Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)
Fri Mar 25, 2016, 07:54 AM Mar 2016

New Aircraft Carrier or a Moon base? For the same price?

We Can Colonize the Moon by 2022—and for Less than the Cost of an Aircraft Carrier


IN BRIEF

For $10 billion, using today's technological advancements and in a span of just a few years, the Earth could create a functioning colony on the Moon.
$10 BILLION

By 2022 (that’s just six years from now), and with $10 billion—which is cheaper than a single US aircraft carrier—the Earth could already set up a small colony on the moon.

“The big takeaway is that new technologies, some of which have nothing to do with space—such as self-driving cars and waste-recycling toilets—are going to be incredibly useful in space, and are driving down the cost of a moon base to the point where it might be easy to do,” Chris McKay says in a Popular Science issue.

Existing innovations available today, such as self-driving vehicles and waste-recycling toilets, can also be used in space, and continue to drive down the costs of creating a colony on the moon. Furthermore, a synergy of technologies and partnerships, including the use of 3D-printed buildings and materials, space-ferrying using SpaceX rockets, and modifications of Bigelow Aerospace’s inflatable habitats, would make the process streamlined and more efficient than those ham-fisted and expensive government programs that continually redesign the wheel.

And because these are all just speculative theories at this point, the proposed use of virtual reality as a way to prepare for the first permanent lunar base is also being explored.

WHY THE MOON?

The Moon, according to NASA scientists, is a great jumping off point for deep space exploration. A colony on the Moon could therefore offer a functional peg for explorations on Mars, which the space agency hopes to be able to do by 2030. The only thing hindering them is NASA’s limited budget to implement it.

Nevertheless, a paper written by McKay and published in a special issue of New Space Journal explores how the pioneer station could be built on the outer rim of the moon’s north polar craters—which receive practically year-round sunlight—thus allowing solar-powered equipment to have sufficient energy to function.




Bigelow Aerospace’s inflatable habitat. Image Credit: www.bigelowaerospace.com


http://futurism.com/colonize-moon-2022and-cost-less-aircraft-carrier/
19 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
New Aircraft Carrier or a Moon base? For the same price? (Original Post) Ichingcarpenter Mar 2016 OP
None of the above rjsquirrel Mar 2016 #1
Read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress exboyfil Mar 2016 #2
Control of a dying planet pscot Mar 2016 #4
TANSTAAFL! LastLiberal in PalmSprings Mar 2016 #17
"Boy toys"? Why take such a narrow-minded view? n/t xocet Mar 2016 #6
Easy access to raw materials in space helps that. jeff47 Mar 2016 #7
Access to helium-3 in the lunar soil could power fusion reactors NickB79 Mar 2016 #16
Space programs are cheap compared to endless war and bankster bail-outs. phantom power Mar 2016 #3
We should have had one years ago awoke_in_2003 Mar 2016 #5
Gabrielle Drake & Antonia Ellis? progressoid Mar 2016 #8
Tough choice awoke_in_2003 Mar 2016 #10
Ya but how is that going to protect us from terraists!1! progressoid Mar 2016 #9
Well we know the NAZIS already have bases there Ichingcarpenter Mar 2016 #11
The Moon is a nasty place for humans. cpwm17 Mar 2016 #12
Can we survive the moon? 10 year old article but Ichingcarpenter Mar 2016 #13
Red Mars - Green Mars - Blue Mars SoLeftIAmRight Mar 2016 #14
Money spent on space returns far more in technological developments DavidDvorkin Mar 2016 #15
After reading about the $32 trillion dollars hidden Ichingcarpenter Apr 2016 #18
I vote Moon base. drm604 Apr 2016 #19
 

rjsquirrel

(4,762 posts)
1. None of the above
Fri Mar 25, 2016, 09:10 AM
Mar 2016

Wasting that kind of money on what amount to boy toys when we have a global climate crisis and so many human problems on earth is sickening.

Space stations are war machines too, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

We aren't going to colonize space before we kill our own planet.

exboyfil

(17,857 posts)
2. Read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Fri Mar 25, 2016, 09:49 AM
Mar 2016

Gravity well, access to material, and a rail gun. He who controls the high ground controls the planet. City killers without the radiation.

jeff47

(26,549 posts)
7. Easy access to raw materials in space helps that.
Fri Mar 25, 2016, 11:55 AM
Mar 2016

We won't expel nearly as much CO2 on Earth if we're mining in space.

NickB79

(19,110 posts)
16. Access to helium-3 in the lunar soil could power fusion reactors
Sat Mar 26, 2016, 04:09 PM
Mar 2016

Which would allow us to stop emitting carbon: http://www.livescience.com/2784-lunar-soil-power-future.html

"If we can show that we can burn helium-3, it is a much cleaner and safer energy source than other nuclear fuels," said Gerald Kulcinski, director of the Fusion Technology Institute at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Just 40 tons of this stuff has enough potential energy to meet the total U.S. electricity demand for a year. However, there is almost no helium-3 on Earth. The closest supply is on the moon.

