How would mankind settle on the moon?

[menace]

Ok, some food for thought--when and if man starts colonizing the moon as a precursor to space exploration ala star trek, who if anyone would have property rights on the moon? Would anyone? Is it fair to have whatever country gets there first dibs on the terrain or should it be considered the property of earth and all its inhabitants even those poor buggers in ethiopia?

It would seem to me that this issue is going to be arrising sooner rather than later as the chinese are now space capable as well as the EU, Japan, russia. In fact they even have a plan on getting there (space.com). And even though the chinese government is a totalitarian regime they do have a way of getting things done (i.e I have 10 tanks that say you're going to leave this square...)

Seeing as you guys are at least as nerdy as I am, you might have some thoughts on this

[adamthole]

who would want to live on the moon? Wouldnt it be pretty miserable. I am more of an athletic person, and if i had to wear a freakin space suit all the time, and never be able to go outside, i would rather be dead i believe.

[menace]

yah but think of the zero G sex And its common knowledge that astronauts always get some!

[Tommy]

Yep this is off topic.......

But really, I'd say the USA owns the moon..... We were there first.

Oh and this is not a new thing people have been thinking of how to colonize the moon for a few decades now.

[d4n13l]

>>But really, I'd say the USA owns the moon..... We were there first


Better leave the USA then..... the Indians were there first.
LOL

If anybody wants to go stake their claim on the moon, let them: Thats one less selfish prick on earth.
8)

[Verbatim]

yah but think of the zero G sex :D And its common knowledge that astronauts always get some!

What are you a teenager? your body would adjust to 0 G and once it did you could never come back. For the person how live his hole life up there it would be the same as if was on earth. They have this problem now every day a person is in space a person must spend a day to recover from the low G. They even lose bone mass. you have been reading to many SI-FI books

[menace]

Wow verbatim you ARE a nerd!! It was just a philosophical question meant for people to present different ideologies on how one might tackle the next frontier--or at the least give people a chance to make off color jokes Keep it light people I'm not asking to start a debate on the relative merits of faster than light travel or something -jeez

I am not a teenager (haven't been for awhile) but if its any consolation my girlfriend says I act like one sometimes.

[loveturtle]

I really doubt you could "permanently" have the moon colonized
I imagine those that do go wont be the creme of the crop so to speak
new phrases in the militarywill abound
instead of saying "for that incident you are going to a remote outpost in the artic/antartic"
"you are to complete a tour of duty upon the surface of Lunar"
I think it will mostly be rejects who have to go there-I woulldnt be supprised if countries like China sent prisoners there(we should copy that ourselves after all where are they going to escape to? and if they do escape who cares?they would be dead as soon as their O2 ran out they cant hurt any more civilians up there and they would be giving back to society by mining for us overseen by guards who have ticked off their supperiors)

[d4n13l]

One serious concern would be the radiation that you would be subjected to. Life expectancy would drop sharply unless you could find a way to protect people from it. The Earth protects us naturally, the moon is just lump of cheese... I mean rock, that has offers no protection. I would think that solar flares could prove nasty; one minute you are happily minding your own business, eating cheese and so forth, the next minute you are infertile and your life expectancy as halved.

[Greg12]

we would need radiation shielding and a way to generate artifical gravity.

We could just use lots of gold and lead and concreate.


As for the gravity, the colony would look weird as the only way we know to make gravity is by spinning an object

[MOVIEGEEK]

You would'nt survive long (arid planet).I can't believe taxpayers are
still funding these fantasies(international space station,mars,etc),
the only people who benefit from space exploration are a handfull
of astronauts and millionaires.I do like that zero-g sex idea

[Mirror_Image]

1. Solar radiation (no atmosphere to inhibit it).

2. Impact hazards (no atmosphere to slow small incoming objects); notice all the craters, they are there for a reason.

--Both of these problems could be eliminated for the most part by going underground.

3. Gravity

--There isn't a lot (1/6 of earth's gravity), but there is some.

4. Power

--Nuclear reactor, buried of course. Cooling the reactor would be no problem, if you think about it. Solar power, you say? Solar arrays would not live long with incoming space debris hitting them at full speed (no atmosphere) every so often (this damages them on some satellites from time to time).

Any colony would have to be underground, with only hardened access points above surface.

5. Food

Underground farming, small scale. This also helps with the carbon dioxide <=> oxygen problem.

6. Water

Problem! Even compared to fictional Arrakis, this is a dry place, as far as we know.

[videoguy79]

It wouldn't matter if we could settle the moon, due to the fact that different countries would be constantly bitching and fighting over who's land is who's (like the Jews and Arabs are currently doing on Earth). On the other hand, it would make a great and inescapable prison.

[Bschuler]

The only way anyone would stay on the moon, would be for a multi-national (no one country could afford it) super building station for large transit and exploration ships in space. Kinda like the multi-national space station currently being built in space.

The workout routine alone for space (low g lessen your ability to walk when you return to earth unless you workout), makes it not something I would want to pursue.

[bilbogod]

I guess some of you may or may not have heard of the website www.paintthemoon.org (seems to be down at the mo).
Basically this is a meeting point for people all over the globe who unite in shining a red dot laser pointer at the moon at exactly the same moment each month. A mathematician has shown that if enough people do this the moon will tempararily give the appearance of being red in colour. So far despite the numbers of people trying it has not been achieved. But I'm gonna have a go at the next event......

[menace]

I'd be the first one to agree that the moon has its share of obstacles but I'm a firm believer in the perserverance of man (even in the light of all the shit headed things 'he' is currrently undertaken) but like mirror image was pointing out they are foreseeable obstacles that can be dealt with. Also given that a mars mission seems inevitable, wouldn't it be good to have even a little experience living off-earth before sending men and women on a 100 billion dollar, 9 month experiment to see how it goes. Engineering is one thing, reality is another (as an engineer i know this from personal experience )

As far as land goes, I grudgingly agree that if anything of value i.e. water is discovered they (the space fearing countries) will squabble over it just like they do everyhting else. I guess my originally question was not if its possible or even reasonable, but how would the colonization be done? I'm not a fan of the space prison idea--imagine how much money the justice system would leach from tax payers then--hey buddy you killed 50 people, now we'll give you a 10 million dollar ride to someplace out of the way--I say just space em and be done with it. I'm thinking resort for old people--less gravity and lots of sunshine

One final note, we could all benefit from this because Im thinking if they can build habitable settlements on the moon, they could at least figure out how to put 120mins movie on a VCD with great bitrate