What would NASA pay..

[grooble]

..for food and other resources if purchased directly from lunar based businesses, instead of having to launch the supplies themselves?<br /><br />If launching a potatoe cost NASA $2,000, would they pay $1000 to a moon farmer?<br /><br />NASA would save money and the moon farmer would make a solid $1000. And as the market grew and he sold 1,000s of potatoes he'd be a rich man.

 

[najab]

Which is really good news for all those Lunar farmers - with the slump in the market since 1972 there were fears they would go out of business.

 

[mlorrey]

What is worse, NASA charges lunar farmers $40,100.00 for a new pair of Levis....

 

[ve7rkt]

If you can demonstrate that you can build a farm on the Moon, grow potatoes, and deliver them to LEO for cheaper than $1000/spud, then you might be on to something.<br /><br />Heinlein points out in a young adult novel, "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress," that the Moon doesn't have a whole lot of water, and if you export it in the form of agricultural products (in his case, grain), the Moon will run out pretty quickly. Then, to quote a great philosopher, you're boned. So you've got to have a way of bringing as much water and biomatter back to the Moon as you send out as potatoes. That'll push the cost up...<br /><br />Triple word score if you can also produce fish, cooking oil, a zero-g deep fryer, and some cellulose to make newspaper.

 

[lampblack]

<font color="yellow">NASA would save money and the moon farmer would make a solid $1000. And as the market grew and he sold 1,000s of potatoes he'd be a rich man.</font><br /><br />It does sort of beg the question, though: where would he spend it? Not many malls on the lunar plains. Not even many general stores -- at least, not yet.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#0000ff"><strong>Just tell the truth and let the chips fall...</strong></font> </div>

 

[ve7rkt]

Well, say he profits $250 per spud. For every 160 potatoes he sells, he can phone KSC and have some lackey run into town for a pair of Levis to throw on the next supply ship. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" />

 

[grooble]

He could pay for more equipment from earth and expand his business empire, with a second potatoe factory.

 

[najab]

Ahh, but being on the Moon it would be so much easier to make freeze-dried potato powder.

 

[vogon13]

space craft 'honey' tank + energy = lunch<br /><br />(it's just an engineering problem)<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[ve7rkt]

Ah, but there'd be more people in space if it were cheaper to keep them there, and part of that is making it cheaper to feed them. Like any resource business, the farmer just has to carefully control supply to sell the most possible without flooding the market, only expanding as fast as new stations get built.<br /><br />And he can diversify. Surplus potatoes + water + energy = LUNAR VODKA. Heck, maybe the byproduct ends up being more profitable than the main product. Decades ago, there was a copper smelter built in southern British Columbia, and three hydroelectric dams to power it; surplus energy was sold to the grid. A couple years back, when copper prices sucked and California was starving for electricity, the copper company found it would be more profitable to shut down the smelter and sell the power it would have used!

 

[lampblack]

<font color="yellow">And he can diversify. Surplus potatoes + water + energy = LUNAR VODKA.</font><br /><br />Heck, there are probably at least a couple of Russian research papers laying out how to do it. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#0000ff"><strong>Just tell the truth and let the chips fall...</strong></font> </div>

 

[strandedonearth]

I read in one novel or another (may have been a Star Wars novel, not sure) where a planet had to keep a very close watch on its resources, or mass, or something. The gist was that visitors were weighed both coming and going, and anyone trying to leave with more mass than they came with had that much mass cut off before they could leave.<br /><br />My point is that a lunar farmer could recover some moisture from the latrines, from air scrubbers, etc. If a traveler left with a potato which contained X amount of water, he/she would have to leave behind that much water, one way or another, even if its just a last trip to the potty before leaving.

 

[nacnud]

That was hitch hikers guide to the galaxy<br /><br /><font color="yellow"><b>Bethselamin</b> is a fabulously beautiful planet which attracts billions of tourists each year. Unsurprisingly, erosion is a primary concern of the local authorities. Their solution is to remove any net imbalance between the amount of matter eaten and the amount subsequently excreted through amputative surgery. Thus it is vitally important to get a receipt after every trip to the lavatory while on the planet.</font>

 

[strandedonearth]

Ah yes, thank you. I really have to read my copy of HHG2G more often <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" />