re what if the ussr had reached the moon first in article saundrsg qucdn queensu ca graydon saundrsg qucdn queensu ca writes in article apr ke zv uucp gary ke zv uucp gary coffman says it s conceivable that luna will have a military purpose it s possible that luna will have a commercial purpose but it s most likely that luna will only have a scientific purpose for the next several hundred years at least therefore lunar bases should be predicated on funding levels little different from those found for antarctic bases can you put a person base on the moon for million a year even if you use grad students you might be able to run one for that put it there hardly why do you think at least a couple centuries before there will be significant commerical activity on the moon wishful thinking mostly it s more likely that the moon will never be the site of major commercial activity as far as we know it has no materials we can t get cheaper right here on earth or from asteroids and comets aside from the semi mythic he that might be useful in low grade fusion reactors exploring it would satisfy a curiosity itch and it s position in the gravity well of earth coupled with it s heat sink capacity could offer some military utility for high ground military weapons systems but it holds very minute commercial value if space travel becomes cheap enough it might become a tourist attraction as mt everest and the antarctic have become but that s a very minor activity in the global scope of things luna has an inconvienent gravity field it s likely too low to prevent calcium loss muscle atrophy and long term genetic drift yet it s too high to do micro g manufacturing space based colonies and factories that can be spun to any convienent value of g look much better luna has a modest vacuum and raw solar exposure two weeks a month but orbital sites can have better vacuums and continous solar exposure luna offers a source of light element rocks that can serve as raw materials heatsink and shielding the asteroids and comets offer sources of both light and heavy elements and volatile compounds and many are in less steep gravity wells so that less delta v is required to reach them we don t use rds of the earth now the seafloors and we virtually ignore antarctica a whole continent that s because we don t have to deal with those conditions in order to make a buck luna is a much more expensive place to visit or to live and work i think we ll use the easier places first that pushes lunar development back at least a few centuries if not much longer luna s main short term value would be as a place for a farside radio astronomy observatory shielded from the noisy earth or as the site of a laser particle beam or linear accelerator weapons system for defending earth or bombarding it as the case may be the first is unlikely because of the high cost for such a basic science instrument the second is just as unlikely because conventional nukes are good enough and the military would really rather see the earth safe for conventional warfare again there s little glory in watching from a bunker as machines fight each other over continental ranges little ultimate profit either gary gary coffman ke zv you make it gatech wa mei ke zv gary destructive testing systems we break it uunet rsiatl ke zv gary shannon way guaranteed emory kd nc ke zv gary lawrenceville ga