Several space agencies, notably in China, Russia and India, have mentioned helium-3 as a potential payoff for their lunar projects.

"I don't think that the main motivation to go back to the moon is helium-3," Kulcinski said. "But over the long-term, we do face an energy problem."

phantom power

(25,966 posts)
3. Space programs are cheap compared to endless war and bankster bail-outs.
Fri Mar 25, 2016, 09:59 AM
Mar 2016

But the barons of the military industrial complex got to get paid.

 

awoke_in_2003

(34,582 posts)
5. We should have had one years ago
Fri Mar 25, 2016, 11:16 AM
Mar 2016

I want women with purple hair, damnit


I wonder how many will catch the purple hair reference.

Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)
11. Well we know the NAZIS already have bases there
Fri Mar 25, 2016, 02:50 PM
Mar 2016

and then we have the extraterrestrials that have bases there also.

So there!!!!! I got your terrorist right there

Now can we go or do the Russians and the Chinese get their territorial sights on this first?

I rest my case.

Seriously though, I would love to have a colony there just for the science and astronomy it could do.

Our new...... Gerald R Ford Aircraft Carrier.... costs

A 2009 report said that Ford would cost $14 billion including research and development, and the actual cost of the carrier itself would be $9 billion.[55] The life-cycle cost per operating day of a carrier strike group (including aircraft) was estimated at $6.5 million in 2013 published by the Center for New American Security.[56]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_R._Ford-class_aircraft_carrier

 

cpwm17

(3,829 posts)
12. The Moon is a nasty place for humans.
Fri Mar 25, 2016, 03:08 PM
Mar 2016

We have no future there. And we certainly don't need any more aircraft carriers.

Spending that kind money on unmanned space exploration would certainly go a really long ways and achieve far more than useless manned exploration of space.

Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)
13. Can we survive the moon? 10 year old article but
Fri Mar 25, 2016, 03:35 PM
Mar 2016

technology has made great leaps since then.

It discusses some of the problems and solutions.


They’ve found that one of the biggest challenges to lunar settlement—as vexing as new rocketry or radiation—is how to live with regolith that covers virtually the entire lunar surface from a depth of7 feet to perhaps 100 feet or more.

snip

Regolith can play havoc with hydraulics, freeze on-off switches, and turn ball bearings into Grape Nuts. When moon dust is disturbed, small particles float about, land, and glue themselves to everything.Regolith does not brush off easily, and breathing it can cause pulmonary fibrosis, the lunar equivalent of black lung. There is nothing like it on Earth.


But space planners also see a brighter side to the story. Forty-two percent of regolith is oxygen by weight. Extract that and it will help make breathable air, rocket fuel, and, when mixed with hydrogen, water.Heat up regolith and it will harden into pavement, bricks, ceramic, or even solar panels to provide electricity. Cloak a living area in a thick enough blanket of it and it will enable astronauts to live radiation-free. If regolith is the curse of lunar exploration, it may also prove to be a blessing.


snip


Taylor found he could melt a pile of lunar soil in 10 to 20 seconds.Then he focused a single magnetron on another sample: “With 50 watts of energy I took a one-centimeter block of lunar soil to 1700 degrees Celsius (3100 degrees F) in 10 seconds,” he says.

This result has tremendous implications. By microwaving lunar soil, astronauts could weld, or sinter, the particles together to form a serviceable foundation. If they raise the temperature, the top layers would melt and turn into a tough glass. Not only would the explorers have an instant highway, they would also mitigate the worst of the dust clouds. Regolith does not blow around by itself on the moon. Human feet or tire treads have to stir it up, and if they are traveling on pavement, the dust stops.

Anyway the article goes on with a good pro and con

http://discovermagazine.com/2007/mar/can-we-survive-on-the-moon

3D robotic printing machines making other machines
that do the first leg of the journey......
Nothing is impossible.

DavidDvorkin

(19,404 posts)
15. Money spent on space returns far more in technological developments
Fri Mar 25, 2016, 09:58 PM
Mar 2016

Those spinoffs drive huge economic growth and advancements in medicine and so many other areas.

Not so with aircraft carriers.

Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)
18. After reading about the $32 trillion dollars hidden
Mon Apr 4, 2016, 02:13 PM
Apr 2016

in a criminal organization by the 1% ........

10 billion is a very small amount.

drm604

(16,230 posts)
19. I vote Moon base.
Mon Apr 11, 2016, 10:00 PM
Apr 2016

Someone is going to do it. Better us than China or Russia.

Even better, make it an international project.

Latest Discussions»Culture Forums»Science»New Aircraft Carrier or a...