[ExI] Moooon

[Kelly Anderson]

On Jul 21, 2011 1:06 AM, Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:

>On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 08:52:19PM -0600, Kelly Anderson wrote:
>> The only force that will get us to the moon is capitalism.

> You can make fuel directly and deliver just the fuel.

Fuel is only helpful if you have somewhere to go... perhaps the
asteroids for mining? More scientific exploration? But yes, creating
fuel on the moon may be another good economical reason to go to the
moon.

> There's no
>more sense for canned monkeys in LEO than canned monkeys on
>the Moon.

I'm personally perfectly OK with this being done by robots (autonomous
or remote controlled). But mankind needs some kind of LEO industrial
complex IMHO. I don't think the opportunities have begun to be tapped
there.

>Some industrial processes love UHV, but some work best in water.

Yup, Ultra High Vacuum is good for some things, but probably as
important industrially is the microgravity that is ubiquitous in LEO.
I would bet that many nanotechnologies would work better in
microgravity than here on the ground (though I don't know that for
sure, and someone here probably knows a LOT more about it than I)...

>> it up from earth. He thinks this is commercially realizable in 7
>> years. This is a BOLD and imaginative use for the moon. The talk is
>> inspirational, and the moon stuff starts about two thirds of the way
>> through.

>Talk is cheap. We've had plenty of it.

Yes. I think Bill is doing more than talking about this... I really
do. His concept of going to the moon with no way back (at least
initially) is really quite intriguing. I'd bet you could save a lot of
money by not planning a return trip. It certainly gets you committed
explorers... or crazy ones. :-)  We need crazy people on the moon.
Pizarro and most of his men were illiterate... do you suppose we could
find enough crazy illiterate people to go to the moon without a way
back? ;-)  Hernando Cortez, upon landing in Mexico in 1519, burned his
ships so that his men would not desert.

>Give us cheap access to LEO, and we'll give you the Moon.

Give us a reason to go to the moon, and LEO will come... :-)  Or, put
another way, going to the moon might make LEO economically more
viable. I would imagine that you could construct solar panels in LEO
mostly using materials available on the moon, no?

While government did a decent job at the first generation of space
exploration (just as government assisted Columbus), the next stage of
development must be exploitation. Who will be the Pizarro of the moon?
At least there are no Inca there to be massacred... :-)  And, will he
be Chinese, Japanese, American or something else? I don't know, but
I'm not betting on the French... ;-)

-Kelly