Building a Lunar Settlement?

Put yourself on the Moon and consider what you need to build a Lunar Settlement.
- LRK -

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http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/AtHomeAstronomy/activity_04.html
Building a Lunar Settlement

About this Activity
In this activity you'll learn what is needed sustain human life on the moon.
Many of the things that we take for granted are unavailable in the harsh lunar environment. You and your family will build a model lunar settlement that provides all the necessities for healthy and happy human inhabitants.

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What will you decorate your walls with?
- LRK -

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http://www.lunar-reclamation.org/art/moonbow1.htm
Art in a Lunar Settlement - Some Relevant Assumptions

by Peter Kokh

It seems reasonable to assume that once economic activity justifies an honest-to-goodness settlement on the Moon, those choosing to make this barren raw world their adopted homeland will be able to freely import familiar art and craft materials from Earth with which to express themselves and humanize their habitat space. Settlers will be engaged in the production of exports (helium-3 for future fusion plants, construction materials with which to build bigger, less costly facilities in space: research stations, factories, tourist resorts, solar power satellites, etc.; agricultural products for use in such facilities; and more). These exports and others will be their sole coin with which to pay for imports: items necessary for the construction and support of the settlement that they cannot, or at least not yet, make for themselves.

The Moon is rich with elements from which to make building materials. Lunar oxygen, silicon, aluminum, iron, titanium, magnesium, and calcium comprise most of the crust. Other elements are to be found in less abundance. But the above will suffice to make useful metal alloys, glass, fiberglass, glass composites, ceramics, and even lunar concrete - as well as free oxygen for air, fuel, and water production. An early read of the data from this Spring's Clementine lunar polar orbiter suggests that there are water ice-reserves in permanently shadowed polar craters (permashade). Until all the data has been analyzed, we cannot be confident of this "eureka". And even if confirmation is forthcoming, it may require further analysis, perhaps ground-truth missions, to determine if this resource exists in economically recoverable quantities. If fortune smiles, the prospects for a self-sufficient lunar settlement will rise considerably.

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Some are practicing by participating in learning activities.
- LRK -

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http://www.galaxymaine.com/SA/SA2f.htm#lunar
Building a Lunar Settlement

Objectives and State of Maine Learning Results Performance Indicators:
Learners will be able to recognize (brainstorm) needs for human survival in space. (3-4. Science and Technology. K. #6.) Learners will be able to design and build a model lunar settlement. (3-4.
Science and Technology. J. #4, L. #4.) (5-8. Science and Technology. L. #4.) Learners will be able to communicate their design concepts and ideas with other students. (3-4. Science and Technology. L. #7.) (5-8. Science and Technology. L. #6.)

The General Idea: Here is a chance for you to use up some of those interesting scraps and snips of things that most people throw away, but could make perfect components for a model lunar settlement. In this activity, students first think of everything they would need to survive for years on a lunar settlement, and then design and build a model of such a settlement from various easy to find parts.

This activity can take on different meanings to different age groups. For older students, the question of what is necessary to survive in space can have special significance, since they soon may be candidates for space missions themselves. For younger students, this activity is more of an open ended creative process of building a home on the moon.

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Questions? Check out the FAQ below and then check the navigation links on the left.
- LRK -

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http://www.space-frontier.org/PROJECTS/Moon/faqs.html
A PROJECT OF THE SPACE FRONTIER FOUNDATION
RETURN TO THE MOON
THIS TIME WE STAY

Frequently Asked Question

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Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/361069.cms
'Time is right to put an Indian in space'
[ 8 Nov, 2006 0059hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

BANGALORE/MUMBAI: India's top scientists gathered under one roof on Tuesday to laud the fact that the country was ready to put an Indian in space by
2014 and perhaps one on the moon six years later.

About 80 scientists from across the country gave the green signal to the manned space mission at a meeting organised by Indian Space Research Organisation at its headquarters. Scientists, expressing appreciation for Isro's four-year study on the issue, were unanimous in suggesting that "time is appropriate" for India to undertake a manned mission to space. Among those who took part in the day-long deliberations was India's first cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma, who flew in a Russian rocket in April 1984. He spent eight days in a Russian space station.

"At the end of the meeting the opinion was unanimous that India should launch a manned space flight," an Isro spokesperson told TOI. The decision will now be formally ratified by the Centre, as was done in the case of the unmanned Indian lunar mission.

This much-awaited lift off of India's first manned space flight will be from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. Isro subsequently plans to put a man on the Moon by 2020, four years before China. "In the manned mission to space, we are just looking at reaching space and back. There is no proposal about the Moon now," an Isro official said.

