Comments on: China, the Moon, and the Outer Space Treaty

By: Localfluff

Localfluff — Sun, 27 May 2018 21:43:14 +0000

@pzatchok
Geothermal seems completely impossible. But Lunathermal is a free heat sink into about room temperature. The dry regolith doesn’t conduct much heat, but maybe pumping down some water in it would help.

By: pzatchok

pzatchok — Sun, 27 May 2018 19:34:32 +0000

Whats thew best fastest way to get rid of nuclear reactor heat on the moon?

Geothermal?

By: The other mad mike

The other mad mike — Sun, 27 May 2018 13:54:58 +0000

At what point has China ever respected any treaty or agreement when it is counter to its perceived interest?

Please note their actions in the South China Sea and on the high seas as well as in low earth orbit.
Actions predict action far better than diplomatic talk.

They have rightly noted the lack of response, other than talk, to their actions. They will continue to play the diplomatic game while their plans progress, ground truth is a irreversible fact, absent military action.
The point is it makes reversing their actions far more costly than anyone is willing to pay because we talked and talked while they acted.

By: Dick Eagleson

Dick Eagleson — Sun, 27 May 2018 00:00:13 +0000

The idea that the so-called “Peaks of Eternal Light” – which none of them actually is – are uniquely valuable lunar real estate is one of those “things everyone knows that ain’t so” we would be well-advised to forget.

In order to actually get full-time insolation, solar arrays would have to be both built atop non-trivially tall towers anchored to these peaks and be steerable. Even in 1/6-g, the amount of structural mass needed to support worthwhile square yardages of collector surface would be considerable and the maximum practically achievable electrical output would have a fairly sharp upper limit.

If nuclear reactors and/or lunar-orbital solar power satellites are used instead, such limits don’t apply and the generated power could be applied anywhere on the lunar surface, not just a few teensy places near the poles.

As for proximity to “lunar ice” deposits in permanently shadowed craters, the existence of such deposits is very much yet to be proven. If these alleged deposits fail to prove out, the alleged unique value of the lunar polar peaks also takes a huge hit.

There are huge quantities of light metals and oxygen known to exist pretty much everywhere on the lunar surface. I think the basis of pioneering lunar industry has to be these two facts, not problematical “ice” that may well prove illusory.

By: Localfluff

Localfluff — Fri, 25 May 2018 23:49:28 +0000

The definition of property rights is exactly that others are not allowed to take it or destroy it (by interference). And violence is of course necessary to uphold property right. So the Outer Space treaty indeed in effect defines property rights in space. In the natural way that first come first served by homesteading.

The Etarnal Peaks of Light are not only the potentially most valuable place on the Moon, but in the Solar System! The only places where one can stand on solid ground with enough gravity to actually stand on it, while still almost always have the Sun in sight, are those peaks and Mercury’s poles. Probably polar areas of the Jovian moons too, but the insolation is only 4% there of that on the moon. May the first one who takes the peaks own them!