Lunar mission to get the axe...

Ishmael · 02-02-10, 02:09 AM

Back around the close of the Apollo program and the rise of OPEC, there was this guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_K._O%27Neill

He asked the fundamental question:

"Is the surface of a planet really the right place for an expanding technological civilization?"

His vision was to mine raw materials on the Moon and use it's lower escape velocity and weaker gravity to manufacture space colonies for the production of these:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_satellite

He even designed one of these to use for catapulting raw materials from the Moon to the Lagrange Libration points where the space colonies/manufacturing centers would be built.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_driver

Here's what he wrote in 1974:

It is important to realize the enormous power of the space-colonization technique. If we begin to use it soon enough, and if we employ it wisely, at least five of the most serious problems now facing the world can be solved without recourse to repression: bringing every human being up to a living standard now enjoyed only by the most fortunate; protecting the biosphere from damage caused by transportation and industrial pollution; finding high quality living space for a world population that is doubling every 35 years; finding clean, practical energy sources; preventing overload of Earth's heat balance.
—Gerard K. O'Neill , "The Colonization of Space"[25]

I often wonder, especially as we now seem to be transitioning from the economics of abundance to the economics of scarcity, what could have been done had merely 10% of the US Defense Budget over the last 36 years been devoted to this endeavor.

02-02-10, 02:09 AM	#1
Ishmael Seasoned Skipper Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Morro Bay, Ca. Posts: 659 Downloads: 79 Uploads: 0	Back around the close of the Apollo program and the rise of OPEC, there was this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_K._O%27Neill He asked the fundamental question: "Is the surface of a planet really the right place for an expanding technological civilization?" His vision was to mine raw materials on the Moon and use it's lower escape velocity and weaker gravity to manufacture space colonies for the production of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_satellite He even designed one of these to use for catapulting raw materials from the Moon to the Lagrange Libration points where the space colonies/manufacturing centers would be built. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_driver Here's what he wrote in 1974: It is important to realize the enormous power of the space-colonization technique. If we begin to use it soon enough, and if we employ it wisely, at least five of the most serious problems now facing the world can be solved without recourse to repression: bringing every human being up to a living standard now enjoyed only by the most fortunate; protecting the biosphere from damage caused by transportation and industrial pollution; finding high quality living space for a world population that is doubling every 35 years; finding clean, practical energy sources; preventing overload of Earth's heat balance. —Gerard K. O'Neill , "The Colonization of Space"[25] I often wonder, especially as we now seem to be transitioning from the economics of abundance to the economics of scarcity, what could have been done had merely 10% of the US Defense Budget over the last 36 years been devoted to this endeavor.