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Moon, Bitches


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2019 May 21, 12:48pm   674 views  7 comments

by MisdemeanorRebel   ➕follow (12)   💰tip   ignore  

"Ohhhhh, well we should spend $20B/year on Transgender Operations that will heal the world."
Ah, Fuck Off, Unimaginative Schmuck.

Water... Alumina... Iron. What do you have? Dumb Mass and LOX/LH2 aka upper-stage propulsion. What does that mean? No need for upteen SLS launches to assemble a Mars Expedition.

Stations were needed for Sailing and Steam Ships. The Moon will be our Station. Time to get our asses up there and check out the Poles. 90% Sunlight with the Sun on the horizon, with a few meters away a deep ass crater, plus water ice = Sterling Engine. Could be nuclear powered as well. Great place to set up and maintain geosynchronous satellites, far cheaper than an Earth Launch. Never lack Satellite Bandwidth Again; can really think about Microwaved Solar Power as well.

In terms of National Defense, China is already very interested in sending things from the moon to ASAT our spy satellites, a place where it's hard to see. We need to get there first.

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1   FortWayneAsNancyPelosiHaircut   2019 May 21, 2:07pm  

Liberals don't care about moon, or America. They are too fucking busy fag fucking, and pandering to LGBT horse-shit groups. NPR can't stop talking about how much more they wish they could do for faggots if they only could.
2   Shaman   2019 May 21, 3:42pm  

HonkpilledMaster says
No need for upteen SLS launches to assemble a Mars Expedition


Mars is a mistake. I mean, we should go there and all, but it will never be a viable colony world. The soil is extremely toxic with lots of Chromium and arsenic and other stuff. We’d have to bring acre-feet of earth dirt to get any farming going. Plus it’s a significant gravity well, and that means it won’t be a good base for further space operations. The moon is destined to be a gas station, with plenty of He3 available to be mined for fusion powered reactors. Aside from that, the same problems with food generation exist. The vat-grown meat, yeast-grown protein complex would be the only way to get food long term, along with hydroponics. With enough production and investment, it might be a viable colony at some point. And ship yards could be constructed at the LaGrange point between it and Earth.

The goal is to get out there into deep space and do some real exploring/exploitation of space resources.

Asteroid harvesting would be the way to begin. A spin gravity ship assembled from smaller parts in cis-lunar orbit could get to a near earth asteroid at the right orbital time, with minimal delta V. There it could mine and refine the asteroid into everything from chromium steel to rocket fuel and water and send it back to the cis-Lunar orbit where it could be used to assemble other ships of greater complexity And robustness. From there, you’d get an actual space economy worth trillions of dollars.
3   Onvacation   2019 May 25, 11:11am  

Quigley says
The moon is destined to be a gas station,

The moon is the ideal launch pad for space exploration. One side always faces earth while the rest of the moon is facing the universe. There is no atmosphere and much less gravity to slow down launches. The moon is the ideal space station.

If only we could get it together on earth humanity could expand into space.
4   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 May 25, 12:57pm  

Quigley says
Mars is a mistake. I mean, we should go there and all, but it will never be a viable colony world. The soil is extremely toxic with lots of Chromium and arsenic and other stuff. We’d have to bring acre-feet of earth dirt to get any farming going. Plus it’s a significant gravity well, and that means it won’t be a good base for further space operations. The moon is destined to be a gas station, with plenty of He3 available to be mined for fusion powered reactors. Aside from that, the same problems with food generation exist. The vat-grown meat, yeast-grown protein complex would be the only way to get food long term, along with hydroponics. With enough production and investment, it might be a viable colony at some point. And ship yards could be constructed at the LaGrange point between it and Earth.


Exactly.

Think how stupid it is to send months-long (each way) flights to Mars without working out:
1) The effects of low gravity long-term
2) In-situ Resource Utilization, at the very least of water ice to make both drinkable water, oxygen, and LOX/LH2 fuel.
3) Growing at least some supplemental food on site in substantial quantities.
4) Having only a 3-day trip, especially for emergency bailouts. There's no 3-day return from Mars if there's a Pucker Factor/Murphy Law Cascade.

