a thought experiment: my lunar plan

[Gravity_Ray]

Obviously this is just for fun, please feel free to contribute, comment, or blast away at my foolishness

Establishing a human community in space

Space resources considered.
a) lunar regolith
b) oxygen derived from lunar regolith
c) water derived from lunar regolith
d) material retrieved from NEO
e) abundant sunlight
f) low gravity
g) high vacuum

Plan base line

LEO: ISS---------2nd Station
L1: -------------Experimental platform--------------Outpost------------NEO explorer
Moon: Mapping-- Robot explorer-------Camp/outpost--------Base
Mars: -------------Sample return----------------------------------Robot explorer------ Camp

Heavy lift required for Moon outpost time frame going forward

The Bigelow plan is a good example of a Lunar Camp, as opposed to a base that will see modules that are covered by regolith and Lunar resources used to support the base. The camp will probably be mostly supported by Earth.

Energy
A lunar polar camp can take advantage of continuous sunlight to produce several hundred kilowatts of electricity with larger solar panels or nuclear energy. However, a lunar base will probably need several megawatts. To achieve this more ISRU will have to be developed on the Moon by creation of high capacity systems for converting and storing solar and nuclear energy. Candidate techniques include solar furnaces, solar powered steam engine, and nuclear thermal power plants. Lunar ISRU proposal will be lunar silicon for photovoltaics, lunar glass for mirrors.

Other energy initiatives will be establishment of water, oxygen, and hydrogen caches cryogenically store in lunar polar cold traps.

A solar plant should be located at the lunar pole base capable of continuous operation, along with the same light that can be provided to the lunar base by means of rotating mirrors mounted on top of light wells. There mirrors can track the sun and reflect sunlight down the light wells into the living quarters, workshops, and agricultural areas. Mirrors at the bottom of the light wells could be used to redirect the sunlight or turn it off.

An early business model for the lunar base will be the production of Oxygen, and Hydrogen on the moon and transferring this to LEO for Earth cargo ships and sale to other countries. Due to Earth gravity well, this fuel will be much cheaper from the Moon rather than the Earth.

For this to happen an Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV) should be developed. A very good example of this is the Bigelow OTV of a cluster of BA330 and an engine. Due to the lunar environment we can also consider electromagnetic launchers and other unconventional transport devices.

There is a need for a transport of both equipment and personnel from place to place on the lunar surface. Also a need for a short range transport of raw and processed lunar materials and this will logically be provided by teleoperated vehicles and robotics. To mine and utilize materials from the Moon and NEO automation must be developed which can also become a lunar industry. Along with this alternated advanced propulsion technologies must be developed to permit transport beyond Earth orbit. Examples would be solar thermal propulsion, Electric ion thrusters, nuclear electric propulsions, etc…

Early Lunar base look
A processing plant to produce oxygen and fused glass bricks from lunar soil. Solar energy concentrated by a mirror system can be used to heat, fuse, and vaporize lunar materials. The oxygen depleted fused soil is cast into bricks for building blocks, paving stones, and radiation shielding. The oxygen extracted from the vapor can be piped to an underground cryogenic plant where it can be liquefied and contained. These containers can be sent into orbit to be used as rocket propellant Other materials that can be mined will be iron, aluminum, silicon from the lunar regolith.

Asteroidal exploration needs to take place starting with the lunar camp and during the lunar base. This exploration will most likely be with automated and robotic Landers and sample return missions to determine their characteristics for resources that will not be present on the Moon. These could include but not limited to water, carbon, nitrogen, and other volatiles.

Other research that needs to take place on the lunar camp and during the lunar base is behavior of living systems such as humans, microorganisms, plants, and animals. This should occupy the research on the early lunar camp that may have some payoff as well. This must include plant life support and intensive agriculture, and biological processing of natural raw materials from lunar regolith and asteriodal mining.

