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I think the first step towards large scale human activity in space is the construction of substantial industrial facilities on the moon. The central advantage o

I think the first step towards large scale human activity in space is the construction of substantial industrial facilities on the moon. The central advantage of such facilities is that it will be much much cheaper to launch material into space from the moon, because it has lower gravity and less atmosphere. When those facilities are fully operational, we'll be able to send large numbers of vehicles into space, including big residential ships where lots of people could live for extended periods of time. It's not clear to me why it would be better to live on Mars (or some other planet/moon) than on a well-designed spaceship.

onion2k 6y ago
The central advantage of such facilities is that it will be much much cheaper to launch material into space from the moon... Unless you're making things out of stuff that's already on the moon you'd have to get the raw material from Earth to the Moon, and then from the Moon to where you want it in space. There might well be advantages to doing that, raw materials can be fired in to space at higher Gs than manufactured parts using a railgun for example, but the cost of building a Moon factory is likely to mean the cost of building on the Moon is still much higher for a long time.
- antepodius 6y ago
  The point is explicitly to use materials from the moon.
  - valuearb 6y ago
    Those materials aren’t on the moon.
    - wongarsu 6y ago
      The lunar surface seems rich in silicon, iron, magnesium and aluminium, great materials to build spaceships from.
      - valuearb 6y ago
        Only with the investment of massive amounts of energy and landing millions of tons of equipment to process regolith and melt out important components. The same materials can be found in near earth asteroids without that massive investment, or being buried in such a large gravity well. It’s like saying we can process good out of seawater, which we can, but it’s hand waving away the massive difficulties.
    - misanthropian00 6y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_resources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_resources Seems to have plenty of iron and titanium and aluminum, but we have spent almost no time there so we don't really know. Well when I say 'we' haven't spent much time there I don't mean to speak for you. You may in fact have been born there for all I know. But the rest of us need to do more research I think before reaching any such conclusion. Or maybe we could just ask you.
      - valuearb 6y ago
        Ok, tell me how many millions of tons of equipment and how many gigawatts of power we will need to process out large quantities of these resources from razor sharp sand, and how many trillions of dollars it will cost to build it on the moon? We can process gold out of seawater, so why do we dig far into the earth to find veins of gold?
valuearb 6y ago
The moon is a large gravity well that adds a hefty tax in deltaV cost to anything sent to or returned from it. It also devoid of useful resources and building materials, especially compared to near earth asteroids. Building in low earth orbit will always be way cheaper.

onion2k 6y ago

The central advantage of such facilities is that it will be much much cheaper to launch material into space from the moon... Unless you're making things out of stuff that's already on the moon you'd have to get the raw material from Earth to the Moon, and then from the Moon to where you want it in space. There might well be advantages to doing that, raw materials can be fired in to space at higher Gs than manufactured parts using a railgun for example, but the cost of building a Moon factory is likely to mean the cost of building on the Moon is still much higher for a long time.

antepodius 6y ago
The point is explicitly to use materials from the moon.
- valuearb 6y ago
  Those materials aren’t on the moon.
  - wongarsu 6y ago
    The lunar surface seems rich in silicon, iron, magnesium and aluminium, great materials to build spaceships from.
    - valuearb 6y ago
      Only with the investment of massive amounts of energy and landing millions of tons of equipment to process regolith and melt out important components. The same materials can be found in near earth asteroids without that massive investment, or being buried in such a large gravity well. It’s like saying we can process good out of seawater, which we can, but it’s hand waving away the massive difficulties.
  - misanthropian00 6y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_resources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_resources Seems to have plenty of iron and titanium and aluminum, but we have spent almost no time there so we don't really know. Well when I say 'we' haven't spent much time there I don't mean to speak for you. You may in fact have been born there for all I know. But the rest of us need to do more research I think before reaching any such conclusion. Or maybe we could just ask you.
    - valuearb 6y ago
      Ok, tell me how many millions of tons of equipment and how many gigawatts of power we will need to process out large quantities of these resources from razor sharp sand, and how many trillions of dollars it will cost to build it on the moon? We can process gold out of seawater, so why do we dig far into the earth to find veins of gold?

valuearb 6y ago

The moon is a large gravity well that adds a hefty tax in deltaV cost to anything sent to or returned from it. It also devoid of useful resources and building materials, especially compared to near earth asteroids. Building in low earth orbit will always be way cheaper.