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Hotel on the Moon
pythorlh writes: "This site has plans submitted for a hotel on the moon. Interesting solution to the various engineering challenges. Also, Astronomy Picture of the Day has an artists concept." It's an insane cantilevered design that couldn't be built in full-gravity. I look forward to the day when "Low-Gravity Architectonics" is a required course for your B.Arch.
Not this century, it won't.
May I remind you of the state of the art in computers, electronics, aviation and space technology just one century ago?
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Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
If you compare a cross-section of the proposed lunar hotel, you'll see there is nothing to boast about when you compare it to the Montréal Olympic Stadium, which is over 50 stories high, and built in one full G... (Here is another picture taken from 6 km away).
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Knowledge is, in every country, the surest basis of public happiness.
Am I the only one that thinks the designer went to the Quake Arena School of Architectural Design?
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
> couldn't be built in full-gravity
Ok i'll bite. This seems entirely wrong.
To acheive equilibrium, there must be equal torques around the pivot... now give that both sides of the pivot are subject to the same gravitational force (both sides are on the moon, not one on the moon, one on earth), there is no reason why if this is indeed sustainable at any gravitational force, that it wouldn't be at full force.
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"Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong." --Dennis Miller
Seem to me that the search for lunar water would be the key to everything else. Once you have a secure (on the lunar surface - hence cheap) water source you can expand into all these other ideas. But until that is done, you are going to make slow and extremely expensive progress on everything else lunar related.
It's a cute design. Maybe it'll inspire some two-bit amateur sci-fi writer somewhere. Will it ever be built on the moon? Not this century, it won't.
Yeesh.
Got Rhinos?
This "design" is about as useful as a Microsoft operating system on a computer with bad ram ;) They didn't even touch on the critical issues at all, they just made a fanciful design and said, "here you are!"
;) We're talking automated mining, automated melting/refining, and automated molding. A milling machine would be useful, so they can adapt when something goes wrong by making a new part (it'd take days to get something from earth). Of course, these machines would need to be shipped up, too :) Construction equiptment would probably be best manned, as we still have a lot of trouble with computers percieving 3d spacial phenominae. Howeverm the construction of all of these devices (mostly AI research) would have immediate application here on Earth, as well, and thus, NASA (and other organizations) can help pay for their work.
Some realities:
The cost for even maintaining such a facility would be unbelievably staggering. Moving things off of earth is incredibly expensive. Moving an estimage of a few hundred tons of steel, glass, plastic, concrete, all sorts of things, is ludicrous. Then, transferring up all food, oxygen, water, new people, taking off old people, etc, the numbers just keep growing.
The reality of the situation, is that you need a self-supporting colony before you can design a "hotel".
First off, before you can do much of anything, you need a power source. On most thin or no-atmosphere planets and moons, this is best accomplished by solar power - not solar panels, by far - but by a field of (cheap) steel reflector dishes that track the sun and focus its light onto a single point. What you then have is an excelent temperature differential (between that point and the rock; on earth, power stations such as these use the air more often). Only the motors/control systems and the generator itself would need to be shipped from earth; the dishes are simple enough to make locally using temporary power (nuclear or other).
Temporary power would, at first, control mining and component construction. Molds would undoubtably be shipped from earth. Equiptment would need to be mostly or completely automated - keeping a huge construction team of humans alive, away from earth, is expensive
Construction itself has all sorts of hurdles. In addition to the numerous problems you'll see just from basic spacewalk-repairs, you'll also have the blanket of lunar sand to deal with, the need to construct completely air-tight structures away from earth, etc. The easiest way would be if you could mold mostly-complete structures and link them together via tunnels - but, then, you have a low cap on your room size. Even worse, on a body as low-G as the moon, you would definitely want artificial gravity, and thus need to have a base that can spin, if you plan on anyone staying there for a reasonable amount of time (and you will - maintaining a micro-society would require a lot of local personelle, from repairs, to expansions, to running equiptment, etc.)
What sort of equiptment will you need to keep running? O2 generators. Water generators. Water recyclers. Food-related equiptment - a gigantic hydroponic greenhouse, its related heating, harvesting, water-filtering, air-regulation, etc, equiptment - food processing equiptment, etc. Heating and air filtering/balance maintinence for the personelle (many elements to keep the air having the proper distribution for a long period of time). Power generation, mining, and processing equiptment. All of the interconnections (pipes, cables, etc). Communications and computer equiptment. Radio communications. All the equiptment used in daily life. Etc.
Only once you have a stable environment could it ever be economically feasable.
-= rei =-
"Well, then fire it up and show me what this..." (sigh)
... building deparment wants for permit and inspection fees?
Will their be much point of installing vibratting beds in a hotel on the moon? What are the hotels going to do for extra revenue then? Kinda a long way to run spank cable....
Papa Legba come and open the gate
The catch on why only a selected few can even enter space is due to our reliance on primitive chemical based rockets. How are people going to get into the hotel?
Or even how are they going to get the tools to the site to even began to construct the hotel?
Rockets are dangerous, need to be manned by highly qualified astronaunts, and extremely expensive.
I liked an older slashdot story which talked about a huge space elevator or stairway structure into space. From there, their would be less gravity and air friction, so the escape velocity would be alot less. It may even be possible (don't have a physiscs degree)to have a high speed rocket powered vehicle to meet the escape velocity requirements without special large rocket boosters like our current spaceshuttles. THe vehicle would resemble more of a concord jet then a space shuttle. We can carry large amounts of people into space from the elevator. Its the launchpad problem that we are dealing with.
http://saveie6.com/
Quoting (a little bit out of order, but it helps me make an interesting point):
Now, the low-G environment would benefit geriatrics and people with other problems as well.
These folk can't guard themselves with their arms like most folk, and many are severely osteoporotic. In short, you drop 'em, they break. Literally.
So how exactly, if they're so fragile, are we gonna send them up there? Last time I checked, getting up to orbit was highly strenous for the astronauts. We're talking big G's here.
I understand your point, and i think you're right about taking care of them in low-G ambients, but until we get smoother rides up to orbit, I think it's a moot point.
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I
Learning to fly, Pink Floyd.
Cause if the lens flare on the moon is that horrible I'm staying home.
alien1: Hey baby
alien2: Awww I've missed you sooooo much!
alien3: oh for goodness sake, GET A ROOM!
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