[extropy-chat] Rockets from the moon [was: something else but who cares...]

[Robert J. Bradbury]

On Mon, 24 May 2004, Eugen Leitl wrote:

> The Moon never had a hydrogeology history (not all hope is lost, though, as
> uranium is generally lithophile), so the fissibles present are very
> dispersed. [snip]

Interesting.  Eugen -- are you effectively saying that uranium concentration
is a process dictated (or influenenced) by water?  I'm not against this
perspective I'm just interested in how significant a factor it might be.
If it is significant then it may indicate that uranium mining on the
moon may need to wait for nanotech.

Of course with a lack of hydrogeology influenced processes on the moon
it may be more efficient to send various uranium isotopes in non-critical
forms to the moon from Earth.  Of course one sends the greens over the
edge when one starts talking about sending up plutonium isotopes instead.

Though I am not sure I suspect plutonium has 3-4x the effective energy
throw-weight of uranium (though that may depend upon enrichment).  So it
may be cheaper to send to plutonium to the moon if one wants to launch
Orion's from there.

Robert