NASA probe scents crusty bonanza in dark moon bottoms
NASA says that its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) probe in orbit around the Moon has detected neutron signatures indicating possible frozen water deposits hidden in craters at the lunar south pole. LOLA imagery of the lunar south pole. Credit:NASA Tough country for ice mining. One of the LRO's main missions is to find …
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Simple solution:
Don't put people on the moon. Exploring space with humans is like exploring the Himalayas with seals. Actually, it's worse than that ...
Exploring the Himalayas with seals ...
... is most likely one of the things a race of intelligent and technologically adept seals would be likely to do, eventually. Before they try to put one in orbit. Etc.
'leccy
Has "electricity" been ruled out of your dictionnary? If that's for saving letters, you may also remove all vowels...
Lack of ice on the moon?
Obviously from over-idustrialization by blue eyed white men, as the president of Brazil would say. Quick, light the bat-signal so everyone from all over the world can fly here to protest all the pollution caused by industrialization (though, of course, the pollution from the plane flights that we're on is different.)
Koenig knew about nuclearness and the moon - all bad
"It may be that nuclear energy is the only practical lunar option."
Just about 10 years and 4 days too late. Tried that; blew moon away; many funky aliens then turn up in ever campiness outfits to slap moonkind about.
Maybe if they had huge windmills and used the solar wind :-) all very nice and green and ooo tangent - I just want them to find the clangers ... that's all ...
A bored Steve on a Friday afternoon.
Space naysayers
I just can't understand the attitude of people like the first commenter. Did you not dream of living on the Moon when you were a kid? If not, lose ten geek-points straight off.
The more I see, the more I realise that Robert A Wilson was right; 99% of the human race is Homo neophobe, afraid of anything new or different. Get ready to be left behind by the few of us who are Homo neophile. Or as Bill Hicks would have said, "wake up, it's time to evolve."
Fix
Since on the moon you do not have the environmental hazards that you have on earth, running long distance lines from a sunlit area to a shadow area would not be as hard as you would not have to protect against weather.
(ok, you do have to worry about rocks hitting, but a thin enough line, what would be the chances?)
Finding water on the moon can really help to go to other planets, as you can use water itself as a fuel source.
In the future, you would actually want to send a series of ships out to the astroid belts where large pieces of ice exist, attach them to one of the ice blocks theoretically creating a large "ship" out of the ice.
Bring it to the moon (to take advantage of low gravity so it doesnt crush on itself) then mine it.
Then you have fuel for future space flights.
(Shiny penny to whoever can name the sci-fi story the above is from)
Solar
So you can get solar at the top of the crater but not the bottom.
The good stuffs at the bottom.
Hmm if only there were some way to join the dots. Like some cables or something.
Are we seriously suggesting setting up nuclear reactors on the Moon as a first step?
Sod the moon, lets not make it Earth 2. Let's get on with interstellar ships plskthx.
Re: Fix
I can't recall the name, but I believe it was a Hienlien short. I do remember the first sentancebeing "To work in space you need to be both a claustrophobe and an agrophobe; I take that back, one must be a claustrophile and an agrophile, to be in space you can't have be afraid of anything."
..Or something along those lines, it's been years. But wasn't it Mars, in that story?
To get water......
The best way was suggested by Isaac Asimov in his story The Martian Way, if I recall things correctly.
@Swarthy:
Maybe the Heinlein short you're thinking of is "Misfit" or "Delilah and the Space Rigger"?
Never gonna happen
Water ice, probably finely mixed amongst regolith, makes manned lunar exploration easier the way that a coat of paint makes a chocolate fireguard more effective. The statement is technically accurate, but makes no difference whatever to the result.
FAIL because that's what attempts at any but the most token boot-in-the-dust Apollo-like programme of manned exploration (let alone beyond the earth/moon system) will do. And I've £1000 here for a charity of the winner's choice to anyone who'd like to bet that I'm wrong. (Seriously, at longbets.org .)
More signs of water in space
When water was discovered on Mars from satellite obs, it was because of protons.
When water is discovered on the Moon from satellite obs, it is because of neutrons.
Well, chaps, which is to be - protons, neutrons, or aliens brewing up around a campfire?
Anybody remember what a "mirror" is?
Why is it that every "primitive" culture solves the problem of moving light about using mirrors, but our "modern" culture can't figure that one out? Just bounce the light off a mirror over to where you need it to be. Mylar is light, and it folds up for transport. Nifty! Now the bottom of the crater has light.
As for interstellar travel, let's just first try to keep the lights on earthside, OK?
@AC1432
Possible contenders, just off the top of my head
Gallaghers Glacier by leigh & Walt Richmond
The Man Who Corrupted Earth by G C Edmondson
at least 4 of RAHs stories including The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
The High Justice short stories of Dr Jerry Pournelle.
And I think Spider Robinson used it in a short story published in Galaxy/Worlds of If magazine back around 1976
Forget the shiny penny, I'll have beer
Obvious astro-nought for this job.
David Hempleman-Adams. Been up all the worlds highest peaks, so he could probably climb down. Or, balloon down. And, if he gets frostbite, he'll just saw the affected part off, because "it's a nuisance". And as he's already got enough kids, THAT bit could go, too. Hell, he'll probably have a formal dinner party on the way to the bottom.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/wiltshire/4636543.stm. Daft buggers ;-)
when they find it.......
I want a bottle shipped to my doorstep in the biggest ozone blasting carbon un-neutral rocket they can find. Oh and I also want it cold otherwise I'll just whine like a little baby.
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