Inflatable Robotic Aircraft on Moon == Viable Moon Economy?

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emudude

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Just curious...how might a blimp or a similar flying device fare on the moon, perhaps involved in autonomous mining operations? If they're considering inflatable habitats, why not inflatable resource gatherers? I would imagine that the components required to develop such a craft are well within current technology...if there is higher lift on the moon, then perhaps scaling up operations using these vehicles could start up a moon based mining economy, starting with harvesting oxygen from the regolith :O
 
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Swampcat

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emudude":35ezk0tn said:
Just curious...how might a blimp or a similar flying device fare on the moon, perhaps involved in autonomous mining operations?

Probably not very well, since lighter-than-air craft kinda need more atmosphere than exists on the Moon in order to generate lift. ;)

As far as autonomous mining operations are concerned, what would be the point of inflating the resource gatherers?

BTW, welcome to the SDC Community.
 
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emudude

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Thanks! Well, I guess this is why I did so well in electrical physics and not in mechanics...totally forgot about the lack of atmosphere which *may* be important for lift :lol: I was thinking that there would be higher lift but wasn't thinking about the forces at work...back to the drawing board lol.
 
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emudude

Guest
Yeah, there was an article I read about how Venus would be easily colonizable in the air because the stuff we breathe is a lifting gas in its atmosphere...we could adjust the properties of the lifting tanks on any habitat so that the pressure outside would be identical to Earth's ocean level pressure, and leaks could be repaired easily as the air would take a very long time to diffuse out. Just need some coating to ward off the gaseous sulfuric acid in the atmosphere and we could be harvesting all kinds of volatiles from that place...
 
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annodomini2

Guest
Venus' atmosphere is extremely corrosive containing large quantities of sulphuric acid.

Which could pose sigificant engineering issues.
 
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emudude

Guest
Unfortunately I don't have much of a chemisty background aside from 1st year undergrad...maybe some kind of glass compound could hold it? Sulfuric acid is one of the most important industrial fluids on earth, so I'm not so sure that it would prove to be a difficult problem...we have to store it somehow :p
 
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