So, what to talk about tonight? I’m kinda at a loss. I’m not in the politics mood. I haven’t figured out the next chapters in the stories I’ve been spinning. Not much going on around the Compound today and even the First Selectman has been on his best behavior and hasn’t eaten anyone in a few weeks. I guess things are in a lull right now.
So, I was thinking with all the talk about Elon Musk getting us to Mars was that really the space mission we need? I think not. What would be better and much easier would be to build a Moon base. The space station we have now is a lame piece of junk that is more trouble than its worth. And living in free fall is really bad for humans. But a permanent base on the Moon is much easier than a Mars trip, much cheaper and much less risky for the astronauts.
Of course, the real reason why this base would be so valuable won’t appear until a magnetic survey is performed and a strange “anomaly” discovered. Once this mystery is investigated and the signal is tracked back to a Jovian (or is it a Saturnian) moon the real exploration of the solar system will begin in earnest. All we need to remember is not to drive the ship’s AI psychotic with conflicting mission requirements and also make a point of not teaching it to read lips.
But seriously (or semi-seriously), I think a Moon base is a much more realistic space project and putting stuff on the Moon instead of in Earth orbit is probably a good idea in general. There’s just too much junk floating around up there.
As for the name, Luna City is one obvious choice. I could be convinced that Sheepshead Bay would sound good. After all there are a lot of Mares up there so a seaside name makes some sense.
But the most important thing that a lunar base would provide is a chance to see if space travel is useful at all. Can a base on the close-by Moon come up with anything useful that can’t be done better and cheaper on Earth?
One thing I can think of are particle accelerators. Maintaining a vacuum on the Moon will be a heck of a lot easier than on Earth. And the lower gravity might have some advantages in certain kinds of construction. And there are probably other scientific experiments that can be done better on the Moon. Maybe the long lunar night would be a great time to do telescopic observations. Instead of the Hubble and Webb space telescopes maybe we could build a really big telescope on the Moon and see right out to the edge of the universe. Of course, we might not like what we find on “the edge.” We might find that the galaxies are arranged to spell out the words, “TO READ BEYOND THIS POINT YOU MUST BUY A SUBSCRIPTION!”
Well, anyway, that’s what I was thinking. The Moon’s the perfect compromise between the fantastically risky Mars mission and the useless and boring International Space Station. Come on Elon, baby steps.
Why not follow Gerard O’Neil’s idea of mining the lunar regolith for the materials to build really BIG space stations/orbital colonies, and use them to support further outward missions to Mars and beyond, and as receiving stations for resources brought in from the asteroids. We might even attract Wild Bill Williams!
So that’s the thing. The Moon is far enough to legitimately be considered space but close enough so that the costs are reasonable. We can experiment with finding enterprises that are profitable (by whatever metric that can be defined) to decide whether space travel makes any sense at all or is just a white elephant. Maybe putting a base on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean is a smarter investment.
Actually, based on the title, I thought this would be a political post. I’m referring to Elon’s opposition to the BBB. Is it perfect? No. Will we get a better package with a razor thin majority in the house and the RINOs and squishes we currently have in the GOP? Also no. The BBB is just a stepping stone and will give team MAGA breathing room to win the midterms and, maybe, get rid of a few RINOs. Here in Texas, we are going to primary John Cornyn and replace him with a real conservative. Trump needs time to show… Read more »