We need a Moon base

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dumpthemonarchy

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The new international space station should be rebuilt on the Moon with a base to vault to Mars and asteroids.There are huge resources on the Moon and asteroids worth trillions of dollars to pay for colonization.

I always wonder why world space agencies can’t get together to send up automatic rockets with loads of supplies to colonize the moon. Liquid fuel to leave Earth and solar power in space to drift the rocket to the Moon. We know the trajectories of the Earth and the Moon and once astronauts get there they would be in no danger of running out of supplies. Rocket technology is quite old, I have trouble seeing what the issue is here.
 
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Zzarchov

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Cost, no one cares anymore as the baby boomers age, creature comforts will be the issue of choice.

Colonization will come from other peoples, not the west.
 
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DavidB

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Going to the moon would be an expensive detour; most of the energy and expense of launching material into space arises from getting that material off the surface of the Earth. Once material is off the Earth's surface, it can be sent just about anywhere. If you then sent that mass to the Moon, to later be re-launched to another destination, you have wasted a lot of time, energy, and money.

The only practical reasons I can think of for returning to the Moon would be to mine tritium (for fusion reactors) and to build a telescope (the dark side of the Moon would not suffer from light or radio interference).

Otherwise, the next achievement I am looking forward to is a Mars Sample Return Mission. I am not in that much of a rush to get humans there, but we should better examine what local materials can be used once we get there. For example, can bricks be made from the Mars dust to construct habitats for humans, eliminating the need to send such building material from Earth? I don't think anybody knows the answer to even this simple question yet.
 
Praxius

Praxius

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The first things I would be focusing on in regards to Mars would be some source of renewable air and water..... everything else follows after that. Building structures from bricks made on Mars doesn't do much good if you can't live in them unless their air tight and you have some form of oxygen to breath. You'll also need a lot of physical labour to build from brick, which will require and use up a lot of oxygen. Unless you get a machine that can do it all for you, sending resources from Earth already put together for the most part seems the most practical at the moment.

As for the Moon?

It would be a better starting block for colonizing with humans then Mars. It would give a better chance to see what happens to humans when living off of the planet for a long period of time..... and if something goes wrong, it's a lot quicker to send help to the Moon then it is to Mars. Unfortunatly, you still have a resource issue, and a constant supply will be needed to be sent to the Moon for quite a long time. The same could be said about Mars, however Mars has signs of water and an atmosphere..... a slightly bigger chances of getting some resources from the planet then there is from the moon..... but then for supplies you will still need to have sent, it's going to take a long time to get there...... and if something happens to the ship transporting the supplies..... what happens to those living on Mars who now have to wait for the next ship?

They're probably dead.

I think we should start planning on how to colonize other planets and moons in space, but focus more on dealing with the current issues on this planet first, or we'll just end up creating the same issues elsewhere in the universe.
 
scratch

scratch

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Praxius said:
The first things I would be focusing on in regards to Mars would be some source of renewable air and water..... everything else follows after that. Building structures from bricks made on Mars doesn't do much good if you can't live in them unless their air tight and you have some form of oxygen to breath. You'll also need a lot of physical labour to build from brick, which will require and use up a lot of oxygen. Unless you get a machine that can do it all for you, sending resources from Earth already put together for the most part seems the most practical at the moment.

As for the Moon?

It would be a better starting block for colonizing with humans then Mars. It would give a better chance to see what happens to humans when living off of the planet for a long period of time..... and if something goes wrong, it's a lot quicker to send help to the Moon then it is to Mars. Unfortunatly, you still have a resource issue, and a constant supply will be needed to be sent to the Moon for quite a long time. The same could be said about Mars, however Mars has signs of water and an atmosphere..... a slightly bigger chances of getting some resources from the planet then there is from the moon..... but then for supplies you will still need to have sent, it's going to take a long time to get there...... and if something happens to the ship transporting the supplies..... what happens to those living on Mars who now have to wait for the next ship?

They're probably dead.

I think we should start planning on how to colonize other planets and moons in space, but focus more on dealing with the current issues on this planet first, or we'll just end up creating the same issues elsewhere in the universe.
Click to expand...

Well laid out.

 
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dumpthemonarchy

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A Saturn V rocket can take about 50 tons of payload (Wiki) to the Moon. The technology is proven. Earth's massive gravity well is an expensive problem. It will be a few dozen billion dollars if a mass production system can be created. It would be better if all the nations of the world cooperate here. It will create awesome economic spinoffs.

