The Moon Shot Redux. Can we still dream big dreams?

The Moon Shot

Redux

Can we still dream

big dreams?

Sure!

What is the one Planet or Planetoid that shares Earth’s cozy, warm orbit around the Sun?The Moon!

Why go to Mars, which is 6 months away (and darn cold!), when a big Planetoid is just a couple of days away?

…Exactly.Just how BIG is the moon?

There is a lot of real estate there—a surface area of approximately 37.8 million sq. kilometres.

(That’s about the size of the US, Canada and Russia.)

POP QUIZ - What’s more reliable?

A Human Heart? A Water Pump? O R

The human heart pumps continuously (or you hope it does) for, say, 75 years at say 60 bps or 2,365,200,000, more than 2 billion times.So relying on biological systems to create

a living habitat is more reliable than say a mechanical system?

Definitely.

The Earth’s biosphere has supported life for nearly 4 billion years without interruption—otherwise you and I couldn’t be having this conversation. Now try that with a mechanical system. (That’s 2.92 trillion sunrises and sunsets without a (total) failure!)

How l o n g is the Lunar day?28 days—14 consecutive earth-days of sunlight and 14 consecutive earth-days of night.

How would you build an economic vertical transportation system on the Moon?

Use a Space Elevator.

How would you produce power?

Because of the low axial tilt of the Moon with respect to the Sun, the northern hemisphere is probably in 24/7 sunlight—perfect for solar power.

Where would you get water?

There is some on the Moon but you would get water, oxygen and nitrogen as well as metals from the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

That’s terrific, but how would you deflect the solar wind?

Using layers of vacuum filled, magnetized, hexagonal bubbles in the Lunar stratosphere.

They would self seal when the Moon goes through the annual (August) Perseid meteor shower (one meteor a minute!) and when other meteor strike the planetoid.

Could we garden on the Moon?

Yes. Here is a photo of marigolds growing in crushed moon rocks on Earth. Air + water + seeds + lunar soil = Lunar Garden. (Source: http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2009/07/could_we_garden_on_mars.php

How much of the Moon’s real estate would be used for human habitation?

By a process of elimination, you would use:a) the existing Lunar mare for seas and lakes—33%;b) the balance would be used for wilderness and biodiversity—95%;c) that would leave (for cities, parks, etc.)—3%.How much real estate is that?

1,266,300 sq. km. is left over for humans to use—that’s equal to 121 New Yorks.

So perhaps the Moon could support 969,736,100 or about 1/6th of the Earth’s current population, at the same density as NYC (with 97% of the surface reserved for wilderness, seas, rivers and lakes!)

Why would anyone want to live on the Moon?

LIVE FOREVER!

Maybe 1/6th gravity would allow you to boogie like a teenager again!

OK, so what is the value of Lunar real estate?

More than $300 trillion dollars or 23.5 times the size of 2006 US GDP (under certain assumptions!)

Dome on the Moon? Yuck! I have a better idea - wrap the entire moon in a Mylar balloon and fill it up with a gas—80% oxygen and 20% nitrogen would be nice!

Copyright. Dr. Bruce M. Firestone, Ottawa, Canada. March 2007.

Animation by: Ms. Jessica MacMillan

Music: The Wallflowers, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin