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I am going to have to reread the posting before commenting. Interesting discussion.
I am going to have to reread the posting before commenting. Interesting discussion.
You don't need to bring all the materials up from Earth when there's a ready made raw materials dump only 1/4 million miles way.
yes it sound very good to use the Moon as resource.
But it has very high cost over U$500 Billion, why ?
you need to launch all stuff not only in orbit, but also to moon and land it there.
then send astronauts to Moon, who build from that stuff factories, Habitat, nuclear reactors and a launch system.
Manufacture from raw material, parts and launch them into GEO
That's would be a Railgun or Mass driver http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_driver
But for this infrastructure need really huge launch rocket like AMLLV with 1600 tons payload.
To launch the hardware, nuclear engine tugs, Lunar landers and there needed fuel.
and you need a lot fuel because the Moon has also gravity field.
is more economic to build parts on earth and launch it
or
look for a Asteroid in near Earth space and dock a factories on it, who start to build a SPS out of it.
Except that lunar regolith is hugely abrasive, so you're going to need a colossal industry compared to earth, especially as you have to produce everything you need, including life-support equipment, much of which mother terra provides free of charge.While his costs are incredibly optimistic, shall we say, his point that launching stuff from earth with rockets is EXPENSIVE and always will be. If you are building enough powersats to be worthwhile, launching once the mass needed for a lunar base, and using lunar materials to build your space infrastructure makes a LOT of sense.
Except that that's even more costly, because now you're basically transshipping the thing into orbit via the moon.
Also, to do any good this thing has to be in GEO, LEO just won't cut it.
I'll give you six months at most before something screws up, and much less if you don't seal the joints properly and regolith gets in.No you're not. You send a small automated manufacturing plant to the moon, as well as build a simple launch facility, like a catapult. Both operations are designed to operate with little or no ongoing support/replenishment from Earth.
leaving aside the issue of repair, you'll still need humans up there for oversight and QC work.The manufacturing plant mass produces solar panels, sticks them on the catapult, which flings them into Earth orbit.
right, except you get the angle or power wrong by a fraction of a degree and that stuff is going to miss its target and spiral in towards earth, or else head out on an impromptu tour of the universe.In Earth orbit you assemble the panels into solar power arrays.
Well, except the frequent repair parts for every bit of equipment that has come into contact with raw regolith.The panels are essentially free (or more precisely are a fixed cost regardless of how many solar power stations you build in earth orbit - so incentive to builds lots of power stations), since once you've made the initial investment in lunar plant, it costs you nothing extra to get more, since you don't have get them out of the Earth's gravity well.
Here data about Delta V to launch stuff in Orbit, GEO, Moon etc.
2300 meter/sec from Low to GTO (Asnys TL with Molniya orbit)
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/mission.php
(Cough) That was AndyC's TL, not mine. I just endorsed it.