We should declare the moon like a national park (global park) and preserve it as is.
this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023
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An airless desert impossible to reach for and with zero impact (even indirect) on the life of for 99.999% of people, with almost as much surface are as the whole of the Americas and which is entirelly devoid of life and always will be, is the last place you need to preserve.
Ew. This sounds like massive public investment in space for massive private profits in space.
Looks like we'll be at our Expanse style dystopia sooner than expected!
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Well, if anything is going to get us there, and establish a permanent colony, it's corporate interests.
Can't wait for the first McDonald's on the moon.
Given the way our political systems works, they'll probably be selling air to workers who are pretty much slaves.
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It's like we have learnt nothing, "let's strip another celestial body of its minerals then fuck off onto the next when we have had our fill."
The difference is, there is no natural life to kill on the moon, and if it turns out to be possible, maybe even easier, to mine for necessary metals on the moon then Earth-side mining won't be necessary
So I have two questions from that.
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How much mass can we remove from the moon until we affect it's rotation around earth?
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What will the ecological impact on earth be if a dozen companies start launching rockets at the moon on a regular basis?
Mining enough to alter the orbit of the moon would require a pretty ridiculous amount of time and effort. Much more than our global mining efforts combined and multiplied and on a timescale of thousands of years.
And we only have to launch a few rockets, enough to set up a self-sufficient base which can then produce more rockets and fuel from resources on site. Not to mention it's much easier, and even feasible with existing materials, to build a space elevator on the moon.
Would it not be super cool to have all those minerals until we have extracted that much from the moon that it's orbit becomes unstable and then spirals into earth?
First, figure out how much the Moon weighs. The find out how much we mine form the Earth each year.
Second, the impact of dozens of flights a day will be much less than the impact of mining the Earth
Pollute the moon all you want, better than earth.
I think the shipping costs between earth and moon are ridiculous. Moon manufacturing only makes sense for supplying moon bases and transportation to other planets.
From Earth to the moon for sure, but once it's established, from the moon to Earth isn't as tough.
Wasn't the Moon's gravity low enough that you could basically use electromagnetic cannons to launch payloads from the surface all the way out of lunar orbit?
In the absence of an athmosphere and with only 16.6% of Earth's gravity, achieving orbit from the Moon isn't simply "not as though" as doing so from Earth, it's incredibly less so (maybe 100s of times, though I don't really have the numbers so take it with a grain) - just compare the full size (including boosters) and fuel payload of the vehicle needed to put 3 people on the Moon and those of the vehicle needed to bring them back to Earth (granted, the first vehicle had to also carry the second one, plus food, water and air for the first part of the trip).
Being at the bottom of a 1G well and having to also overcome quite a lot of air drag to get out of it massivelly adds up to the energy needed to do so, both because the whole getting out of a gravity well thing is a logarithmic progression (as you need to spend fuel to haul up the fuel that's going to be used higher u), so overcoming 6x the gravity doesn't just mean using 6x the fuel, and on top of that there are the the losses due to drag in the lower athmosphere which for example severely limit initial launch speeds (as drag is directly proportional to velocity).
If you haven't read it yet, try 'The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress,' by Robert Heinlein. It was written in the 1960s, so some of the tech is a teeny-weeny bit outdated but the story is still great.
I don't know anything about EM canons but between the moon having a relatively weak gravity well and being within Earth's gravity well, I'd think any method would be much easier to use when it comes to transport to Earth
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Ya less gravity to fight... I'm curious what the numbers look like though, it's gotta be much more expensive than bringing stuff over on a boat from China. What advantages would mining on the moon provide?
Independence from China
Why? If it is in fact cost efficient the Chinese will be there too and will do it better at lower cost.
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Come on, they can just throw stuf down from the moon…
Honestly I think a solar farm on the moon would be much better investing in at some point. I remember reading an article where a nation was experimenting with beaming energy down from orbit or some shit
I'll believe it when I see it.
Man I thought by 2023 I'd be taking my jetpack to my moon meetings not arguing over whether we should strip mine the damn place.
Brought to you by Carl’s Jr.
Why do you keep saying that?
Because fuck you, he's eating. Eating an extra big-ass fries.
'Cause they pay me every time I do. You're so smart, why don't you know that?
Do you want Morlocks? Because that's how you get Morlocks.
I can see the war for the moon coming over the horizon
We must not allow capitalism to escape this planet
What does that mean practically, how can we pursue this goal?
Hasn't this mission already failed, with SpaceX and other private space companies already doing business in orbit and reaching beyond?
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Tim Curry in shambles.
The one place yet to be corrupted by capitalism:
SBACE
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