DailyDirt: To The Moon, Alice!
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
The Earth's moon seems like a nice place to visit, but there are a surprising number of people who seem to want to go there permanently. Manned spaceflight has seen better days, but is it really time to invest in a moon colony now? The land is pretty cheap up there, and no one's making any more of it... but there's a tiny problem of getting there. Here are just a few more links about manned trips to the moon.- Newt Gingrich's proposal to create a moon base by 2020 (excluding the 13,000 colonists part) was feasible in 2005 when George W. Bush had similar ideas, but now it could be a bit more difficult to accomplish in just 8 years. A new space race to the moon could see commercial space companies beating NASA to the lunar surface... (especially if vast amounts of unobtainium could be mined on the moon). [url]
- NASA isn't exactly sure when manned test flights of its Orion will begin, but it should happen by 2021. Unmanned test flights are scheduled for 2014, but the new rocket to take cargo/passengers 3,700 miles away from Earth hasn't been finalized yet. [url]
- What would space programs be like if the Apollo program never made it to the moon? Maybe there'd be a Russian/Soviet moon base or an international station on the moon -- or maybe the lunar surface would be covered with robots by now. [url]
- To discover more links on space exploration, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]
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Filed Under: apollo, lunar base, manned spaceflight, moon, newt gingrich, orion, space
Companies: nasa
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BEtter question
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Solar Flare - lack of a large electromagnetic field can be detrimental to ones health.
Incoming - What does one do when an asteroid is heading in your general direction? Keep in mind that a direct hit is not necessary in order to ruin your day, and there is no atmosphere to slow it down.
Dust - pesky little bits of rock get into everything and cause a real mess.
Resupply - the bare essentials will not last long, what does one do when, not if, the resupply is delayed.
I'm sure there are many more ....
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We could send the entertainment industry execs up there where no one can pirate from them. Win/win!
Hopefully a massive explosion will knock it out of orbit into deep space!
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Re: BEtter question
Not sure what you mean by nonsense. Perhaps you should review what was accomplished by that program.
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Without Patents
Or, an alternate question, what difficulties did they encounter because of patents?
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What we should do is build a space elevator.
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Re:
Conversely, there's no atmosphere to carry a shock wave or create a "nuclear winter" dust cloud around the moon.
Only a direct or near-direct (within 5 miles or so) impact would affect a moonbase.
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Re:
Progressively-more violent weather conditions make such a project unfeasible with current tech.
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Moon Technology
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Moving on Moon
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Re: Re: BEtter question
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Space colony
A space colony would have zero-gravity manufacturing capability, and provide an Earth-like environment.
A moon base would have neither of those advantages. Everyone who lived there would atrophy from the constant low gravity.
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Re: Re: Re: BEtter question
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Shock waves travel quite nicely through the ground, and the moon is not immune to the adverse affects of ejecta.
Your five mile number is based upon what size of object, and made up of what type of material? This can make a difference. Regardless, what would one do - jump in the moon buggy and high tail it outta there? Based upon our present day capabilities, one would get very little notice prior to impact. Maybe enough time to kiss your ass goodbye.
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Re: Without Patents
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/abstract-ideas-cant-be-patented-or-can-they/
Procedure for generating operational ballistic capture transfer
http://www.google.com/patents/US6278946
Free return lunar flyby transfer method for geosynchronous satellites
http://www.google.com/patents/US6116545
There are more .......
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No two ways about it. If the Soviets had "the high ground", they would have used the military advantage to subjugate the rest of the world.
They could have just thrown lunar boulders at any country that defied them. The result of such impacts would be similar to an asteroidal impact. It wouldn't take any more technology to do that, than they would have already developed to get there.
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mooning ...
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Re: Re: Re: BEtter question
I believe that many of the shuttle parts were refurbed after every mission, but the "entire heat shield" was not rebuilt. It was inspected.
Every individual tile was examined for any damage and suspect tiles were replaced as well as any gap fillers or parts designed to be replaced. Certainly a tedious process, but not the same as rebuilding the entire underside of the shuttle.
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When you consider the expense ....
Increase the money supply for the middle class, by bringing the money back from the one percent, and then we can consider it (though I believe it would still be a bad idea).
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Re: Re: Re: Re: BEtter question
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_Space_Shuttle_program
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This is funny, regardless of sincerity.
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