The Lunar Economy - Years 1-25 Dec 1986 - Nov 2011
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MMM Theme Issues: The Lunar Economy - Years 1-25 Dec 1986 - Nov 2011 The Moon Would Seem to be a Tough Nut to Crack Until we look Closer At first we may not be able to produce “first choice” alloys and other building and manufacturing materials, but what we can produce early on will be adequate to substitute for enough products that the gross tonnage of imports from Earth can be cut to a fraction. Power Generation is essential. Better, as we point out in Foundation 2 above, the Moon has the real estate advantage of “location, location, location.” As a result, anything produced on the Moon could be shipped to space facilities in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO) at a cost advantage of equivalent products manufactured on Earth. Thus the cost of importing to the Moon those things that cannot yet be manufactured there, could be ofset by exports of Lunar manufactured goods and materials to markets in LEO and GEO. Production of consumer goods will be important and enterprise will be a key factor. It will take time, but financial break-even is possible in time. The obstacles are great. But once you look closely at the options, these obstacles fall in the ranks of those that faced MMM Theme Issues: The Lunar Economy - Years 1-25 Dec 1986 - Nov 2011 pioneers of other frontiers on Earth in eras gone by. Establishing and then elaborating the roots and possibilities of a lunar economy sufcient to support permanent pioneer frontier settlements are there, and treating them one by one has been a major theme of Moon Miners’ Manifesto through the years. MMM PUBLICATION SEQUENCE INDEX MMM THEMES: THE LUNAR ECONOMY MMM # 2 “M is for Market” MMM # 3 Moon Mall MMM # 4 Paper Chase II MMM # 5 Lunar Architecture MMM # 6 “M is for Missing Volatiles;” “M is for Methane & ‘Mmonia;” “M is for Minimizing the cost of importing Methane, Ammonia, and Hydrogen MMM # 16 Glass-Glass Composites & “Spin-Up” MMM # 18 A Strategy For Following Up Lunar Soil-Processing With Industrial M.U.S.-c.l.e. MMM # 22 1st Exports MMM # 23 Helium-3 MMM # 24 Gas Scavenging MMM # 32 Import Export Equation; Diversification Subsidies; Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY): The Import/Export Sleeper; Gross Imports that Could Count as Net Exports MMM # 34 Recycling; The “4th R” MMM # 38 Primage: Key to Lunar Industrial-Agricultural Success; How an Earth-Moon-Mars Economy Might Work MMM # 65 Lunar Industrialization: Substitutions Game; Fast Road to Lunar Industrial “MUS/cle;” Stowaway Imports MMM # 69 Producing for Export: Bringing Home the Bacon and Brass;” Tourist Earnings; Cosmotive Inc. (Scavenging and reconditioning Orbital “Debris”) MMM # 77 Homestead Furnishings and Decor as a Cottage Industry MMM # 88 Profits from Entertainment Ventures; Prize Lunar Real Estate MMM # 91 MMM Dictionary Entry “Commercial Space;” Commercial Moonbase Workshop MMM # 116 Uranium and Thorium and a Lunar Nuclear Fuels Industry MMM # 123 Thorium the Key to Opening Up Mars MMM # 126 “Potentiation” - Getting Through the Nightspan on the Moon’s Own Terms MMM # 128 Justification for Early Operation of a Lunar Mining Facility MMM # 129 Self Sufciency Tests and Goals; Balance of Trade Questions MMM # 132 “Spinning-up” Frontier Enterprise Profitable for both Earth & Space MMM # 135 Cast Basalt: Startup Industry With Two Great Tricks MMM # 144 Stay-at-home Shadow Settlers Brains & Skills “Tele-Participate” to reduce labor costs on the Moon; Moongas: as the Moon Burps MMM # 149 Homestead Gardens as Early Cottage Industries MMM # 155 “As Long as We’re Here” Secondary Profit Generators for Moon and Mars Bases MMM # 165 Deep Pocket Heroes to the Rescue of the Space Frontier? MMM # 168 Working Vacations: Change of Pace and Scenery for Lunan Pioneers MMM # 174 Modular Container Factories to Industrialize Early Settlements MMM # 181 Human-Robot Synergies MMM # 188 Zero-Mass Products & Services as a Major Part of a Lunar Frontier Economy MMM # 190 CO-OPs as Enterprise Accelerators MMM # 191 First Lunar Manufacturing Industries, before we start building habitat modules MMM Theme Issues: The Lunar Economy - Years 1-25 Dec 1986 - Nov 2011 MMM # 196 Scientific-Industrial Utilization of the “Lunar-Unique” Environment: Marius Hills MMM # 198 Outpost Trap: Technologies Needed to Break Free: I. Transportation Technologies; II. Expansion-friendly Modular Outpost Architectural Language, Construction/Assembly Systems Design; III. Locate for local, regional, and global expansion options; Teleoperation for Maximum Productivity MMM # 199 Outpost Trap: IV: ISRU, In Situ Resource Utilization; V Industrial Diversification Enablers; VI The Entrepreneurs; VII Moonbase Personnel MMM #200 The Outpost Trap: VIII: Strategies for Organizations tasked with making