But going from the Moon to Mars will be much easier and cheaper because the gravity is so weak. The initial investment will be big but it allows easier movement through the solar system. But how far can we go, Venus is a boiling cloud and Mercury is kinda hot.

Going to Mars is not really that ambitious. The cost is nowhere near a trillion bucks. Then we're stuck a bit.
 
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dumpthemonarchy

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Asteroids are worth trillions of dollars to mine as they are filled with resources. Plus we can hitch a ride on them and cruise around the solar system. They don't have oil, but they have plenty of other minerals for the taking and we exhaust the resources on spaceship Earth.

Tracking and mining asteroids are a good investment for Earthlings. Asteroids are worth trillions of dollars.
 
Just the Facts

Just the Facts

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Just attach greenhouses to the transport ship.

Piece of cake! :)


 
darkbeaver

darkbeaver

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dumpthemonarchy said:
Asteroids are worth trillions of dollars to mine as they are filled with resources. Plus we can hitch a ride on them and cruise around the solar system. They don't have oil, but they have plenty of other minerals for the taking and we exhaust the resources on spaceship Earth.

Tracking and mining asteroids are a good investment for Earthlings. Asteroids are worth trillions of dollars.
Click to expand...
Dollars will be worthless soon, so trillions of them will be equivilent to a case of beer maybe.
 
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dudeguy

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Oct 22, 2008
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We can't have a moon base. The aliens on the dark side of the moon(the side we don't see), won't allow it. If you listen to the radio transmissions from the lunar missions, you'll hear the astronauts scared talking about seeing objects and UFO's in the distance.

To understand more about this issue, I suggest you look into a great man named William Cooper(R.I.P.).
 
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dudeguy

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Oct 22, 2008
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HA! The moon is not made of the same matter as the Earth. There are other forms of energy that can be harvested from the rock found on and in the Moon.
 
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dumpthemonarchy

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But you can still drink beer in space I'm sure.

Let's get back to being serious here. The solar system has resources and business wants to get them. On howstuffworks.com they discuss in a plain matter of fact way that mining asteroids is no big deal.Countries are starting space programs to get the loot. The sooner the world cooperates here, the better. Save our Earthly environment, mine dead asteroids.
 
scratch

scratch

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May 20, 2008
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dumpthemonarchy said:
But you can still drink beer in space I'm sure.

Let's get back to being serious here. The solar system has resources and business wants to get them. On howstuffworks.com they discuss in a plain matter of fact way that mining asteroids is no big deal.Countries are starting space programs to get the loot. The sooner the world cooperates here, the better. Save our Earthly environment, mine dead asteroids.
Click to expand...

A good idea, especially harvesting asteroids.
 
EagleSmack

EagleSmack

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dudeguy said:
HA! The moon is not made of the same matter as the Earth. There are other forms of energy that can be harvested from the rock found on and in the Moon.
Click to expand...

Such as?

Seriously...what form of energy can be harvested from moon rock?
 
karrie

karrie

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Jan 6, 2007
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Praxius said:
As for the Moon?

It would be a better starting block for colonizing with humans then Mars. It would give a better chance to see what happens to humans when living off of the planet for a long period of time..... and if something goes wrong, it's a lot quicker to send help to the Moon then it is to Mars. Unfortunatly, you still have a resource issue, and a constant supply will be needed to be sent to the Moon for quite a long time. The same could be said about Mars, however Mars has signs of water and an atmosphere..... a slightly bigger chances of getting some resources from the planet then there is from the moon..... but then for supplies you will still need to have sent, it's going to take a long time to get there...... and if something happens to the ship transporting the supplies..... what happens to those living on Mars who now have to wait for the next ship?

They're probably dead.

I think we should start planning on how to colonize other planets and moons in space, but focus more on dealing with the current issues on this planet first, or we'll just end up creating the same issues elsewhere in the universe.
Click to expand...

Living on the moon would also have to be a permanent situation. You can't bring someone back to earth, or even Mars, if they've been living on the moon. Spending too long in low gravity conditions weakens the heart (it gets lazy, not having to fight gravity to circulate blood), and coming back to a 'normal' gravity situation often causes heart attack if a stay in space was too long. Imagine what it would be like for someone who lives a year or two on the moon? Or a child born on the moon but wanting to move to mars?
 
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