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Even assuming the ice is pure water, wouldn't it be radioactive given that some molecule come from the sun and the moon is exposed to radiations with no protective atmosphere?
The more we learn, the more hospitable the universe turns out to be.
Hard disagree. Finding 'water' trapped in glass beads isn't something useful to us. Converting that to potable or even just liquid water will take far more energy than taking that water out of Earth's gravity well using conventional rockets. The universe is still a harsh, bleak, unforgiving, inhospitable, irradiated wasteland of empty nothingness. Humans need very specific temperatures, air pressures, atmospheric com…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 atmosphe…
> Reminder that the moon does not have a "dark side". This is a misnomer. It isn't. The side of the moon that cannot be seen from Earth is called the dark side of the moon. It's called that for the same reason that the Dark Ages are called dark: because we can't see them. It is true that the dark side of the moon gets just as much sunlight as the light side does.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah well then pardon my snark - of course we humans are very determined when it comes to exploiting our environment but a crude look at the figures might set your mind at rest: Moon's mass - about 0.7x10^23 kgs Global annual iron ore output - about 2.5x10^12 kgs (per [1]) One over the other - 2.8x10^10 years So on the order of a billion years to remove one percent of it. And that's assuming we develop the same kind of…
meh.. automated mining to solar panel construction & using the metal+energy to make a mass driver in a fully closed loop system. Now you'll have a exponentially increasing mining and space habitat and/or dyson swarm construction platform. I'll bet we can shred the moon clean off in under a few 100k years.
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 we are well over 75% through the window this planet can support life and are headed towards a complete extinction event with little chance of survival? Life has been here for ~4.2bn years, has another good 500-800m years left until our carbon cycles grind to a halt. "Why do we need a space station?" "To save all life on Earth" I've grown rather disenfranchised with most ecological movements (outside of the Wh…
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 atmosphe…
Also, if there is X amount of water, and ever thaw / freeze cycle loses some amount Y, can't we estimate what X was Z years ago?
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 atmosphe…
silly me, yes even better then, since in theory there should always be some amount of water vapor floating around? I just recall a weather phenomenon in Finland when the atmospheric temperature drops sufficiently that even the water vapor freezes and falls like 'stardust'. So would a big sun shield on the moon create a similar temperature drop allowing capture the ice crystals? maybe the moons gravity is insufficient.
It's only a matter of time now before we get the first craft brewery and tap room on the Moon.
Even assuming the ice is pure water, wouldn't it be radioactive given that some molecule come from the sun and the moon is exposed to radiations with no protective atmosphere?