The Moon Colony (Annotated)

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The Moon Colony by William Dixon Bell

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Would you like us to take another look at this review? No, cancel Yes, report it Thanks! You've successfully reported this review. We appreciate your feedback. October 9, ISBN: Power collection stations could therefore be plausibly located so that at least one is exposed to sunlight at all times, thus making it possible to power polar colonies almost exclusively with solar energy. Solar power would be unavailable only during a lunar eclipse , but these events are relatively brief and absolutely predictable.

Any such colony would therefore require a reserve energy supply that could temporarily sustain a colony during lunar eclipses or in the event of any incident or malfunction affecting solar power collection. Hydrogen fuel cells would be ideal for this purpose, since the hydrogen needed could be sourced locally using the Moon's polar water and surplus solar power. Moreover, due to the Moon's uneven surface some sites have nearly continuous sunlight.

For example, Malapert mountain , located near the Shackleton crater at the lunar south pole, offers several advantages as a site:. NASA chose to use a south-polar site for the lunar outpost reference design in the Exploration Systems Architecture Study chapter on lunar architecture. At the north pole, the rim of Peary Crater has been proposed as a favorable location for a base.

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The interior of Peary Crater may also harbor hydrogen deposits. A [73] bistatic radar experiment performed during the Clementine mission suggested the presence of water ice around the south pole. A potential limitation of the polar regions is that the inflow of solar wind can create an electrical charge on the leeward side of crater rims. The resulting voltage difference can affect electrical equipment, change surface chemistry, erode surfaces and levitate lunar dust. The lunar equatorial regions are likely to have higher concentrations of helium-3 rare on Earth but much sought after for use in nuclear fusion research because the solar wind has a higher angle of incidence.

The rotation advantage for launching material is slight due to the Moon's slow rotation, but the corresponding orbit coincides with the ecliptic, nearly coincides with the lunar orbit around Earth, and nearly coincides with the equatorial plane of Earth. Several probes have landed in the Oceanus Procellarum area. There are many areas and features that could be subject to long-term study, such as the Reiner Gamma anomaly and the dark-floored Grimaldi crater. The lunar far side lacks direct communication with Earth, though a communication satellite at the L 2 Lagrangian point , or a network of orbiting satellites, could enable communication between the far side of the Moon and Earth.

Scientists have estimated that the highest concentrations of helium-3 can be found in the maria on the far side, as well as near side areas containing concentrations of the titanium -based mineral ilmenite. On the near side the Earth and its magnetic field partially shields the surface from the solar wind during each orbit. But the far side is fully exposed, and thus should receive a somewhat greater proportion of the ion stream.

Lunar lava tubes are a potential location for constructing a lunar base. Any intact lava tube on the Moon could serve as a shelter from the severe environment of the lunar surface, with its frequent meteorite impacts, high-energy ultra-violet radiation and energetic particles, and extreme diurnal temperature variations. Lava tubes provide ideal positions for shelter because of their access to nearby resources. They also have proven themselves as a reliable structure, having withstood the test of time for billions of years.

An underground colony would escape the extreme of temperature on the Moon's surface. One such lava tube was discovered in early There have been numerous proposals regarding habitat modules. The designs have evolved throughout the years as mankind's knowledge about the Moon has grown, and as the technological possibilities have changed. The proposed habitats range from the actual spacecraft landers or their used fuel tanks, to inflatable modules of various shapes.

Some hazards of the lunar environment such as sharp temperature shifts, lack of atmosphere or magnetic field which means higher levels of radiation and micrometeoroids and long nights, were unknown early on. Proposals have shifted as these hazards were recognized and taken into consideration. Some suggest building the lunar colony underground, which would give protection from radiation and micrometeoroids.

This would also greatly reduce the risk of air leakage, as the colony would be fully sealed from the outside except for a few exits to the surface. The construction of an underground base would probably be more complex; one of the first machines from Earth might be a remote-controlled excavating machine.

Once created, some sort of hardening would be necessary to avoid collapse, possibly a spray-on concrete -like substance made from available materials. Inflatable self-sealing fabric habitats might then be put in place to retain air. Eventually an underground city can be constructed.

The Moon Colony

Farms set up underground would need artificial sunlight. As an alternative to excavating, a lava tube could be covered and insulated, thus solving the problem of radiation exposure. An alternative solution is studied in Europe by students to excavate a habitat in the ice-filled craters of the moon. A possibly easier solution would be to build the lunar base on the surface, and cover the modules with lunar soil.

The lunar soil is composed of a unique blend of silica and iron-containing compounds that may be fused into a glass-like solid using microwave energy. A lunar base built on the surface would need to be protected by improved radiation and micrometeoroid shielding. Building the lunar base inside a deep crater would provide at least partial shielding against radiation and micrometeoroids. Artificial magnetic fields have been proposed [91] [92] as a means to provide radiation shielding for long range deep space crewed missions, and it might be possible to use similar technology on a lunar colony.

