Moon colonization? – Yahoo

The moon is the perfect stepping stone for human exploration of space and for that reason going back to the moon is very important. Just supplying the ISS with food, air and water from a lunarbase would be alot cheaper than supplying the ISS from earth. This is BECAUSE the moon has so little gravity and no atmosphere. A payload taking off from the lunar surface can have any shape or size. No need to take in account drag and aerodynamics. And using a MagLev track payloads can be lofted into space using only electricity.

Everything needed to build spaceship and equippment is right there on the lunar surface as it is very similar in composition to earths crust. There are no or very little of volatiles like carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen but those same elements are considered waste on the ISS. CO2, urine and waste plastics for instance. Everywhere humans go they bring it along. A station on the moon that takes care of wastes from the ISS would be a good start for a lunar industry. CO2 is split into carbon and oxygen using the Sabatier electrolysis cycle which also produces hydrogen. Hydrogen and carbon is used to steal oxygen from the lunarsoil and metals for construction become the "waste" that can be used. So you get more CO2 and water that you can split into hydrogen, oxygen and carbon once more. Eventually you have so much oxygen you have no choice but to get rid of it. So you sell it to NASA for a profit where it is turned back into precious CO2. Same thing with the water only it just gets enriched with nitrogen compunds.

Food production isnt a given. We dont know when it is feasible or if it can even be done on the moon. But if you stock up on enough water and CO2 a biological outpost on the moon would be ideal. Then you finally get to put all those nitrogen compunds into use and begin to sell kelpburgers to NASA.

I wouldnt call this colonization however. People would just live and work on the moon much like we live and work on oilplatforms, in nuclear subs or in research stations in Antarctica. But I am still all for it. There are plenty of other worlds out there that we WILL colonize. We just need to build a bridge to them first.

See original here:
Moon colonization? - Yahoo