it happen; IX: A Lunar Analog Station Program can pave the way, if well-focused MMM # 207 A Spartan 11-Step Industrialization Scenario for a Lunar Mining Base: Magnesium: Workhorse Metal for the Lunar Frontier MMM # 208 Service Hooks for a Commercial Moonbase MMM # 209 Thinking Outside the Mass-Fraction Box; NASA’s Lunar Architecture Design Goals are not what we need to maximize lunar presence investment MMM # 210 Thinking Outside the Mass-Fraction Box: ii. Improving NASA’s Design Goals MMM # 211 Thinking Outside the Mass-Fraction Box: iiI. Power of Leveraging Concurrent Space Developments to deliver much more to the Moon; Hewn Basalt Products MMM # 216 Shadow Pioneers; KREEP Deposits MMM # 221 Investing in Fuel Tank Infrastructure in the Architecture of Lunar Exploration; Paradigm Shift (in Fuel Tank Infrastructure); Raw Glass Products MMM # 224 An International Lunar Research Park; Research & Development Priorities List: 1-5 Magnesium and Iron: Lunar Workhorse Metals MMM # 229 Resources of Mare Imbrium and Oceanus Procellarum; Lunar Industrialization: Defining the Lunar Industrial Seed: What Comes Before and How? MMM # 230 Lunar Industrialization: Defining Lunar Industrial Seed: What Comes Before How?; Defining the Lunar Industrial Seed: Manufacturing MMM # 231 Lunar Industrial Seed: The “cle” part of Industrial Development MUS/cle Strategy; A Basalt Fibers Industry MMM # 234 Lunar Basalt: What, Where, Critical Role for Lunar Industrialization & Settlement MMM # 235 Successful Opening of a Lunar Frontier Will Require More Than One Settlement MMM # 237 Research & Development Projects For an International Lunar Research Park MMM # 238 “In This Decade:” 3 words which won us the Moon Race but lost us the Moon; For the Sake of Science, Science should not be in the Lunar Exploration Driver’s Seat MMM # 239 Could the Best Place to Mine Asteroids be on the Moon?: An Avatar Moonbase? MMM # 242 Telepresence-operated “Robonauts” will revise all “Scenarios;” Role of Robonauts & Robots on the Moon once Humans have settled in to stay; O’Nell’s High Frontier Updated and Modifies; New Space Age of Human-Robot Synergy MMM # 244 Could the “Space Experience” Sector Open the Moon Faster, for Less? MMM # 246 Could Some Lunar Lavatubes be Hiding Valuable Resources? - Speculation MMM # 247 Moon Mining Machines: A Materials Challenge; Lunar Iron and Alloys of Iron MMM # 248 10 Billion Dollars to Industrialize the Space?; Postscript to the preceding article; Diferences between this and former Visions MMM # 249 A Prelude to Space Industrialization; The Moon: What’s in it for Earth? Part II: Lunar Materials to Grow Earth’s Economy MMM #259 Lunar Toll Roads: Taming the Magnificent Desolation of the “Out-Vac” Comment: As you can see from this list of topics, we have tried to approach the subject of a many-faceted Lunar Economy invigorating the greater Cis-Lunar Earth-Moon Economy. We MMM Theme Issues: The Lunar Economy - Years 1-25 Dec 1986 - Nov 2011 believe that the prospects are greater than any of us can imagine from our current position in history. We have tried to illuminate many of the potential roots of this economy, going well beyond mainstream current speculation, but grounded in real potential, given the Moon’s makeup and key position on the shoulder of Earth’s Gravity Well. Enjoy! Peter Kokh, Dave Dietzler, Dave Dunlop and others THEME THREADS INDEX - THE LUNAR ECONOMY !PRELUDE MMM # 16 Glass-Glass Composites & “Spin-Up” MMM # 18 A Strategy For Following Up Lunar Soil-Processing With Industrial M.U.S.-c.l.e. MMM # 22 1st Exports MMM # 132 “Spinning-up” Frontier Enterprise Profitable for both Earth & Space MMM # 144 Stay-at-home Shadow Settlers Brains & Skills “Tele-Participate” to reduce labor costs on the Moon MMM # 155 “As Long as We’re Here” Secondary Profit Generators for Moon and Mars Bases MMM # 165 Deep Pocket Heroes to the Rescue of the Space Frontier? MMM # 176 Tele-Crafted Art Objects MMM # 181 Human-Robot Synergies MMM # 188 Zero-Mass Products & Services as a Major Part of a Lunar Frontier Economy MMM # 198 Outpost Trap: Technologies Needed to Break Free: I. Transportation Technologies; II. Expansion-friendly Modular Outpost Architectural Language, Construction/Assembly Systems Design; III. Locate for local, regional, and global expansion options; Teleoperation for Maximum Productivity MMM # 199 Outpost Trap: IV: ISRU, In Situ Resource Utilization; V Industrial Diversification Enablers; VI The Entrepreneurs; VII Moonbase Personnel MMM #200 The Outpost Trap: VIII: Strategies for Organizations tasked with making it happen; IX: A Lunar Analog Station Program can pave the way, if well-focused MMM # 208 Service Hooks for a Commercial Moonbase MMM # 209 Thinking Outside the Mass-Fraction Box; NASA’s LunaR Architecture Design Goals are not what we need to maximize lunar presence investment MMM #