Good ideas...
> >My point is that the resources won't come from the Moon. Aluminum, silicon,
> >titanium, oxygen (though it's *very* tightly bound -- ever tried breathing
> >rocks?), and that's about it.
>
> Ouch!
The thing is, those resources are some of the most valuable for space
development. Additionally, there are extensive supplies of Helium III in
lunar regolith, which is expected to be the best fuel for human built
hot fusion systems. It is estimated that there is a minimum of $5
trillion worth of He III on this side of the moon....
Polar ices would have enough volatiles (hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen,
etc.) to act as a startup resource, allowing sufficient infrastructure
to be built to support sustained comet recovery operations for sustained
supply. Remember, since we are dealing with a space environment, any
colony is going to have 95% plus recycling rates for all resources. Any
additional resource base will support entropic losses and feed futher
expansion. Of course such small molecules as nitrogen will tend to
outgass through the very walls of habitats, but if you read Larry Niven
& Jerry Pournelles book _Fallen_Angels_ you can adapt airsucking
aerospace planes to operate as air dippers to acquire nitrogen resources
without going back to earth surface.
Oxygen is not "that" tightly bound in regolith. NASA engineers succeeded
in building a solar furnace that can bake the oxygen out of regolith at
a mere 600 Deg. So this is NOT that hard, if even NASA guys can do it.
THere are also iron deposits on the moon, though not as good as earth
resources, so even primitive linear mass drivers can be built. If
Yittrium, Barium, and sufficient copper deposits are found,
superconducting mass drivers are just a step away.
-- TANSTAAFL!!!Michael Lorrey ------------------------------------------------------------ President retroman@tpk.net Northstar Technologies Agent Lorrey@ThePentagon.com Inventor of the Lorrey Drive Silo_1013@ThePentagon.com
Website: http://www.tpk.net/~retroman/ Now Featuring: My Own Nuclear Espionage Agency (MONEA) http://www.tpk.net/~retroman/MONEA1.htm MIKEYMAS(tm): The New Internet Holiday http://www.tpk.net/~retroman/mikymas1.htm Transhumans of New Hampshire (>HNH) http://www.tpk.net/~retroman/TRANSHNH.htm ------------------------------------------------------------ Transhumanist, Inventor, Webmaster, Ski Guide, Entrepreneur, Artist, Outdoorsman, Libertarian, Certified Genius. ------------------------------------------------------------ If I saw further than others, it is because I had an unjoggled view from standing on my own two feet. - Mike Lorrey