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How much fuel would lifting 10 million tons of dust into high orbit require? Probably more than we have the ability to access. Sounds magical to me!

unchocked 6y ago
Impossible until it’s inevitable. The material is available at low deltaV from near-earth asteroids. Though it’s better fabricated into a giant solar sail of a sunshade.
Geezus_42 6y ago
Considering it's moondust and thus has to come from the moon, also assuming rocket engines have gotten more efficient since we last sent people to the moon and taking into consideration the much lower gravity of the moon. I would hazard to guess that it would take about the same or less fuel than an Apollo mission. Also, once the container was launched from the serfice of the moon you could probably propel it using a light sail and some sort of solar powered beam thus only needing fuel for take off and deceleration. But that's all just guesses based on unbacked assumptions.
- Causality1 6y ago
  Exactly what thought process leads you to believe we can put 10 million tons of dust into solar orbit for the same amount of fuel we used to send 1/222,222 of that mass to the moon?
  - Geezus_42 6y ago
    You don't need to lift it from earth gravity therefore less fuel is required.
    - Causality1 6y ago
      You do have to lift from earth gravity since there's no fuel on the moon. Even if there were, 1/6 earth's gravity makes lifting easier but not two hundred thousand times easier.
- titzer 6y ago
  So you want to use a solar sail to move something closer to the Sun?
  - Geezus_42 6y ago
    A light sail would have probably been a better term. A solar powered base station could emit a beam that would propel it.
zaroth 6y ago
If you were to launch it all from Earth it would be about 100 tons of cargo for every million kg of methane. A million tons a year to orbit (10,000 launches) equates to 600 billion cubic feet of methane, or about 2% of total US annual production. But the actual plan would involve manufacturing the “mirrors” from moondust and propelling them to L1 using railguns powered by lunar solar panels. So you don’t need nearly so much methane.

unchocked 6y ago

Impossible until it’s inevitable. The material is available at low deltaV from near-earth asteroids. Though it’s better fabricated into a giant solar sail of a sunshade.

Geezus_42 6y ago

Considering it's moondust and thus has to come from the moon, also assuming rocket engines have gotten more efficient since we last sent people to the moon and taking into consideration the much lower gravity of the moon. I would hazard to guess that it would take about the same or less fuel than an Apollo mission. Also, once the container was launched from the serfice of the moon you could probably propel it using a light sail and some sort of solar powered beam thus only needing fuel for take off and deceleration. But that's all just guesses based on unbacked assumptions.

Causality1 6y ago
Exactly what thought process leads you to believe we can put 10 million tons of dust into solar orbit for the same amount of fuel we used to send 1/222,222 of that mass to the moon?
- Geezus_42 6y ago
  You don't need to lift it from earth gravity therefore less fuel is required.
  - Causality1 6y ago
    You do have to lift from earth gravity since there's no fuel on the moon. Even if there were, 1/6 earth's gravity makes lifting easier but not two hundred thousand times easier.
titzer 6y ago
So you want to use a solar sail to move something closer to the Sun?
- Geezus_42 6y ago
  A light sail would have probably been a better term. A solar powered base station could emit a beam that would propel it.

zaroth 6y ago

If you were to launch it all from Earth it would be about 100 tons of cargo for every million kg of methane. A million tons a year to orbit (10,000 launches) equates to 600 billion cubic feet of methane, or about 2% of total US annual production. But the actual plan would involve manufacturing the “mirrors” from moondust and propelling them to L1 using railguns powered by lunar solar panels. So you don’t need nearly so much methane.