Humans Living on the Moon

Finishing our series for this round on terraforming planets within our solar system, the Moon of course is another celestial body which planetary engineers have grand designs for.

In the future, people will live in a permanent lunar colony | foto: NASA/JPL

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There are two basic ways to colonize the Moon: 1) Bring artificial environments and construct buildings, importing literally everything from Earth; 2) Use a combination of imported materials combined with the indigenous environment to produce whatever items are needed.

Like the Earth, the Moon is loaded with rich industrial minerals and diverse elements. Everything from mining to harvesting its vast stores of water and oxygen are within the technical capabilities of modern science.

Obviously, a combination of importing materials, plus manufacturing them as needed on the Moon, is the best economical combination imaginable. Ideally, any theoretical Moon colony should be both dependent on Earth, as well as self-sufficient.

Mining the Moon
The Moon is very rich in natural elements such as Iron, Aluminum, Titanium, Calcium, and Potassium. In addition, its rocks contain an abundance of Silicon and Oxygen, which is extremely ironic since the planet itself has no breathable atmosphere.

Because the specific gravity of the Moon is far less than that of the Earth, the physical cost or energy that is required to move items around and extract them or manufacture them, is far less and is therefore cheaper.

Mining the Moon - Back to Earth
In the 1960s, NASA first conceived of mining the Moon, and then shooting the extracted ore up into space via special containers which would be fired from cannons located on the Moon’s surface. These items would then be picked up for retrieval and delivery back to Earth by a passing American space shuttle.

In another variation of this plan, these space cannons would just shoot their cargo straight into space, where Earth’s gravity would pull them safely (and cheaply) back to Earth, landing at a pre-determined recovery spot.

While all of these grand plans are technically possible, in only a few more years the first Moon colony will finally take hold.

Jokes of the Day: More George W. Bush Quotes

Here’s more words of wisdom from President George Bush:

1. "People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history."

2. "I glance at the headlines just to kind of get a flavor for what’s moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably read the news themselves."

3. "I believe the results of focusing our attention and energy on teaching children to read and having an education system that’s responsive to the child and to the parents, as opposed to mired in a system that refuses to change, will make America what we want it to be — a more literate country and a hopefuller country."

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