be so close to the Sun.
Mercury has a very low axial tilt, and substantial surface cratering. Any crater close enough to the poles is going to be in perpetual darkness, and thus very cold. Any volatiles vaporized elsewhere naturally travel until they form deposits on the very cold inner surfaces of such craters.
Based on MESSENGER radar data, the Mercury south pole probably has more water than Mars. The temperatures at most of the craters would also support CO2 ice, although our current data can't prove it's existence or rule it out. Nitrogen supply would probably be rough.
One of the interesting reasons to consider Mercury for colonization is that a colony on the inside rim of a crater would have very easy access to energy in many forms. Want natural-ish lighting? Raise a diffuse reflector on a pole. Want to melt something? Raise a mirror.
Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Stopping climate change isn't even hard, just place a large solar sail on a sun synchronous orbit to block part of the sun's energy from reaching Earth.
The ultimate weapon of imperialist terror! Why haven't we built this already?! "It's most unfortunate, and not only for your farmers, that you've chosen not to have sunlight this year... perhaps you should reconsider our demands?"