The scientists' approval for this ambitious Rs 10,000-crore project, which will be spread over eight years, assumes significance in the context of Pakistan and Malaysia sending people into space. In fact Malaysia has not ruled out the possibility of one of its astronauts of going to the Moon by 2020.

China has embarked on manned space flights and is also exploring the possibility of setting up a permanent lunar settlement. The feeling was that India with its excellent capabilities in the space sector should not be left out.

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Thanks much for your opinion Donald.
May I share it with the lunar-update list?
Larry

> -----Original Message-----
> Sent: Thursday, November 09, 2006 1:05 PM
> To: Larry Kellogg
> Subject: Re: [lunar-update] Space Vision 2006 - November 9 - 12, 2006
> - University of Central Florida
>
Good afternoon, Larry,

Here's my opinion of what the change in power means, adapted from some things I've written in Jeff Foust's spacepolitics.com.

I may be over-optimistic, but I think it very unlikely a Democratic Congress would actively oppose the VSE. First, it will be at or near the bottom of their list of priorities. Second, NASA under Dr. Griffin has done a masterful job of spreading the contractor wealth -- being against the VSE is likely to mean being against jobs in your state. Third, as recent votes in Congress have demonstrated (somewhat to my surprise, it must be said), support for something like the VSE (if not the VSE itself) is bi-partisan: many younger Democratic politicians are not ideologically opposed to human spaceflight. Fourth, as Republican advertisements have been pointing out, the Democratic Congressional leadership is likely to be from the San Francisco area, and it is often forgotten that we do have a major presence in the space industry -- NASA Ames, Loral Space, and Lockheed Martin are all headquartered here, as are more than our share of second and third tier subcontractors. Two of the nation's remaining commercial satellite factories are here. San Francisco area politicians (if not Nancy Perlosi herself) are aware of and often supportive of spaceflight issues. Likewise, New York is likely to have new power, and there are a surprising number of aerospace contractors in that city, as well as in the State.

I do expect a different tone, and automated space science may fare better under a Democratic Congress. But no Democratic Congress is likely to retreat entirely from human spaceflight, and, given that, there are not a lot of clear -- and politically and financially acceptable -- alternatives to something like the VSE. The VSE after all was designed to find a way forward in human spaceflight with a minimum up-front investment, and while Dr. Griffin has backed off from that to some degree by building new medium class launch vehicles, it is still far cheaper than most of the obvious alternatives. By the time the Democrats actually get around to addressing the issue, the VSE is likely to be pretty firmly entrenched. Viewed as a jobs program, it may even get more positive attention than it has under Mr. Bush.

I think our biggest ally in this is simple conservatism (with a small "c"). Relatively few politicians in either party are actively opposed to human spaceflight, and some of those that are cannot be seen to back down in the face of China (and, in a few years, India) joining the "club." Combined with that, and more importantly, the Democrats have much bigger fish to fry. My prediction is that, unless there is a major change in the non-political arena (e.g., the VSE runs into serious technical or managerial problems or there is another Shuttle accident or, lest we forget, someone gets killed building the Space Station), the VSE will slide beneath the radar. Even if one of those things happen, the nation has a history of rallying behind the project of the day, and the result might even be a net (political) gain -- as was the loss of Columbia. The ball really is in Dr. Griffin's court now to make the execution of the VSE as smooth and invisible as possible.

Wish him luck because he's going to need it.


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http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20051101faessay84604/melvin-r-laird/iraq-learning-the-lessons-of-vietnam.html
Iraq: Learning the Lessons of Vietnam
Melvin R. Laird
>From Foreign Affairs, November/December 2005

Summary: During Richard Nixon's first term, when I served as secretary of
defense, we withdrew most U.S. forces from Vietnam while building up the
South's ability to defend itself. The result was a success -- until Congress
snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by cutting off funding for our ally
in 1975. Washington should follow a similar strategy now, but this time
finish the job properly.

MELVIN R. LAIRD was Secretary of Defense from 1969 to 1973, Counselor to the
President for Domestic Affairs from 1973 to 1974, and a member of the House
of Representatives from 1952 to 1969. He currently serves as Senior
Counselor for National and International Affairs at the Reader's Digest
Association.

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

Richard Nixon was elected in 1968 on the assumption that he had a plan to
end the Vietnam War. He didn't have any such plan, and my job as his first
secretary of defense was to remedy that -- quickly. The only stated plan was
wording I had suggested for the 1968 Republican platform, saying it was time
to de-Americanize the war. Today, nearly 37 years after Nixon took office as
president and I left Congress to join his cabinet, getting out of a war is
still dicier than getting into one, as President George W. Bush can attest.

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The above is offered for consideration as the U.S.A. Congress changes and we
look at where the money is going. I hope we continue to look towards going
towards the Moon but we will have to consider obligations already accepted.
- LRK -
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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