Posted on 01/17/2018 7:58:00 PM PST by MtnClimber
When is a discovery not a discovery? When it’s just plain wrong.
or decades, the idea of useable caves on the Moon has been studied and discussed at various venues and science gatherings. Our fascination with the availability of underground planetary structures stems from the possible benefits such features may afford humans trying to live in an off-world, hostile environment. Humans are vulnerable on the Moon because it lacks the protective atmosphere and magnetosphere that we enjoy here on Earth. A thick layer of solid rock provides protection for people and equipment from galactic cosmic rays and solar particle events, and thus, a lunar lava tube cave becomes a very attractive place. In addition, as rock is a good thermal insulator, an underground void space most likely would be thermally stable, lacking the enormous temperature swings (more than 250° C) of the lunar surface.
In addition to providing shielding from radiation, the interiors of lunar lava caves would be very cold (probably around -100° C), possibly preserving trapped volatiles. If such water deposition occurs, it would be an extremely slow process. There is no groundwater on the Moon; water is added by impacting objects. Thus, any addition of water comes in the form of vapor, most of it lost to space and the remainder finding its way into lava tubes or permanently dark craters at the poles.
The poles are attractive destinations because of the water ice residing in the permanently dark craters close (~100-200 km) to the poles. Due to the obliquity of the spin axis of the Moon, the sun doesn’t rise and set here, but circles around just above the horizon, maintaining a near constant surface temperature of about -50° C. The interiors of polar craters act as cold traps, accumulating water ice for billions of years.
(Excerpt) Read more at airspacemag.com ...
I don’t know, could you have a sports car and winding roads on the moon?
I think you’d have to be disturbed to trade a beautiful warm earth for a cold hard rock, or cave, out in space.
I agree. The same sentiment for living the rest of your life on Mars.
It would be neat to visit for a weekend. After that, not so much.
That’s what I’ve always thought about NYC.
Mars ain't the place to raise your kids. In fact, it's cold as hell.
I contend that’s the reason the manned Moon/planetary space program faltered. Getting to the Moon was exciting a few times, but then ... well, it’s a dead pockmarked rock. Yeah I’m sure there’s things to find & study & do there, but that’s a lot less interesting & comfortable than staying on Earth.
That’s why most of the un-realized “the future” predictions that haven’t happened, well, haven’t happened: we _can_ do it (Moon hotels, flying cars, etc), but realized we don’t actually want to.
Kudos to Elon Musk for wanting to get a viable population on Mars. The hardest thing he’ll encounter is people getting there, and deciding they don’t actually want to stay after all.
Heinlein had a spin on moon tourism - an immense underground cave, used for air storage, was a hot spot. In the 1/6 gravity, they fashioned wings and soared through the air like birds. For a few bucks, the locals would teach you to fly.
Depends on how bad things get on Earth.
If you could get back, you could sit out a Bernie presidency there.
Stars would be awfully beautiful up there, as would Earth. And if you are into minerals well, there’s no shortage of rock formations to look at.
I prefer babbling brooks myself, and soft leaves underfoot, but I can see where there would be some beauty to be found there for the right sort of people.
There’s no shortage of young people here who have spent all their lives in a basement playing computer games, so who knows, there wouldn’t be that much of a change.
And there’s no one there to raise them if you did.
The view of space from the Dark Side must be pretty impressive.
No atmosphere, no ambient light, 24/7/365 observation. Ideal for a large telescope, unless there is always electro-static moon dust floating around.
But, yes, except for pure science and space tourism, it's very hard to see any realistic commercial opportunities until we figure out how to transport huge loads of ore or space minerals back to Earth.
After a Bernie presidency would there be anything worth coming back for?
Thank you Elton John, now “blissfully” living a life of sodomite debauchery.
Is that an old “Saturn” (Olds or Buick)?
Looks more like my ‘57 Chevy 210. A Chevy with 3 deuces could fly to the moon.
I’m not sure I’d want to be stuck there that long.
“Denison stopped hesitating.” — Asimov’s best line, imho.
Sure hope I remember it right.
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