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from the Mike-and-Manny-and-Wyo-say-"Hi!" dept.
https://phys.org/news/2017-09-moon-lunar-village.html (AFP)
By 2040, a hundred people will live on the Moon, melting ice for water, 3D-printing homes and tools, eating plants grown in lunar soil, and competing in low-gravity, "flying" sports.
To those who mock such talk as science fiction, experts such as Bernard Foing, ambassador of the European Space Agency-driven "Moon Village" scheme, reply the goal is not only reasonable but feasible too.
At a European Planetary Science Congress in Riga this week, Foing spelt out how humanity could gain a permanent foothold on Earth's satellite, and then expand.
He likened it to the growth of the railways, when villages grew around train stations, followed by businesses.
By 2030, there could be an initial lunar settlement of six to 10 pioneers—scientists, technicians and engineers—which could grow to 100 by 2040, he predicted.
"In 2050, you could have a thousand and then... naturally you could envisage to have family" joining crews there, Foing told AFP .
(Score: 3, Informative) by Lester on Tuesday September 26 2017, @04:41PM (3 children)
Well, the fact that gravity in Moon is 1/6 of Earth doesn't mean you can build rockets much more heavier.
You need less velocity to escape from Moon's gravity field, but your rocket will also fly slower to its destination.
There is a confusion between weight and mass. Weight depends on gravity, mass doesn't. And mass is important when you try to alter the movement of an object, stop it, move it or change its direction. Holding a 100Kg weight is easier in Moon than in Earth. In Moon you would feel it's only 17 Kg. But if you tried to move it up you wouldn't feel any difference, you would have to push with the same force. Once it has reach the velocity you expected, in Moon it would keep moving up longer, but to make it reach the velocity, you would have to do the same force in Moon and Earth
Once you are out of gravity field, the energy needed to accelerate or slow down the rocket is the same no matter you came from Moon or from Earth. With no gravity, maneuvering a thin light rocket is much cheaper than maneuvering a heavy rocket. Moreover be aware than in the space you must fight always against Sun's gravity.
So I don't think you could change a 100Kg thin metal satellite for a 1000Kg basalt satellite. Let alone that the weight is not the only difference between metal alloys used in rockets and basalt.
Maybe you could build metallurgic factories to process basalt and extract metals, but I think that is far future, not what ESA is talking about
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday September 27 2017, @04:39AM (2 children)
Not sure what you mean by that. You aren't blissfully going to escape the Solar System with a little boost and go. As I recall, it takes about as much delta v in Earth orbit to escape the Solar System (and the pull of the massive Sun) as it does to get to Earth orbit from the surface (hence the Heinlein saying that low Earth orbit is halfway to anywhere). But on the other hand, you don't need to expend propellant to fight against the Sun's gravity since you're already moving in an orbit that does all the fighting for you.
(Score: 2) by Lester on Wednesday September 27 2017, @01:34PM (1 child)
If you are moving from one planet to other means changing of orbit and need fuel. And I suppose that rockets will not only move from Moon to Earth
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday September 27 2017, @07:50PM