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Vast new stores of water reported on the moon

spectrum.ieee.org

101–110 of 189 posts

Re: Vast new stores of water reported on the moon

#101
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not like pristine snow at all, but like dusty asphalt(it really does have such color) constantly churned by meteoric impacts. It's possible however, that we avoid using such a hostile environment to a bare minimum and stay and mine underground instead. I can see Mars landscape as beautiful and worth preserving, but drawing the line there.

The regolith is replete with embedded elements from the solar wind and micrometeorites etc. Most in situ resource extraction would be surface strip mining. But the percentage of the surface needed would be small. Both the moon and mars having no oceans have vast surface areas. A totally exploitive approach would only touch such an infinitesimal tiny portion of the area it’s hard to imagine conservation is a top prior…

Parent was concerned about spoiling pristine regolith by footprints and tracks.

Anyway, multiply the mine areas several times, it's unlikely the raw regolith will be exported. Processing will need solar power plants and radiators to dump waste heat (can't dump it into atmosphere as we're used to).

Re: Vast new stores of water reported on the moon

#102

It's only a matter of time now before we get the first craft brewery and tap room on the Moon.

The radiation level exposure on the Moon is estimated to be around 60 microsieverts every hour [1], while the limit of amount of radiation received by the general public in a year is set to 1'000 microsieverts (1 millisievert) [2].

It would then be necessary to be achieved the regenerative medicine in the first place, with a major revolution in radiation shielding technology.

Unfortunately does not appear to be on the verge of being a reality (in short term?), if one look with cold eyes the current state of medicine is amputation.

[1] https://www.supercluster.com/editorial/the-threat-of-space-r...

[2] https://www.jaea.go.jp/english/jishin/kaisetsu01.pdf

Re: Vast new stores of water reported on the moon

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turtles all the way down. “Why do we need a space station?” “As practice for getting to the Moon!” “What can we do on the Moon?” “Build spaceships for getting to the asteroid belt!” “Why do we need to get to the asteroid belt?” “So we can make components for the Mars colonies!” “Why do we need a Mars colony?” …

“Because our population exceeds the carrying capacity of the planet, and if it does not do so already, will likely do so in the future, and if it does not do so in the future, it is still a good idea to have a backup plan for our descendants in case we manage to wreck this planet some how. Having a plan B just makes sense doesn’t it? Bet you the dinosaurs wished they had one”

It’s doesn’t, though. Per capita consumption varies. It’s more that a minority of our population vastly over-consumes. That problem would exist on another planet too.

Re: Vast new stores of water reported on the moon

#104
post #2

Moonbase when?

Well SpaceX is very close to launching the big rocket, which if successful will totally change the economics of space exploration and settlement. Current launch date is no earlier than April 17th, which is quite soon!

I’m sure Elon really wants the big rocket to go on 4/20 if at all possible.

Re: Vast new stores of water reported on the moon

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Because our population exceeds the carrying capacity of the planet, and if it does not do so already, will likely do so in the future, and if it does not do so in the future, it is still a good idea to have a backup plan for our descendants in case we manage to wreck this planet some how. Having a plan B just makes sense doesn’t it? Bet you the dinosaurs wished they had one”

It’s doesn’t, though. Per capita consumption varies. It’s more that a minority of our population vastly over-consumes. That problem would exist on another planet too.

Problem is, many would like to live just as this tiny minority.

Re: Vast new stores of water reported on the moon

#106
post #102

It's only a matter of time now before we get the first craft brewery and tap room on the Moon.

The radiation level exposure on the Moon is estimated to be around 60 microsieverts every hour [1], while the limit of amount of radiation received by the general public in a year is set to 1'000 microsieverts (1 millisievert) [2]. It would then be necessary to be achieved the regenerative medicine in the first place, with a major revolution in radiation shielding technology. Unfortunately does not appear to be on th…

If water is plentiful and accessible, that could be used as shielding, no?

Re: Vast new stores of water reported on the moon

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s doesn’t, though. Per capita consumption varies. It’s more that a minority of our population vastly over-consumes. That problem would exist on another planet too.

Problem is, many would like to live just as this tiny minority.

That can be changed far more easily than which planet we live on.

Arguably most people are forced to under-consume, but they’d be happy far below the most conspicuous of over-consumption now happening.

Re: Vast new stores of water reported on the moon

#108
post #67

It's only a matter of time now before we get the first craft brewery and tap room on the Moon.

I am still waiting on them to put casks on a space ship, put it in orbit, and ship it back to Earth, like Linie Aquavit crossing the equator twice.[0] Space Aquavit (or Rumakvavit, if you will) will surely be a thing. [0] https://linie.com/products/linie-aquavit-original/

Already a thing: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56992086

Re: Vast new stores of water reported on the moon

#109
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The regolith is replete with embedded elements from the solar wind and micrometeorites etc. Most in situ resource extraction would be surface strip mining. But the percentage of the surface needed would be small. Both the moon and mars having no oceans have vast surface areas. A totally exploitive approach would only touch such an infinitesimal tiny portion of the area it’s hard to imagine conservation is a top prior…

Parent was concerned about spoiling pristine regolith by footprints and tracks. Anyway, multiply the mine areas several times, it's unlikely the raw regolith will be exported. Processing will need solar power plants and radiators to dump waste heat (can't dump it into atmosphere as we're used to).

You could conduct the heat via heat pipes into the crust. The lunar basalt has decent thermal conductivity. Using something like mercury or alcohols (which have a low freezing point, and have ok phase change temperatures), or something more exotic you should be pretty ok. Radiators are mostly useful off a surface that can act like a heat sink, especially one as cold as the moon.

Re: Vast new stores of water reported on the moon

#110
post #99

It's only a matter of time now before we get the first craft brewery and tap room on the Moon.

I wonder how tall the foam would go in 1/6th g.

Look, we’ve told you a thousand times, we are not sending a keg of beer on your Artemis mission. Now get back to studying, it’s a long day today.
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