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A City on the Moon?

Fisher said:
It would be very expensive and wasteful. It would be far cheaper to just cull the human population. Besides, who would want to live in a place where every breath you took was somebody else's fart and every drink you drank used to be your annoying neighbor's pee?
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I hate to tell you this but that's the way it is now ... ;)
 
clownboy said:
But hey, if you want to fantasize, read The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. It's where the expression TANSTAAFL comes from.
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Kudos for the Heinlein reference! :)
 
Morrigi said:
In addition, it actually takes more energy and thus fuel to reach the Moon than it does Mars due to the quirks of physics. Of course, Mars trips take longer but this could be mitigated by larger crews and artificial gravity created by centrifugal force.
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Link?
 
braymoore said:
Could it ever be possible that we will be able to create a literal city on the moon? This includes houses, malls, businesses, parks, etc.
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It'll start as a couple of science and exploration stations, work it's way up to a mining settlement, then to a small manufacturing city. Where it goes from there will depend a lot on what else we find and how technology advances. I suspect we'll dig in to avoid the obvious problems of open space.
 
braymoore said:
Could it ever be possible that we will be able to create a literal city on the moon? This includes houses, malls, businesses, parks, etc.
Also if this were to happen would the city be considered part of a specific country or would it be more like it's own nation?? Thoughts
and opinions.
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Only if you create a way to have sustained artificial gravity that is of the same value as Earth and a clean, safe way for air recycling and food growth. And anti-meteor defense system... because the moon, due to the fact that it has no atmosphere, can get pummeled by small meteorites at any time. meteors burn in the atmosphere... no atmosphere it will be like a game of shoots and ladders, but no ladders for the people trapped there.

Otherwise... not really.
You could however create a scientific lab and run tests to see how various things work in less gravity... or make a telescope on the moon, more powerful than the hubble telescope since it is stationary and anchored in solid ground. Since there is no atmosphere, the view of space should be better and clearer... and since the moon always faces the same way towards Earth, if you build it on the dark side of the moon, you are guaranteed to ALWAYS look at some part of outer space. But the meteor defense system is still needed to prevent small meteorites from punching holes in the structure when they hit... and air, and gravity and all that.

Also, it should be part of the Earth as a collective entity, not belong to any nation. And its discoveries shared by all.

Lets keep national squabbles on our planet if we must have them.
 
We may build a base on the moon from which we can launch vehicles much easier than from Earth because of the gravity. Liquid fueld rockets are joke in terms of what it takes to move a vehicle in to space.

All plans are for Mars for the day when all life will cease here on Earth when the sun exapnds burning everything. It is spooky to know this planet will someday vanish.
 
Morrigi said:
It was from a book.

A Case for Mars
by Robert Zubrin
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Are you sure it wasn't this part you were reading?

In the same chapter, Zubrin decisively denounces and rejects suggestions that the Moon should be used as waypoint to Mars or as a training area. It is ultimately much easier to journey to Mars from low Earth orbit than from the moon and using the latter as a staging point is a pointless diversion of resources.
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Honestly, I don't think the NSS would miss mentioning a vital piece of information like that and I can't find it anywhere in their Ad Astra article.

http://www.nss.org/settlement/mars/zubrin-colonize.html

A city-sized base on Mars might be cheaper in the long run compared to the Moon but for the trip itself, Mars has got to be more expensive.
 
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