[extropy-chat] Space colony behind the moon?

A B austriaaugust at yahoo.com
Tue Oct 17 19:45:13 UTC 2006


Could someone here tell me whether or not it would be physically possible to place a space station in "Lunar-Synchronous" orbit, such that the station would permanently "hover" over the "invisible" face of the moon (ie. so that the moon itself would at all times be located between Earth and the space station)? I personally wouldn't know where to begin in trying to calculate whether such an orbit is possible. The reason I ask is that it seems to me that a "stationary" orbit over the "invisible" side of the moon would be an ideal starting place to locate a self-sustaining space colony (as insurance against an existential disaster), such as the "Ark 1" as proposed by the Lifeboat Foundation. This location would seem to offer several security advantages over a lower, earth-orbit station. The advantages would be provided by the body of the moon itself. For example, the moon would serve as a crude shield to protect the station from simple projectile based weapons such as
 mass-drivers and coil guns (which may eventually achieve enough power to launch projectiles/payloads into space). I suspect a simple projectile based weapon of the future would be considerably easier for a terrorist to build, hide, and use successfully than a traditional rocket based propulsion system.
  The moon might also serve to shield and "trap" within it's gravity well, a payload of malicious nanoreplicators that might be fired toward the space station. Of course, actively-guided weapons would still pose a problem, but we have to start somewhere. Maybe moving out to behind Mars or Venus would make for a good next step. ;-)
   
  Best Wishes,
   
  Jeffrey Herrlich   



 		
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