| From: | Jeffrey Mach <mach@****.CALTECH.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: It's not Cheese :( |
| Date: | Thu, 5 Mar 1998 18:19:27 -0800 |
> Just thought I'd let you all know, further to the recent discussion
> concerning exploration and a possible moon base. It was confirmed on
> Sky News today that NASA have just discovered that the moon isn't made
> from cream cheese, it is in fact laden with water. Allegedly there is a
> vast quantity of the stuff frozen beneath the surface. The Lunar
> Prospector seems to have found a subsurface lake of ice at the south
> pole of the moon somewhere in the region of millions of cubic tons with
> significantly more at the north pole. The ice can possibly be melted
> down for drinking water, and utilise the hydrogen for rocket fuel.
Well whaddaya know. And if you all want more info check:
http://www.nasa.gov
and
http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/
Little nitpick: its either cubic meters or metric tons (which, when you
are talking about water are virtually identical) not cubic tons.
The ice is quite valuable for use by people instead of conversion to fuel,
but I could see some conversion being done in the early years, while a
vast percentage of the water used in a colony is recycled. Sure when you
hear millions of cubic meters it sounds like a lot, but in comparison to
the Earth, it is quite literally a drop in the bucket (1 million tons of
water forms a cube about 100m on a side). (Now if only we could start
using the low-energy comets for space colony drinking water =) e.g.
Halley's Comet is rated at about 100 billion metric tons, but there
are lots more a lot smaller.)
> Looks like things are taking an upturn after all. Maybe we will all
> live long enough to see something really interesting. <g> I wonder if
> the aliens have moved that ring of warning satellites yet? <EG>
What ring? We just have to worry about the Tycho Magnetic Anomaly. :P
> OK, assuming that something like this does manage to get itself sorted
> in the next 20 years, and they get something built up there - which of
> the mages here want to volunteer to go astral and start chucking spells
> around. <smirk>
When reports from Tycho City mages come back with a full "thumb's up" on
the Mana-count.
> orbital prisons, or a prison colony on a moon or large asteroid?
> Would the
> government (I think yes) send the more dangerous and violent criminals
> to such a place, and if so, would it be manned, or along the lines of a
> "free" prison where the convicts govern themselves?
I don't expect to see any Alien^3-esque space-prisons. Like Justin said:
too damn expensive, if you were going to get medieval on prisoners, you
might as well do it down here in the gravity well. The only thing I could
see is for a work furlough program. You either serve your time in an
Earthly hellhole, or we put you to work building a space, or lunar colony.
Sure the odds you make it out alive are the same, but here, we treat you
nicer, and sucking vacuum is a quicker way to go, if you have to. The
only impracticality here is that it wouldn't go if robotic labor had been
developed to the point where it was more cost effective.
--My two yen
Jeff
