hansen

well Saint Michael you are rigth, there are no way anny one will be abel to find monny for inter stellar travel. not to say find anny type of technology that would be capabel of supporting such a travel.If you looked at the titel of this topic, you would have ssen that it said the moon, mars and asteroids. not stars and galaxies.To finance a lunar colony, using the shuttel as first choice of liftoff, it will take aprox 20-40 billion dollars including american build hardware.the same could be done using russian rockets and indian build hardware for 8-10 billion. perhaps much less as the russian rockets would be a lot cheaper if you buy them in bulk.you are rigth that oxygene and water are not easy to obtain in space, then again if you start processing rogolith on the moon it consist of 40% oxygen and you will find hydrogen as well (layered in the regolith from the solar wind) According to sattelite observations it should be possibel to find water/ice in deep polar craters on the oon and thus just mining it for a large water supply. the water would be an easy rocket fuel for initial further expantion in to space, in my senario near earth asteroids and mars.regardsPeter

Plenoptic.Sure the space shuttel are expencive, even extremly expencive.The sad thing is that usa has made it allmost impossibel for american compagnies to engage in russian rocketry.a soyuz cost around 200mill dollars, the shuttel cost al most 2 billion, i know that the shuttel can launch a greath deal more in 1 shot than the soyuz. but 10 russian rocets can launch 2.5 times the weigth of 1 shuttel at the same cost.But as long as the american goverment does classiffer most space technology as state secrets.... it is going to be hard for american compagnies to participate in space development, as they cant find the resources to pay for shuttel launches.best regardsPeter

sweet-princess, do you say that mankind never has been on the moon? I do not hope you belive in the conspiration-teories? If you do, I will recomend you take a look at this site: http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy.html Now back to the other question, radiation. Radiation protection will indeed be vital to anny prolonged stay at the moon, or annywere else in space. on the moon, the easy way of protection will be to cover the initial bases with regolith. ˝meter regolith will cover for most radiation. and as the gravety on the moon only are 1/3 of that on earth it will not give anny problems with construction. The lunar society surgest that the initial bases be set up in lavatubes, there it will be covered with massive rocks and only face radiation from the cave opening, and that are next to nothing if the base are placed at a distance. if done that way it will not pose anny troubel to build the exterior of the base in a thin sheet of plastic. best regards Peter

Is space the solution to the troubels of mankind?Can we in space find the resources that we need to keep the growth going?Imagine that the billions in china and india over the next decades will want the same standart of living as we currently have in europe and north america.Is mars the solution to over population on earth, mars does present 3 times the land area of earth. Is mining he3 (for fusion energy) on the moon the solution to the polution free energy need on earth? 25gram he3 pr year would be sufficient to cover the energy needs of usa (the worlds larges co2 contributor)Are mining asteroids the solution to the need of platinium group metals?there are plenty of other topics that could be in this topic, I will wait with them until later.RegardsPeter

Sorry guys but i cant agree with your pessimistic point of wiew.sure the world does have a problem with global warming, this challenge will be the next big adventure for mankind.take a look in to the history books, each time mankind have faced a challenge, we have found a solution.just as we will with global warming. the solutions are plenty, cover a 15% of sahara with solar panels and all of europes energy needs will be covered. dessert areas are plenty in the world, solarpanels in difrent form would be abel to deliver most needed energy. if we want to pay for it.extracting he3 from regulith on the moon are another solution, 25gram he3 would be sufficient to cover the energy needs in usa, 200gram would cover the needs of all the world. in theory he3 are the ideel fuel for fusion energy, the only problem are: it is allmost unknown on earth, estimated there are less then 1 gram on earth.... on the moon it is plentyfull, layered in the regolith from the solarwind.placing large solararrays on lagrange point 1, beteewn earth and the sun, and transfer the energy down to earth wia microwawes will make a dual solution. 1 it will take out a fration of the ligth from the sun and that way the heating on earth will slow down. 2 it will make fossil fuel a part of the past.that western civilization should be declining? i am very sorry but i cant se that.I se the change of society, changes to the way peopol interact. I se evulotion.Then a thing about wars, the world have never seen fewer wars as now. take a look back in time, war have been the normallity not the exception as it is now.never before has there been so few dictatorships on earthnever have so few peopol died during tortureI have to side with the optimists :PBest regardsPeter