Some regions on the Moon possess strong local magnetic fields that might partially mitigate exposure to charged solar and galactic particles. Overall, these habitats would require only ten percent of the structure mass to be transported from Earth, while using local lunar materials for the other 90 percent of the structure mass. Inside, a lightweight pressurized inflatable with the same dome shape would be the living environment for the first human Moon settlers. In , The Moon Capital Competition offered a prize for a design of a lunar habitat intended to be an underground international commercial center capable of supporting a residential staff of 60 people and their families.

The Moon Capital is intended to be self-sufficient with respect to food and other material required for life support. On January 31, , the ESA working with an independent architectural firm, tested a 3D-printed structure that could be constructed of lunar regolith for use as a Moon base.

Colonization of the Moon

A nuclear fission reactor might fulfill most of a Moon base's power requirements. Radioisotope thermoelectric generators could be used as backup and emergency power sources for solar powered colonies. The FSP system concept uses conventional low-temperature stainless steel , liquid metal-cooled reactor technology coupled with Stirling power conversion. Helium-3 mining could be used to provide a substitute for tritium for potential production of fusion power in the future. Solar energy is a possible source of power for a lunar base. Many of the raw materials needed for solar panel production can be extracted on site.

However, the long lunar night hours or This might be solved by building several power plants, so that at least one of them is always in daylight. Another possibility would be to build such a power plant where there is constant or near-constant sunlight, such as at the Malapert mountain near the lunar south pole, or on the rim of Peary crater near the north pole. Since lunar regolith contains structural metals like iron and aluminum, solar panels could be mounted high up on locally-built towers that might rotate to follow the sun.

A third possibility would be to leave the panels in orbit , and beam the power down as microwaves. The solar energy converters need not be silicon solar panels. It may be more advantageous to use the larger temperature difference between Sun and shade to run heat engine generators.

Concentrated sunlight could also be relayed via mirrors and used in Stirling engines or solar trough generators, or it could be used directly for lighting, agriculture and process heat. The focused heat might also be employed in materials processing to extract various elements from lunar surface materials. Fuel cells on the Space Shuttle have operated reliably for up to 17 Earth days at a time. Fuel cells produce water directly as a waste product.

Current fuel cell technology is more advanced than the Shuttle's cells — PEM Proton Exchange Membrane cells produce considerably less heat though their waste heat would likely be useful during the lunar night and are lighter, not to mention the reduced mass of the smaller heat-dissipating radiators.

This makes PEMs more economical to launch from Earth than the shuttle's cells. PEMs have not yet been proven in space. Even if lunar colonies could provide themselves access to a near-continuous source of solar energy, they would still need to maintain fuel cells or an alternate energy storage system to sustain themselves during lunar eclipses and emergency situations. Conventional rockets have been used for most lunar explorations to date. The construction workers, location finders, and other astronauts vital to building, would have been taken four at a time in NASA's Orion spacecraft.

Proposed concepts of Earth-Moon transportation are Space elevators. Lunar colonists would need the ability to transport cargo and people to and from modules and spacecraft, and to carry out scientific study of a larger area of the lunar surface for long periods of time. Proposed concepts include a variety of vehicle designs, from small open rovers to large pressurized modules with lab equipment, and also a few flying or hopping vehicles.

Rovers could be useful if the terrain is not too steep or hilly. The Soviet Union developed different rover concepts in the Lunokhod series and the L5 for possible use on future crewed missions to the Moon or Mars. These rover designs were all pressurized for longer sorties.

If multiple bases were established on the lunar surface, they could be linked together by permanent railway systems. Both conventional and magnetic levitation Maglev systems have been proposed for the transport lines. Mag-Lev systems are particularly attractive as there is no atmosphere on the surface to slow down the train , so the vehicles could achieve velocities comparable to aircraft on the Earth.

Julian is up against it, but fortunately he can design and make all manor of useful gadgets at a moment's notice and in bulk orders, so that's all right then - Toplinsky, pygmies, crickets and large three-eyed monsters beware! Obviously if you're writing for a juvenile you don't exactly have to be Vladimir Nabokov, but it helps if you can at least come across as more competent than the readership.

Dixon Bell failed to do that so spectacularly, I actually enjoyed his cretinous attempt, like watching one of those ridiculous Doug McClure dinosaur movies. Yeah, they were fun. Amanda Ivey rated it really liked it Apr 07, Ricalg rated it liked it May 16, Jon Barnes rated it liked it Jun 20, Casey marked it as to-read Mar 22, Mordax marked it as to-read Apr 01, Keith Stone marked it as to-read Dec 09, Matthew added it Sep 25, There are no discussion topics on this book yet.

About William Dixon Bell.