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The Moon doesn't have a magnetic field, though, so the second half of the article discussing difficulties due to radiation would still apply, right?
by morcus 10mo ago
The Moon doesn't have a magnetic field, though, so the second half of the article discussing difficulties due to radiation would still apply, right?
- api 10mo agoNot if you bury it in regolith. That’s an idea for a Lunar base too. The design is called “Hobbit holes.” Bury the occupied structures in piles of basically any local mass you can bury them in. It’s another huge problem for orbit though. Shielding would add a ton of mass and destroy the economics.
- nradov 10mo agoLunar regolith is so abrasive that digging holes or tunnels isn't going to be cost effective. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20250000687 https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20250000687
- adamwong246 10mo agoWe will need to develop very robust, space-worthy electronics eventually. We can't rely on natural magnetic fields forever.
- fsh 10mo agoWe have been relying on natural magnetic fields for over a billion years, so we can probably continue doing so for a while.
- adastra22 10mo agoWe have robust, space-worthy electronics. They're discussed in the article. You just can't get SOTA performance from them, because of fundamental physics-driven compromises.
- shagie 10mo agoWe have them. The RAD750 for example (on the JWST and Curiosity rovers https://www.theregister.com/2012/08/08/mars_probe_cpu/ https://www.theregister.com/2012/08/08/mars_probe_cpu/ ) costs about $350k, has the architecture of a PowerPC 750 (the blue and white PowerMac G3), and runs at up to 200 MHz.