Last and most important natural resource: humans

This is the most important natural resource in space. Most technologies developed at first will have to be developed to help people get into space, explore it, and live in it. Using non terrestrial resources, agriculture and food production for human settlements must be tempered with human psychological improvement at lunar bases. What if scenarios and emergency scenarios, escape scenarios must all be included prior to a lunar base during the lunar outpost phase. Such as safety chambers, medical emergencies, etc…

 

[js117]

New idea on www.Space.com 3-D Printing Device Could Build Moon Base from Lunar Dust
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology ... 00416.html
Too bad were not going back to the moon any time soon under the Obama Plan.
We will to get the commercial companies to do it, like SpaceX.

 

[Gravity_Ray]

New idea on http://www.Space.com 3-D Printing Device Could Build Moon Base from Lunar Dust
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology ... 00416.html
Too bad were not going back to the moon any time soon under the Obama Plan.
We will to get the commercial companies to do it, like SpaceX.

To be honest the government (under both parties) has had over 40 years to put something like this together and they have not. I am not sure why everybody is so surprised that Obama didn’t want to do a Moon base either. To his credit right from the beginning he showed very little interest in lunar exploration so at least he didn’t BS us.

I believe that you are more likely to see a lunar outpost from Bigelow than any country within our life times. I don’t see SpaceX doing much lunar work as their rocket is mostly a LEO and back system. But maybe if they succeed they will look further than LEO. I certainly would like to see SpaceX and Bigelow doing a second space station for LEO though, and perhaps with their extra space they can do some of the needed centrifuge experimentation to expose biological and non biological materials to moon gravity which will be needed for a Lunar base.

 

[js117]

New idea on http://www.Space.com 3-D Printing Device Could Build Moon Base from Lunar Dust
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology ... 00416.html
Too bad were not going back to the moon any time soon under the Obama Plan.
We will to get the commercial companies to do it, like SpaceX.

To be honest the government (under both parties) has had over 40 years to put something like this together and they have not. I am not sure why everybody is so surprised that Obama didn’t want to do a Moon base either. To his credit right from the beginning he showed very little interest in lunar exploration so at least he didn’t BS us.

I believe that you are more likely to see a lunar outpost from Bigelow than any country within our life times. I don’t see SpaceX doing much lunar work as their rocket is mostly a LEO and back system. But maybe if they succeed they will look further than LEO. I certainly would like to see SpaceX and Bigelow doing a second space station for LEO though, and perhaps with their extra space they can do some of the needed centrifuge experimentation to expose biological and non biological materials to moon gravity which will be needed for a Lunar base.

I think you are correct.
I don't think Bigelow will try this because he is selling his system.

 

[neutrino78x]

I believe that you are more likely to see a lunar outpost from Bigelow than any country within our life times.

Last time I checked, Bigelow is a US company, backed by a US citizen. Hence, that would be a US base.

Jamestown was indisputably a British colony, just not founded by British Navy personnel.

--Brian

 

[Gravity_Ray]

I believe that you are more likely to see a lunar outpost from Bigelow than any country within our life times.

Last time I checked, Bigelow is a US company, backed by a US citizen. Hence, that would be a US base.

Jamestown was indisputably a British colony, just not founded by British Navy personnel.

--Brian

Jamestown almost failed because as a government colony they were looking for gold, when they should have been farming. It was only saved when regular people stepped in and saw that it was not about the fast buck, but about a settlement. Thank goodness for private enterprise.

 

[HopDavid]

O
Space resources considered.
a) lunar regolith
b) oxygen derived from lunar regolith
c) water derived from lunar regolith
d) material retrieved from NEO
e) abundant sunlight
f) low gravity
g) high vacuum

To this I'd like to add:

h) extreme cold

Regions at the poles are the coldest places we know of in the solar system.

This enables super conducting materials. Besides enabling low line loss, a nearly perfect battery for storing electricity can be made with super conductors.

I believe some physicists would love to get access to the lunar poles to do low temperature research.

Since they're so cold, the poles would be an ideal place for honking big infrared telescopes.

 

[Gravity_Ray]

I think an infrared telescope in a shadowed crater close (but not that close) to a lunar base is a capital idea. Its sitting on a stable Moon (unlike space no propelant needed), its extremley cold (no fuel needed for the infrared telescope), no atmosphere (just like deep space) and a close base for anykind of repairs and replacements needed.

A great addition to our lunar base camp.