VISION

The vision of LiTeRaTi, lunar branch:
A lunar colony established before the year 2030.
With a lunar colony, we mean a group of people; men, women and children; living on the moon, without need for supply of materials or technology from earth. Thus, all necessary goods are produced from lunar raw materials in factories on the moon.

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Rationale and motivation:
There are many potential uses for a Lunar workforce and infrastructure. Most things that anyone would like to use outside the gravity well of Earth would be cheaper if Lunar materials could be used. Of primary interest would be products that are heavy, but easy to manufacture. Production of goods such as hydrogen fuel, construction materials for earth orbit or deep space exploration are obvious candidates. On the other hand, services, such as tourist resort facilities and construction and support of observatories and other scientific activities, would be much cheaper with a life support infrastructure in place. The extraction of helium3 for use in fusion plants on Earth, or solar arrays beaming power down to Earth are much cited examples, but of no immediate interest as technical solotions are lacking. In exchange for work done by the colonists, Earth would provide goods and services that are easy to transport but difficult to manufacture, such as high tech goods, knowledge and entertainment.
But the most compelling argument for a self-supporting lunar colony is that it would be self-supporting. Thus, even if all space funding on Earth would for some reason be cut off, mankind would still have a bridgehead in space. When a lunar colony is able to sustain itself, human nature will ensure that it will also grow. Eventually, the next step outwards, towards Mars, moons of other planets, or the asteroids will perhaps be taken from the lunar surface rather than from within the protective atmosphere of earth.

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Business strategy:

"Sell" a lunar colony – or rather convince enough governments and wealthy corporations to join forces in building the infrastructure of the colony.

To achieve this goal, two things are needed;

1) The capability to produce a colony on the moon. On the moon, everything needed for human life is present: energy and raw materials. Solar energy is abundant without an atmosphere to dissipate it, there are water reservoirs frozen at the pole, and all base elements needed for biological life are present, albeit some only in trace amounts in the soil. The technologies needed to extract crucial elements from lunar soil, and to establish an artificial ecosystem able to support humans exist today and have been tested in smaller scale(see Biosphere 2). It is our firm belief that sufficient knowledge does exist, but that co-ordination and proper funding is lacking. To gain "control" over this production capability, we need to establish good contacts with institutes and enterprises with necessary know-how and production capacity. Note that we are not striving to acquire companies or build an industrial empire - just to stimulate cooperation between independent companies by creating a common vision.

2) Commitment of enough funds: The cost will of course be enormous, and we do not believe that any government or corporation will be able to cover the entire cost. Thus, a large number of customers are needed. Since the idea is to create an infrastructure for the common good of society, the governments of the large industrial nations must stand for the major cost. But commercial investors and less developed countries are expected to contribute, in order to gain priority access to the facilities. What is needed is worldwide commitment, not to send someone to an exotic piece of rock in space to take samples and photos, but to produce the necessary infrastructure, making it possible for people to live in space - on the moon. LiTeRaTi will work towards raising the motivation for such an endeavour by gathering and distributing information about what will be needed to build the colony, by encouraging individuals and organisations working on relevant projects, and other activities to gain public support for lunar colonisation efforts.

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Plan

Achieve credibility within the space community by publishing several papers on lunar base construction and strategy, and working with others with coincident interests. (1997-2002)
Break down the requirements for the lunar colony, starting with "indefinite survival of inhabitants", and eventually going into the technical detail needed for design specifications. (1997-2002)
Define the project and secure commitment and support from national funding agencies and industries, worldwide. (1999-2010)
Construction and successive immigration. (2010-2030)

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LiTeRaTi is a small company run in the spare time by
Niklas Järvstråt

Literat@algonet.se
Klövervägen 12
S-461 58 Trollhättan
SWEDEN