[ExI] China to Own the Moon by 2027

[Adrian Tymes]

On Sun, Apr 1, 2012 at 11:31 PM, Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 01, 2012 at 04:30:24PM -0600, Kelly Anderson wrote:
>> I don't remember discussing this here, maybe before I was here... but
>> it's a big deal that we should consider on this list.
>
> There's the only way to claim land: ability to defend it. I don't
> see how can any state attempt to claim the whole of the Moon, if anything,
> it would be some strategic locations (area at the poles, some mineral
> deposits, etc).

Set up guns.  (Railguns, possibly.)  Shoot anything that gets too close.
As expensive as it is to send things up now, requiring armor - or
powerful enough engines to dodge - would make it far more expensive.
If you claim the entire Moon, you don't have to worry about whether
anything incoming is going to land in your part or not.