I do not think that space or moon tourism will be the big draw that turns the moon into something that is not recognizable. Instead, I think that it is more about large -scale mining and industrialization that scars the moon surface. So when it comes to possible industrial hell landscapes that the moon could turn into, think less Las Vegas and more … Gary, Indiana. No insult, Gary, but they are a kind of industrial hell.
Plans for the expansion of humanity in the solar system often require a large moon base. This is for several reasons. On the one hand, the moon is the lightest accessible alien world. So if we officially want to become a multi -page way, the moon is only a few days away compared to the multi -month journey it takes to get to Mars. Second, the moon is a perfect test requirement for technologies and techniques due to this proximity, which we can use on other dead, airless rocks via the solar system. Finally, we can use the moon as a kind of staging post in which we have fuel and water deposits with which we can fill up missions in deeper space.
All of this requires an intensive amount of industry. Mining, processing, production, the work. Some months' resources will never leave the surface because we use them for construction projects and manufactured goods. Others, such as specialized sophisticated materials, which we can only produce in environments with a small limit, can become valuable goods for return to earth. And the rest is sent to other colonies and research stations in the entire solar system.
But … what resources? We know that the moon is full of elements such as oxygen, silicon, magnesium and iron. All of this has a variety of uses, from water and fuel to computer chips and … walls, I think. The problem with the moon, however, is that there was no tectonic activity to concentrate extensive deposits of minerals in important places. As far as we know, which is admittedly very little, the elements and minerals of the moon have only somehow pronounced around.
For example, take water ice cream. Water may be the most valuable goods at short notice for space research. We need water to live and we can also use it to make fuel. With the exception of potential rich deposits in polar craters, the water on the moon varies in the concentration of low 0.0001% up to a high from … 0.02%. You would have to train metric tons of regolith to express a few glasses of water. The same applies to the other elements, especially for heavier elements such as iron and aluminum.
The moon bases will require a steady supply of materials from the earth for a long time, and even with the cheapest starts, this will severely restrict how much we can achieve on the surface of the lunar. In other words, the moon does not make a very good starting point for further explorations of the solar system, and it doesn't have much to do to make it attractive for the investment itself.
Instead, the real money is in the asteroids. Even lower gravity than the moon, which makes it so much easier to land and lift. And much more concentrated on water and heavy elements, depending on the asteroid type. I was much easier to imagine that a captured asteroid serves as aqueous way to a hiker than the surface of the lunar. And if you want a heavy industry, you would like to address much more like I know, 16 psyche, a metal -rich asteroid that has something like heavy elements worth four Mirlen.
Since the moon is not as large as an industrial center and is probably not a useful starting point for the further exploration, it makes it sake on the moon on the moon to create it on the moon.
Why don't we just leave it alone? Consider an abandoned place on our own planet, the Atacama desert. Apart from some limited mining processes, there is not much anyway, which is worth the time and the costs it takes to get to get. The same applies to the Antarctic, which has an abundance of … and… .penguins, none of which is highly in demand on the global market. It is easy to make these places nature conservation authorities because they don't have much attention from commercial interests anyway.
Instead, the ATACAMA's mountain peaks accommodate some of the most advanced observatories in the world, such as the Alma array and the upcoming huge Magellan telescope. Antarctic is home to many research stations and bases, including at the South Pole itself, which serves as an excellent astronomical observatory.
These places are bleak, barren and beautiful in their own way. And we deliberately keep them so that we can enjoy them as they are, not as they used to be.
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