Moon Colony within 20 years!

[G-Man]

Originally posted by Hygro
Here's one economical reason why a space colony could be good in a not so distant future:

You could have huge, incredibly toxic factories without needing to worry about hurting the Earth.

Let's just move all them heavy industries over to the moon

There's a reason they're called heavy industries. We're talking about huge factories with massive amount of materials coming in and products coming out. How will you feel if you had to pay a thousands times more for a car because it was produced on the moon?

Environmentaly it would be much better to invest that money in making plants more environmentaly friendly and in aiding poor countries with creating an environment friendly economy.

 

[Hygro]

yes at this juncture you are entirely correct.

But when space travel becomes far more ecoomical later this century, is will be a good thing.

 

[Pongui]

A US moon colony would produce great technological spin-off - more than any kind of missile defense, though perhaps less than some Earthier projects. But a moon colony made so by the Chinese, that would be no triumph of man conquering nature; it would be a lesson to us all in that culture's perfect adaptability to life in space.

***
In the margin.

Originally posted by G-Man
It doesn't matter. There's still plenty of desert and it would be environmentaly good as well if some of it will have some houses and plants.

Less desert means
less airborne dust
means less cloud formation...

You see where that's heading.

 

[G-Man]

Originally posted by Sean Lindstrom
Less desert means
less airborne dust
means less cloud formation...

You see where that's heading.

So build a big island and tell people to live on it.
And in any case if people will live in the desert the desert area will be reduced by very little and the water they'll use in the desert environment will allow for more clouds formation.

 

[Pongui]

You can get humidity in the air, but without dust to "seed" it, there can be no clouds and therefore no sun reflection and no rain.

Dust (from deserts) is essential. If the deserts recede due to irrigation or whatever, we'll all pay for it. I suspect we're already beginning to pay.

Hey, maybe we could have our farms and rain as well if we find a way to (gently!) dust the Earth from space.

 

[poolking]

Erm, guys you are forgetting one thing, there is no gravity on the moon and no atmosphere.

People will have to live in pods with Nitrogen/Oxygen mix pumped into them.

So no one will be able to venture outside without suits.

So the chances of plants growing outside will be nil.

 

[EdwardTking]

Originally posted by Sean Lindstrom
You can get humidity in the air, but without dust to "seed" it, there can be no clouds and therefore no sun reflection and no rain.

Dust (from deserts) is essential. If the deserts recede due to irrigation or whatever, we'll all pay for it. I suspect we're already beginning to pay.

Hey, maybe we could have our farms and rain as well if we find a way to (gently!) dust the Earth from space.

Volcanoes!

 

[Suki]

Originally posted by poolking

So the chances of plants growing outside will be nil.

but on marsthere's an atmosphere, 1% of earth's thickness but still it would be easy to grow plants in an enclosed greenhouse. unlike on the moon where the day/night cycle is a moonth long.
and it's not dificult to produce oxygen and fule for the return home out of mars's atmosphere.

 

[poolking]

But we are talking about the moon here, no atmosphere at all.

Remember this thread is about the moon, not mars.

 

[MummyMan]

I saw this show on the science channel about the mission to mars thing. It explained the effect of zero gravity on the body and how the muscles and bones deteriorate, so i dunno if a colony on the moon would be possible yet.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Originally posted by MummyMan
I saw this show on the science channel about the mission to mars thing. It explained the effect of zero gravity on the body and how the muscles and bones deteriorate, so i dunno if a colony on the moon would be possible yet.

We'll adapt to low and zero g environments and branch off into new species, like the whales and dolphins did when they went back to the ocean.

 

[knowltok2]

The moon does have gravity by the way. Not a lot, but it is there.

I would suspect that Mars will make a better colony than the moon will. The moon might make one hell of a military base though...

 

[.:KNAS:.]

Originally posted by G-Man


What kind of information can be gained from living on the moon that can't be found using robots? I remind you that nearly all tests in space are made with either special instruments made especially for them or with all sorts of animals. Both of these types will still need to be specially delivered to the moon, and we'll save nothing.

No robot can determine what long periods of time on another planet/moon will do to the human body and psyche.

 

[Tassadar]

Originally posted by poolking
Erm, guys you are forgetting one thing, there is no gravity on the moon and no atmosphere.

People will have to live in pods with Nitrogen/Oxygen mix pumped into them.

So no one will be able to venture outside without suits.

So the chances of plants growing outside will be nil.

Gravity is 1/6 compare to earth, but the real threat is, moon have no magnetic field like earth to protect living beeing from high velocity charged particule from solar flare, and that hurt i tell you. I dont think human can sustain long period on the moon without suffering from many genetic alteration disease.

 

[G-Man]

Originally posted by Sean Lindstrom
You can get humidity in the air, but without dust to "seed" it, there can be no clouds and therefore no sun reflection and no rain.

Dust (from deserts) is essential. If the deserts recede due to irrigation or whatever, we'll all pay for it. I suspect we're already beginning to pay.

Hey, maybe we could have our farms and rain as well if we find a way to (gently!) dust the Earth from space.

I'm not talking about a situation without dust, but about a situation with a little less dust. And you can put big fans in the desert and get dust all over the place There are already ways of foing it from airplanes, I can't see why we would want to do it from space.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Originally posted by Dumb pothead


We'll adapt to low and zero g environments and branch off into new species, like the whales and dolphins did when they went back to the ocean.

Martians will be really tall one day, and the Lunarians (Loonies? Moonies? How about the Lunari?) will be really REALLY tall.

Does it get any lamer than quoting yourself?

 

[G-Man]

Originally posted by .:KNAS:.
No robot can determine what long periods of time on another planet/moon will do to the human body and psyche.

We know how the human bodt reacts with earth's gravity, and we know how it reacts with no gravity. There's no reason to believe low gravity would be much different, and in any case it will still teach us only about the moon and not about planets where we might actually have a reason to settle. And as to the psyche, it's pretty sure it'll be similar to a regular space travel.

 

[G-Man]

Originally posted by Dumb pothead
We'll adapt to low and zero g environments and branch off into new species, like the whales and dolphins did when they went back to the ocean.

The dolphins had many millions of years to evolve. With modern technologu development rate and with modern society I doubt it'll happen, even if we will ignore the genetic changes, as mentioned by tassadar

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Originally posted by G-Man


The dolphins had many millions of years to evolve. With modern technologu development rate and with modern society I doubt it'll happen, even if we will ignore the genetic changes, as mentioned by tassadar

Im no biologist, but I think they'll already be looking very different in the first native generation on the Mars and Moon. Being concieved, gestated, born and raised in zero or low-g will change their bone length and thickness.

 

[G-Man]

They might look a bit different, but genetically they'll be very similar to earth's humans. Even though on mars they might not be so different. And the only part that matters is when they're raised, as all previous stages aren't affected by gravity.