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Simulation Using LRO Data Shows More Locations With Ice on the Moon
ananyo writes "Water ice on the Moon may be more widespread than previously thought. Permanent shadows have been spotted far from the lunar poles, expanding the number of sites that would be good candidates for exploration by robotic rovers — or even for the locations of lunar bases."
but they don't know for sure.
Radar instruments on orbiting spacecraft allow some study of the ice, but close-up observations are needed to confirm any findings, says Speyerer.
Why don't they put a satellite in a really close orbit around the moon and take a look with color cameras? By close I mean like 1km altitude (as opposed to earth satellites which need several hundred km altitude due to the atmosphere).
Ice is white, lunar surface is dark, should be easy to know for sure.
The craters are only half the temperature of their better-lit surroundings, but they still reach an average of 175 kelvin — hot enough to boil water in the moon's thin atmosphere
175 kelvin is deeply in the negatives. Maybe sublimation is possible, but not boiling. Did they typo on the boiling or in the temperature? I should be able to educate guess this, but I'm not in the mood.
God spoke to me
1. Construct moon base
2. Bottle moon water
3. Ship to Earth
4. Sell in fancy boutiques
5. Profit!!!
Given that specialty water from here on Earth frequently sells for absurd markups, "Pure Moon Water" would be like liquid gold. You could launch Fiji water back up for the Moonies to drink and have buckets of money left over.
The lower gravity makes it shitty as a permanent settlement -- Human bones need Earth-like gravity. In space we can spin the colony to help provide artificial gravity.
Permanent settlement does not imply permanent residence. People could be rotated up and down in half year shifts.
People have stayed in space twice that long in zero G, (Record in Mir for 437 days) so probably 1/6th G allows much longer periods.
Especially when you can strap on weighted suits and go about your business on the moon.
What I'd be interested on knowing:
How fast would we have to spin something to approximate 1G, and how big would it have to be? (Several times the height of a human is my guess, in order to prevent having stratified gravity.)
Is 1G even optimum or necessary to retain bone mass and a strong heart?
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Why not permanent residence? People would adapt, evolution would take hold. We would end up with little people on the moon. So long as they don't want to come back, I think it is a novel idea. If they do, we should have Mech harnesses for them to use by that time
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Wearing a suit that fails daily? Good luck with that. We simply don't have the materials for a suit to keep people alive there for very long, nor the ability to give them a place to live out of that suit that won't kill them in short order. Forget the usual logistical and technical difficulties, the destructive/lethal nature of contact with the lunar soil itself is a problem we can't even solve at this point.
What I'd be interested on knowing:
How fast would we have to spin something to approximate 1G, and how big would it have to be? (Several times the height of a human is my guess, in order to prevent having stratified gravity.)
Is 1G even optimum or necessary to retain bone mass and a strong heart?
Smaller diameters of "space station" require a higher angular velocity, but in principle there is no specific size restriction if you simply want to achieve a 1g accelleration at floor level. However, using a small diameter has a couple of problems:
1. The accelleration gradient is more extreme (equivalent to gravitational tidal forces). e.g. for a capsule twice the height of a human, your feet would be at 1g, but your head (being in the centre) would be in 0g. Use a bigger diameter and a slower angular velocity and you will reduce the gradient.
2. The coriolis effects associated with high angular velocities make it extremely unpleasant to move around in a fast spinning (hence small diameter) capsule. According to Wikipedia you need to spin at under 7 RPM, preferably around 2 RPM, to make this manageable. At 2 RPM you need a diameter of about half a kilometer to achieve 1g. 7 RPM is a bit more managable, requiring a diameter of 40 metres. Rather than building a cylindrical capsule, a better option might be to have a pair of capsules tethered together with a 500 metre tether.
http://blog.nexusuk.org