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Vast new stores of water reported on the moon

spectrum.ieee.org

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Re: Vast new stores of water reported on the moon

#51

Post by mgolawala »

jiggawatts wrote: post #25
gnarbarian wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

prison mining colony. but seriously, it could be used as a manufacturing and industrial hub for deep space operations like asteroid mining. think about it like this. if we can manufacture things on the moon we can launch things for almost nothing into both earth orbit and the outer solar system due to how the orbital mechanics work. this means we can build a million probes and send them all over the solar system, man…

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”

Re: Vast new stores of water reported on the moon

#52

Post by eyelidlessness »

hulitu wrote: post #37
32gbsd wrote: post #2

Moonbase when?

When they find oil, or cobalt, or rare earths. We have enough water on earth, we don't need the one on the moon. /s You might remember, Columbus did not go to America for a vacation.

Slavery and bloodsport, but neither will be found on the moon so your point stands.

Re: Vast new stores of water reported on the moon

#54

Post by TaylorAlexander »

whitehexagon wrote: post #48

I wonder if there are locations along the dark side / light side border, where some of this water boils off during the 'daytime' heat, and then freezes again during darkness, and is just sitting on the surface as a fine layer of frozen crystals? I know there in very little atmosphere, but maybe just enough to hold a little water vapor? Maybe over time this would allow more accumulation in permanently shaded parts of…

Reminder that the moon does not have a "dark side". This is a misnomer. The back of the moon gets the same amount of sunlight as the front. Unless you mean the side which is not presently illuminated. Water could freeze there but it would boil off again when the sun lights it up again.

However there are craters at the poles that never experience sunlight, and water does accumulate in them. You don't need any atmosphere to hold water vapor - the water vapor itself is held in the moon's gravity well and floats around until it cools somewhere, such as these craters.

Re: Vast new stores of water reported on the moon

#55

Post by TaylorAlexander »

32gbsd wrote: 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!

Re: Vast new stores of water reported on the moon

#57

Post by someweirdperson »

q7xvh97o2pDhNrh wrote: post #35
jiggawatts wrote: post #25

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?” …

You know, they used to say the same thing about big mountains, right? Here's a slightly older take on it from that era: """ People ask me, 'What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?' and my answer must at once be, 'It is of no use.' There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behaviour of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our obser…

> """[...] What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. [...]""" (That's from George Mallory, for the curious.)

For many who are climbing the highest mountains that sheer joy turns into literal end if life. Wikipedia is trying to collect a list of them [0].

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_died_clim...

Re: Vast new stores of water reported on the moon

#59

Post by jiggawatts »

q7xvh97o2pDhNrh wrote: post #35
jiggawatts wrote: post #25

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?” …

You know, they used to say the same thing about big mountains, right? Here's a slightly older take on it from that era: """ People ask me, 'What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?' and my answer must at once be, 'It is of no use.' There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behaviour of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our obser…

There's adventure you fund yourself, and then there's adventure that taxpayers fund to the tune of several trillion dollars.
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