Should we put a space base on the moon?

Question

I believe this would be a big step towards going anywhere else in the solar system.

Also I would think it would be best to put the base underground to avoid possible damage from astroids, with only the landing and launch pads on the surface.

Once you had small area underground that would support life it wouldn't be to hard to create entire city over time

Give me your own thoughts about this. Thanks

Answer 1

Yes, as long as it is privately funded. government funding can be involved, but private stakeholders should be the major part of the financial equation.

If profits can be made, development will take place and be sustained.

the development of a new frontier will give the investing nation a huge advantage over the non investing nations.

Think about the discovery of North and South America by European powers.

They quickly earned so much money that they quickly outstripped the importance of the older wealthier empires of China, India and the Middle East.

Their aggressive development of resources and technology (to compensate for lack of population) is our legacy.

And this time there are no indigenous peoples to exploit, just empty land and mineral wealth.


BTW having the base underground will make it easier to shield from radiation and loss of atmosphere, but a meteor strike would be about the same likelyhood and damage as hitting you in the place you live.

Slim to catastrophic

Answer 2

No no no. While it may be worth having a base on the moon, it is not the place for a launch pad to other places. Anything built on the moon has to be transported there. It is far, far more expensive to reach the moon compared to even a high orbit. Even if you said "Ok, let's put a manufacturing plant on the moon and then we won't have to transport the materials." You would have to transport the manufacturing plant. Plus, even at 1/6 gravity, the moon has the gravity well to fight on the way up, just like the earth does. There is no gravity well from orbit. It is far cheaper and more logical to build a space station (Gee, don't we already have one?) to start ships to other places in the solar system.

Answer 3

I believe, as you do, that it would indeed be a big step in the process of space travel. However, the need is not there at the present time. The people of any country would not be willing to fork over the money required to do such a thing. The Apollo program cost about as much in its time as the war on terrorism has right now. That means that probably only a few countries would even have the money to approach this project.

For this to happen there would have to be some sort of big reason to do so. The Space Race was the reason for Apollo, but now that it is over, there's no real catalyst for us to go back. Until that comes, there's no way that anybody would go for it.

Answer 4

The idea of an underground moon settlement sounds great....There are a couple of significant problems that need to be over come before that will ever happen......

The first is the outrageous cost of such an undertaking...it could never be borne by a single nation....it would need to be a united planetary venture.......do you see that kind of cooperation going on any where right now??....
and that is just the first part...the monetary needs would call multinational corporations into the mix ...and where would the profit be found to satisfy their needs in this kind of expenditure.....?

Secondly the atmospherics for such a settlement would need to be as far advanced as they possibly could be...at present even what we use in military submarines requires an outside source to replenish the oxygen....
Then what about the cargo payloads that would need to be sent to the moons surface prior to a human crew even setting foot on the surface...remember those remote control landers that were sent to mars and missed the target and disappeared....How many times would that happen and what kind of repercussions would that have if major parts to the settlement shelters and/or the excavation equipment didn't quite make it,or perhaps they hit the target spot on and slamming into the surface ruining the equipment...or causing any number of problems...
Finally the landers and transports for the lunar surface would need to be multi use heavy duty serviceable by the workers on the surface, and strictly solar powered as that is the most abundant fuel on the lunar world.....

Putting the logistical problems aside... the monetary cost of this sort of venture is likely to keep it from happening until we as a race get our ducks in a row down on this planet...

Answer 5

conceivable, yet not reasonable. more beneficial than the transportation complications (ever puzzled why we've lengthy gone into area each and every 12 months, yet have not been back to the Moon for 40 years?) there is the glaring... the Moon is darkish for 1/2 its "day" (2 weeks interior the darkish isn't effective) or maybe worse, each and every little thing receives coated with dirt even as it truly is electrostatically charged. plus the Moon is a freaking lengthy way away... the microwave beam might want to ought to flow to a collector in orbit, for you may want to not be precise from a quarter million miles. area depending ability is very not likely.... only seem at each and every of the debris shall we ought to attend to.

Answer 6

Should *WE* put a space base on the moon? Who is WE kimosabe?

I think that you are laboring under the notion that you or I have any say in the matter. Especially if it is NASA or other government body.

A privately-run venture for either tourism (and some tourists can be research scientists too) or mining at least gives you the opportunity to choose with your wallet whether or not "we" should have it. If you don't agree with it, don't use their services or buy their products (if you object to mining).

A privately run company or companies with homesteading private property rights off-world (outside planet Earth) is the ONLY WAY to get the economy expanded beyond our planet. The only way that humans will be able to begin the permanent colonization of space.

Answer 7

Yes we should put a base on the moon. this would a great launch point for interstellar spacecraft. It could also serve as a fueling/refueling point. With 1/3 gravity, launches from the moon require less fuel.

Answer 8

Yes it would be a great Idea!!! If we figure out how to colonize other worlds then we would'nt have to fight about land here on Earth-Because there is Literally an Infinite amount of Land out there in space to Build on.

Answer 9

I'm no hippy, but it's not too late to stop screwing this place up, you know.

Answer 10

Uranus would be a better place. it´s already digged, the only problem is the smell.