http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Momentum_builds_for_creation_of_moon_villages_999.html Momentum builds for creation of 'moon villages'by William G. Gilroy for ND NewsNotre Dame IN (SP Jan 08, 2016 . Villages on the moon, constructed through cooperation between astronauts and robotic systems on the lunar surface, could become a reality as early as 2030. That's the consensus of a recent international conference of scientists, engineers and industry experts, including Clive Neal, a University of Notre Dame planetary geologist. The European Space Agency (ESA) hosted a symposium titled "Moon 2020-2030 - A New Era of Coordinated Human and Robotic Exploration," in the Netherlands. The ESA's vision is that the moon villages could serve as a potential springboard for future human missions to Mars and potentially other destinations. In order for that vision to become a reality, Neal said, scientists must first determine if the resources on the Moon are as significant as we think they are. more at link:
There isn't much on the moon that we could use. The cost of sending a team of workers to the moon, establish a moon base for them then start mining of the moon would not be worthwhile. It would take billions to establish a moon base then they need to extract the minerals then send them back to Earth. That would drive the cost of those minerals way beyond that of which they could be found and mined on the earth. So your idea, while interesting, isn't cost effective. See my link for the kinds of minerals there are on the moon. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...e_Moon&usg=AFQjCNFh-41O5ovinxmaDq7xp0NT3JD0JA
It's only a matter of time, and of course those two horrible variables of politics and economics. Firstly, it will happen in time, despite costs etc. It's called inevitable progress. Secondly, I'm nothing short of continually being amazed at your pathetic pessimism.
Its not necessarily pessimism, just an understanding that funds are limited and choices, political choices by elected officials, must be made. When thousands of Americans are homeless and even more go to bed hungry most nights and they can vote, it just seems very unlikely to have a colony on the moon get the funding it would require. I think it certainly is technically feasible. I have even described how its no-fuel, basic power system should work. Quickly: two parallel burried ditches with hot and cold working fluid loop coils in them. Every 14 earth day the sun screen / thermal reflector moves parallel to itself to expose at sun rise the hot side dirt to get 14 cloudless 24 hour days of solar heating, then after that the cold dirt is exposed to the 10 or 15 K sky for radiative heat exhaust as the collected solar energy is covered by the movable reflective screen. After a few earth months the delta T between the hot and cold sinks of a Carnot engine is perhaps 450C with the average cold sink say 50K and average hot source temperature of 500K. Carnot efficience E = (Th -Tc)/ Th or say (500 - 50) / 500 = 450/500 = 90%. and only the tubing and engine need be taken to the moon. That is five times more efficient than very expensive solar cells and very much cheaper. (Some earth digger is needed as the housing is also under ground to avoid the constant ionizing radiation flux). As women on average weigh less than men and need less food, the cost can be reduced by at least 55% if no men leave Earth - only a cold jug of sperm. When people understand most of the day is living under ground and only women are there for about 20 years, not many will think spending the money on underground housing and farming in greenhouses on the moon has a higher claim on the limited funds than housing for all on Earth, with food produced in the open air.
Billy, in these threads, I generally encouch my opinions with "in time" What I also believe and what I also often mention, is that economics and politics are variables: They do change, as does progress, over time.
I'd rather spend the taxpayers money on a human trip to Mars instead of building a mining company on the moon. What's so pessimistic about that? Just because you want to have a mining base on the moon why does everyone have to go along with your ideas? As I said it just isn't cost effective to mine the moon and not that we shouldn't ever go back there but instead set our sights on Mars for now. Perhaps one day a corporation will start a mining company on the moon for they would want to mine the moon more so a NASA project would. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Nothing to do with "my ideas"It's all to do with your pessimism as I see it. I'm for both, and in time both will happen. A nice change though to see something positive from you.
I've always stated that Mars should be the next destination for humans as long as they can go there and return safely. Until the problem with radioactivity is found I don't think humans should go to Mars. That isn't being pessimistic, that's being cautious.
Seems I've seen a few times where they wanted to send a suicide mission there. Just to be the first human to actually go there but not return. Then I've seen where someone suggested that we send people there without providing any safety for them in the way of no protection from radioactivity or cosmic rays. So yes there are some who do push for humans to go there without safety measures in place. I'd like to see them send a ship there and have it land and then come back home first before a human tries it. Don't forget, I'm not trying to be pessimistic, but as you know that over 40 robotic craft have been sent there yet only 14 of them actually made it there. What happened to all the rest of those craft?
How so? if you recall many of those craft that were first sent there had all sorts of problems which were never found out about because they couldn't get in contact with those craft.
The dawn of our sending probes to Mars was fraught with problems and dangers: Of late, those have greatly vanished and the success rate has improved dramatically and is acceptable at this time.
No, in US the PTB have control make all the decisions.* For example hired /bribed Congress to make importation of sugar cane alcohol illegal; your medical drugs cost twice what they do in Canada, etc.. We need a socialized democracy like they have in Scandinavia, where all get good and free educational opportunity and good and free health care that has a total cost less than half that of the US and about three years greater life expectancy. * That is how we have come to have half of all the income go to the top 1%. US now has: "Government by the lobbyists, For the extremely rich and a shrinking middle class that can not send their kids to university or save for their retirement year, as their parents did (both)."
First apologies for posting this thread in the wrong section: Off goes my head, on goes a pumpkin! Secondly, a follow up article............................. European space boss has Moon Village plan The European Space Agency's new boss elaborated Friday on his vision for a multinational research village on the Moon—a leading contender for a project to succeed the International Space Station. For now, it is just an idea—called "crazy" by some—but one that Jan Woerner said was being widely discussed as the end of the ISS looms large. The broad concept is a base for lunar exploration by humans and robots, potentially a stopover for spacecraft and possibly even a mining site. "It's not to build some small houses over there and then to have a city hall and a church and whatever," said Woerner, who took over as ESA director general last July. The Moon Village would have "multiple uses and multiple users", he told journalists in Paris. "Maybe one country is more interested in science, another may be a private company interested in mining... and another may be interested to use the Moon as a stepping stone for further exploration," he explained. "This is the overall scheme, and we are now discussing of course worldwide whether there is enough interest in that to go ahead with it," said Woerner. The timing, he added, would be "post-ISS". Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-01-european-space-boss-crazy-moon.html#jCp Great idea!! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! In time, it will come to fruition: The sooner the better.
