MMM Classics Year 14: MMM #s131-140 The First Fifteen Years December 1999 - November 2000 Several topics and arti- This year, we take an in cles stood out this year. We have depth look at the wellsprings of long pointed out that if we are to Martian Culture. The severe build a resource-using industrial climate, the monotonous color frontier civilization on the Moon, scheme, minor and greater our major sites will need to be differences in the pace of time, along highland/mare “coasts.” and the remoteness of Mars will The north coast of Mare Frigoris, have a profound effect. Those Sea of Cold, is closer than any to who survive and thrive will be potential coldtrap water ice among the best. reserves, just 200 some miles to Here too, the developer the north. Roads will follow the will play a vital role in creation path of easiest traverse and thus of “improved” real estate, but we help determine where towns are can do more now to “make Mars built The Lunar Developer will more valuable and attrac-tive to be essential, giving barren “unim- prospective pioneers. proved” land real value. Cast The sight of Utah’s San Basalt is likely to be among the Rafael Swell, on a Greyhound first industries. trip to the Moon Society’s Foun- The evolution of home ding Convention in Las Vegas, rule and pioneer rights receives gave us an idea of how regolith added attention. The Moon will shielding mounds on the Moon be attractive to those who want to and Mars, could be “architec- set up “Intentional Commu- turally sculpted” to have a much nities.” Several people discuss more attractive presence, adding lunar currency. to the beauty of the lunar or Other Moon-focused Martian terrain. topics are “postage” and “mail” MMM did not neglect the (not email), golfing, and “tramp rest of the Solar System this year: art” as a likely development. we took up again the potential for Sulfur lamps emerge as balloon-exploration of Venus, a most efficient contender for Titan, Jupiter. nightspan lighting needs. In July, this year, the new Lavatubes may also be more broadly based Moon made more attractive by deve- Society took over chapters and lopers. Skylight domes above member services from Artemis them are an attractive option. Society International, and thus Lunar tourism will be became MMM’s largest client. A upon us sooner than we think lot was happening with other with early “loop the Moon” non- space organizations this year. The landing tours. Eventually surface new Mars Arctic Research resorts will follow. Station was erected. Moon Miners’ Manifesto Classics - Year 14 - Republished July 2006 - Page 1 the star-whispers in silence. MMM #131 - DEC 1999 The power beaming company wants a pair of east and west limb sites taking turns in the untempered sunlight. The helium-3 miner wants to be in the middle of the largest of the richer he-3 fields. Those fixated on water-ice, as if industry could be built on that commodity alone, or who could care less about industry so long as they can burn the ice all up as cryogenic rocket fuels, will want a lunar polar site, as will those appar- ently intimidated by the Moon’s surface temperature swings or its 14.75 day long nightspans. With both Clementine and Lunar Prospector targeting Site for a Major Settlement fed by Polar Ice the poles, we have seen a few pontifical announcements of late of “the” site being identified first at the South, then at the WANTED: “a Mare/Highlands coastal site, with North Pole of the Moon. All such announcements presuppose access to both major suites of lunar materials, with proximity unexamined and very questionable assumptions, however to abundant sheltered volume in lavatubes, and within easy common. reach of polar icefields.” Seems like a tall order, but Mare Frigoris (1) at 60° N, central nearside, may fill the bill. Mare The Pregnant Moonbase Imbrium (3) lies to the south, with easy access through the It is impossible to reach consensus on this point as the Alpine Valley (arrow). The craters Plato (2) and Aristotle (4) debate is controlled largely by temperament. Those who look are prominent. See below. for a single lunar outpost and do not see the sense or feasibility of further development can quit reading now. So can those who see lunar outposts as a government affair, in the mold of what Where to Set up Shop? we have in Antarctica, or functioning as a university-govern- ment “National Lab” like Fermilab or Argonne or Los Alamos. Moonbase Site Selection Considerations For these persons, such a tomorrow is a daring, ambitious by Peter Kokh undertaking. It matters very much where and how we begin. We need to We choose instead to look beyond beginnings, to a deliberately pick a site and an outpost systems architecture global human presence on the Moon engaged in all kinds of that is pregnant with a broad, open-ended future. activity: scientific research; industry and commerce; tourism and recreation; and just plain living. From this point of view, it Of Apples and Oranges matters very much where and how we begin. We need to People who discuss and debate where on the Moon is deliberately pick a site and an outpost systems architecture that the most propitious place to set up a manned outpost risk is pregnant with this broader open-ended future. talking apples and oranges. Agreement on what we mean by “moonbase” is assumed without any justification. In fact, Nearly seventy years after Little America, we are still different people have very different dreams for the Moon, and very “stuck” in the same sterile paradigm in Antarctica. And different visions of how a first lunar outpost will develop. They there is little reason for optimism that we will outgrow the have differing appraisals of the uses for which the Moon is present self-limiting goals to our Antarctic presence anytime suitable. Participants in this debate also differ in the esteem in soon. Scientific research IS important, but it hardly exhausts which they hold science, industry, enterprise, tourism, the potential of a genuine human community. If we don’t want government, and eeks! - the common man, the stuff of settlers, such a restricted future for the Moon, we need to start with a alas. Academics and scientists, NASA bureaucrats, and different kind of beginning. development entrepreneurs are likely each to have widely • We need to locate where we can learn to deal with the incongruous views of what a moonbase should entail. Moon on its own terms. We need to resist establishing But if this is so, it should be clear that a consensus on ourselves in a thermal and diurnal ghetto in which we will an appropriate site is impossible. One site might be perfect for be unable to learn how to survive on the rest of the globe. a “Kilroy-type outpost”. We put an outpost on the Moon just to • We need to establish the main site where the bulk of the say we are there and not to do anything special except, of materials that we need are located, not near a small course, whatever science to which the location lends itself. So however essential fraction. we pick the place easiest and cheapest to set up. • We need to locate where protected expansion volume is The geologist could care less whether the site is readily accessible. “easy” to erect or maintain. He wants to be in the very center of • We need to locate at a natural crossroads site from which the greatest variety of Selenological enigmas awaiting a large part of the lunar surface is easily accessible. investigation. We need to be many places on the Moon doing many The radio astronomer and those engaging in S.E.T.I. things. We cannot, must not think of “a” or “the” moonbase or search programs will want a base in central farside to listen to lunar outpost, only of “the first”, second, and third or many. If Moon Miners’ Manifesto Classics - Year 14 - Republished July 2006 - Page 2 we want to establish a lunar economy, trade between a number They are the ideal situation for fabric inflatables likely to carry of outposts and settlements will be necessary. the brunt of early expansion prior to the development of lunar It is urgent that those who agree in general with the building materials and components. It is possible that lunar above philosophy part company with those who do not. We lavatubes have been breached without being destroyed by cannot win them over, we must leave them behind. The limits comet fragments and will be found coated with usable water of their visions would be a millstone around our necks. ice deposits far from the poles. Lavatubes are just as cold and Collaboration with fellow travelers can only set us on a road as thermally inviting as the polar permashade cold traps. They with an abundance of false turns and detours. Sometimes, there are large enough to serve as ideal placement for heat radiators. is not strength in numbers. It is better not to dilute the right There is more to the Moon than its surface. vision in search of quick gains. [see MMM #130 NOV ‘99, pp. 1-4 “The Lunar Rock Pile: Behind Door #1, Door #2, Door #3, etc.”; p. 5, “Of Coasts, (1) “where we can learn to deal with the Moon Harbors, and Lighthouses”] on its own terms” The polar sites are very non-typical areas of the (4) “at a natural crossroads site” Moon.