Making money on the moon seen key to exploration

[Kibbo86]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
The space elevator is a neccesary step before space exploration becomes a profitable option.

A space elevator would by much less expensive on the moon than on earth. It could be 1/3 the length due to the moon's weaker gravitational pull, and it could be weaker since there would be no weather to worry about (and fewer human/natural consequences if it came down).

Also, fuel and propulsion wouldn't be the greatest cost in a moon shuttle program. In zero g, a child's push can move a 747 all the way to the moon. It would just take a looooong time. (And, of course, earth orbit isn't absolutely zero g.)

The only reason moon vessels have needed to be fast in the past is that we've had men in there; men who've had a limited supply of food, water and sanity. Build enough automated craft, and you could have a constant chain of low-fuel, low-speed transports moving goods from the space elevator to earth orbit.

The capital costs of building such a moon fleet would be astronomical (heheh) but likely the largest marginal cost in such a system would still be lift-off from planet earth. Which we manage to do pretty often with today's technology, and could do much more cheaply with a larger, more durable space elevator.

That's only considering the transportation costs. Maintaining a manned base on the moon would be another matter.

Edit: Just saw the post about the moon cannons; that's so Jules Verne it brought tears to my eyes. One question: how do we stop the bullets, giant space kevlar vests?

 

[f95toli]

The canon was probably inspired by Jules Verne but it is (or was at least) a proposal in the Japanese space program. The point is that since the gravity of the moon is so low a canon might actually work. You do not need a lot of He-3 so each sphere does not have to be very big, a 100 kg "canon ball" might be enough.
Of course you do not fire it directly at earch, you use it the same way you would use a rocket: The speed and angle is adjusted so that the ball goes into an orbit around earth where is can be picked up and then transported to the surface (alternatively you could let it "spiral" down to earth and let the friction slow it down and then use a parachute).

Of course a canon would not work for a manned craft, the acceleration would kill everyone on board.