Comments on: Inconstant Moon

By: Gary Church

Gary Church — Mon, 25 Dec 2017 13:01:45 +0000

Merry Christmas to Dr. Spudis and family and to all our service members everywhere, to our citizens, and to everybody on this good Earth.

By: Gary Church

Gary Church — Sun, 24 Dec 2017 00:33:18 +0000

Spoiler: That episode from The Outer Limits was about the end of the world, and then it not quite being the end of the world.

Every few months I see in the news another rock has passed by Earth. Consider the consequences of a large impact. Large enough and life will be reduced to microbes. If smaller the particles in the atmosphere cause a nuclear winter and cannibal armies will roam the Earth and only a few million will eventually survive. The cannibal apocalypse was the premise of the movie “The Road.”
A super-volcano could also bring on that apocalypse.

But, let us say in a quarter century from now we have several human crewed atomic spaceships cruising deep space and a dinosaur killer is detected approaching Earth. No problem. It will take lunar resources to build those spaceships. The Moon is the only place to acquire cosmic ray water shielding, assemble, test, and launch Nuclear Pulse Propelled spaceships.

And let us say a century from now factories on the Moon are mass producing miles-in-diameter hollow spinning artificial moons and launching them into space. Hundreds of thousands of people a year ride beam-propelled single-stage-to-orbit vehicles to these cities in space. A super-volcano erupts and this multitude of space colonies actually sends the food necessary to save the population of Earth from starvation.

We better get started.

By: Warren Platts

Warren Platts — Fri, 22 Dec 2017 21:39:34 +0000

And thanks for the link to the LRO Project! That quick map tool there (http://quickmap.lroc.asu.edu/) is exactly what I’ve been looking for. Speaking of Ina (18.6N, 5.3E), the resolution on that database is simply amazing–you can really see the mounds in all their weird glory. Google Moon would be a neat tool, but their resolution is really, very crappy….

By: Warren Platts

Warren Platts — Fri, 22 Dec 2017 21:28:45 +0000

Interesting… I hope the Ina “D”-caldera is mentioned as a possible, low-latitude, Near Side source of volatiles!

By: Paul Spudis

Paul Spudis — Fri, 22 Dec 2017 20:19:46 +0000

Of course, Niven pinched it from Shakespeare:

O, swear not by the moon, th’ inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circle orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.

— Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2

Also, an episode of (new) The Outer Limits. :^D

By: nova9

nova9 — Fri, 22 Dec 2017 16:34:25 +0000

Excellent! Thanks for the links.

I also like the classic Larry Niven short story ‘Inconstant Moon’:-)

Happy Holidays!

Marcel

By: Paul Spudis

Paul Spudis — Fri, 22 Dec 2017 15:16:16 +0000

Yes. I am also speaking that Friday at the annual TAMEST conference here in Houston about lunar return.

By: Michael Wright

Michael Wright — Fri, 22 Dec 2017 14:51:41 +0000

Will you be participating in this event?

“Lunar Science for Landed Missions Workshop, January 10-12, 2018, at NASA Ames Research Center. This workshop is intended to produce a set of priority targets for near-term landed missions on the Moon, primarily, but not exclusively, from commercial exploration firms interested in pursuing ventures on the Moon. This workshop will result in a report to be presented to NASA Headquarters as an initial community consensus of priority landed targets, with the potential of future solicitations for science-focused payloads at such target sites.”

from https://lunar-landing.arc.nasa.gov/