Then there's the nice things:
1) Building a centrifuge and seeing the effects of "artificial gravity" long term
2) Using Inflatables and other mass saving technologies.
3) Being able to save propellant lifting costs from Earth (90%+ of Rocket/Spacecraft Weight) by refueling ships on the Moon.
4) Being able to refuel/repair/send satellites to the L's/Geosynchronous Orbit from the Moon instead of the heavy Earth Gravity Well.
5) The long-term possibility of creating dumb mass from Aluminium and Iron.
6) The Dark Side's beautiful EM reduction, allowing radiotelescopes to perform amazingly, and do so on a solid surface, without having to use up propellant constantly in order

The other wonderful thing about manned lunar excursions is we're talking two medium lift rockets (which exist) or one heavy - for a human mission. For remote probes exploring and testing, one medium lift would be enough for a small regolith-testing rover. A few would give us a lunar relay network, rovers, inflatables, etc.

And it could all be done within NASA's current budget, especially if we cut out the Saganites (nothing but life-searching probes, fuck space technology), the Engineers (repeated pointless maintenance of do-nothing space stations for maximum MIC Profit), and the Mars Nuts' programs.

How nuts is it to send a Mars Mission that depends on ISRU without testing that tech first on the Moon where it will cost 1/10th or less? And because the Moon is 3 seconds away, without 15 minute delays, totally remotely controlled, also reducing cost. IF Mars has near surface water. And if it does, it'll be chock full of Perchlorates which disrupt the thyroid (and likely a major contributor to Earth Obesity because it's used in food packaging).
5   Patrick   2019 May 25, 1:09pm  

Quigley says
Mars is a mistake. I mean, we should go there and all, but it will never be a viable colony world.


Never say never. I can imagine that future technology may render it much more viable.

Having a spare planet sounds like a good idea.
6   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 May 25, 1:15pm  

Patrick says
Never say never. I can imagine that future technology may render it much more viable.

Having a spare planet sounds like a good idea.


I agree - but the path to Mars must include the Moon, to demo the bare minimum techs required. If we test while going, it'll cost 10x more, politically unfeasible, and if it requires further development, it's years in between testing.

Testing life support/hydroponics/ISRU on the moon is a three-day trip with only months between re-development/re-jiggering of technologies at the Moon Base with new crews/new parts.

Mars DOES have much more Carbon and Volatiles and other things the moon lacks in quantity.
7   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 May 25, 1:24pm  

I'm on a roll today:

NASA should be the VOC/British East Indian Company of the USA.

It should demonstrate and make first goals on the Moon, Mars, elsewhere. First Methane production, First Human landing, first largely self-supporting outpost of 20 people.

Then, after demonstrating feasibility, those should be turned over to Private Industry, responsible for exploiting the resources further (not cost-plus contracting) and scaling up and expanding.

Also, the US Government should issue charters to private entities (not necessarily just companies, but organizations like the Planetary Society or even Churches or Fraternities) to colonize/develop after the first outpost. Like the Plymouth and Providence Charters.

It's not going to be possible to have unified government in the solar system anyway due to communication lag, and the old problem of inadequate Representation. We should only require the Bill of Rights.

The model for early lunar outposts is Antarctica, which by the way, kills people regularly and there is no return from Admunsen-Scott in the Winter which is actually worse than the moon. Something like a half dozen people are killed exploring/living in Antarctica every year. Early air flight killed 100s of people a year. Early explorers of the New World died in droves. Drake came back with a few dozen men out of hundreds.

Congress needs to make sure that NASA is limited to an 85% success chance on first human goals so risk-adverse admins have built in ass covering, and possibly some kind of clause insuring NASA against budget cuts after deadly accidents.

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