[ExI] The Moon's Cold Embrace

[Keith Henson]

Rafal Smigrodzki <rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com> wrote:

### Spacex promises to reduce launch costs to LEO to $100/kg in the not too
distant future. There is continued progress in robotics and additive
manufacturing. The weight of a 90% self-sustaining technological ecosystem
is dropping. At some point in the not too distant future it will be
possible to establish a self-enlarging but not self-sufficient
technological presence on the Moon at a cost accessible to affluent
Americans. Giant lunar lava tubes might offer hundreds of square miles of
protected space to build cities supported by high-efficiency farming.

I have been deeply involved in space habitation for 45 years.  Don't
want to argue from authority, but there are a *lot" of problems, some
of which don't have recognized solutions.

Farming is a particularly difficult problem on the moon.  It takes
around 25 kW of light on a farming area to support a person.  Where
does it come from?  You also have to get rid of 25 kW per person.  How
is that done?

Free space O"Neill type colonies are a lot less difficult with respect
to energy (light) for plants and heat sinks.

But if you have suggestions for how to do this on the moon, i would be
most interested to see your analysis.

Keith