I constantly hear about how the moon has water in a crater on its south pole. This gives me an idea of building a base in the north pole.
The moon, unlike the Earth, is not tilted. The poles of the moon have perpetual sunlight...except that the south pole is a crater that lives in perpetual shadow. Hence the water. (With no atmosphere, the moon is burning hot where the sun shines and freezing cold where it doesn't. Ice remains in the shadows.) So my idea is to build a huge megastructure on the north pole (especially if there is a crater there), topped with a giant geodesic dome made of Plexiglas. I imagine this structure being many cubic kilometers in size, at least the size of Rhode Island. In the geodesic dome, there will be a park and a farm. Below, a living area and a laboratory and a huge storage area, and some sort of airlocked shaft to the lunar surface for resupplying.
I imagine the lab being used for fusion research, as the lunar surface is covered with helium, and the farm growing the food that the fusion scientists would eat. Also, it would grow tobacco. Why? Interesting reason for that.
On our third trip to the moon, one of the astronauts was a major conservationist and brought a collection of seeds with him. When he came back, these seeds were quite popular with people who desired the novelty of a "moon tree." There is nothing odd about the trees other than the fact that as seeds they were once on the moon. (This has not changed them in any perceivable way.) If people like "moon trees," I'll bet they'd go absolutely gaga for "moon tobacco." Now you can smoke something...that grew in the perpetual sunlight at the lunar pole. Holy crap!
One other project to develop would be to send astronauts to the far side and have them construct a telescope there. Communication wires would then be installed to link it to the moon base, and then to Earth-based radio link. This would be an excellent vantage point to observe the universe, and I imagine a major jockeying of astronomers for a share of time to use it. (Only really useful when the moon is full, and the telescope not facing the sun, unfortunately.)
Showing posts with label Huge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Huge. Show all posts
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Friday, June 20, 2008
Space Elevator
Many organizations would like to build an elevator to space. Such a structure would reduce the cost of space travel by a factor of 100. (It costs $10,000/kg now, this would reduce the cost to $100/kg.) Having done so, we humans could afford many more space missions including colonization missions.
To built it, we would orbit a large rock around the equator, and build a base directly under it. The rock would have a geosynchronous orbit in which the location it hovered over remains constant. Then, from both directions, cable would be built until connecting at the middle.
A strong enough cable could hoist things up and down for cheap. (Elevators take very little energy if a counterweight system is involved.)
A big problem is the necessary tensile strength. Most conventional materials would rip themselves in half under the strain. Plus, most things that we humans want to send into space are quite heavy. Voyager 2 weighs around 700 kg. A 70kg human would need a 40kg space suit (with air and so on) to survive. They will also need extensive thrusters to reach their destination in space. And the elevator will likely weigh in excess of 300kg all by itself.
In the unlikely event that the ribbon broke, under excessive strain, or by having a plane fly into it, the part of the ribbon nearest the bottom would fall eastward. Since this would have to be built at the equator, and most of the equator is ocean not claimed by any nation, the best place to build this would be in the middle of the pacific ocean. That way, even the highest flying plane crashing into it would only affect the bottommost part of the ribbon, which would fall into the ocean, scaring the hell out of any passing fish, but not harming any humans, buildings, or complex animals. The part above where the ribbon broke would be slowly ejected into space, with any cargo still attached. Seeing as that's where passengers on the elevator would want to go in the first place, no big loss. Should the elevator detach while trying to LOWER a passenger back to earth, the cargo can be detached from the ribbon and splash down in the ocean, where the earth's gravity will pull it.
To built it, we would orbit a large rock around the equator, and build a base directly under it. The rock would have a geosynchronous orbit in which the location it hovered over remains constant. Then, from both directions, cable would be built until connecting at the middle.
A strong enough cable could hoist things up and down for cheap. (Elevators take very little energy if a counterweight system is involved.)
A big problem is the necessary tensile strength. Most conventional materials would rip themselves in half under the strain. Plus, most things that we humans want to send into space are quite heavy. Voyager 2 weighs around 700 kg. A 70kg human would need a 40kg space suit (with air and so on) to survive. They will also need extensive thrusters to reach their destination in space. And the elevator will likely weigh in excess of 300kg all by itself.
In the unlikely event that the ribbon broke, under excessive strain, or by having a plane fly into it, the part of the ribbon nearest the bottom would fall eastward. Since this would have to be built at the equator, and most of the equator is ocean not claimed by any nation, the best place to build this would be in the middle of the pacific ocean. That way, even the highest flying plane crashing into it would only affect the bottommost part of the ribbon, which would fall into the ocean, scaring the hell out of any passing fish, but not harming any humans, buildings, or complex animals. The part above where the ribbon broke would be slowly ejected into space, with any cargo still attached. Seeing as that's where passengers on the elevator would want to go in the first place, no big loss. Should the elevator detach while trying to LOWER a passenger back to earth, the cargo can be detached from the ribbon and splash down in the ocean, where the earth's gravity will pull it.
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