Elon Pivots To The Moon
Posted by freedomforall 18 hours, 53 minutes ago to Technology
Excerpt:
"A city on the Moon will cost somewhere between $100B and $500B, require thousands of Starship flights, and demand a decade of nonstop construction in a place where the temperature swings 400°C between day and night, the dust cuts through metal seals like sandpaper, and a single cracked habitat window means everyone inside is dead in about 90 seconds.
Musk just announced SpaceX is doing it anyway. Here’s the actual engineering path.
You build at the south pole. Specifically the rims and floors of craters like Shackleton and Cabeus, where temperatures in permanent shadow drop below -230°C. NASA estimates 600 million metric tons of water ice are buried in these craters under about 40 cm of dry regolith. That water becomes your oxygen supply, your drinking water, your radiation shielding, and 78% of your rocket propellant by mass. The crater rims get near-continuous sunlight for solar power. You build where the resources are."
"A city on the Moon will cost somewhere between $100B and $500B, require thousands of Starship flights, and demand a decade of nonstop construction in a place where the temperature swings 400°C between day and night, the dust cuts through metal seals like sandpaper, and a single cracked habitat window means everyone inside is dead in about 90 seconds.
Musk just announced SpaceX is doing it anyway. Here’s the actual engineering path.
You build at the south pole. Specifically the rims and floors of craters like Shackleton and Cabeus, where temperatures in permanent shadow drop below -230°C. NASA estimates 600 million metric tons of water ice are buried in these craters under about 40 cm of dry regolith. That water becomes your oxygen supply, your drinking water, your radiation shielding, and 78% of your rocket propellant by mass. The crater rims get near-continuous sunlight for solar power. You build where the resources are."
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- 3Posted by mccannon01 17 hours, 22 minutes agoVery interesting. I didn't realize lunar dust was so abrasive and sharp and presents a real challenge. It makes sense since there is no wind or water erosion to smooth edges of broken up material. No atmosphere, however, will allow it to settle quickly if disturbed rather than blow around like here on earth. Wipe your feet carefully when you enter a habitat.| Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink
- 2Posted by Abaco 20 minutes agoLess fraud there.| Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink
- 2Posted by $ Olduglycarl 11 hours, 19 minutes agoThe moon and Mars for that matter, along with all the other planets will be devastatingly affected by the solar micro nova. Don't know if the moon or mars has a meaningful magnetic field, maybe one can be created but the Blast and impactors from the event will be a killer.| Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink