Re: Terraforming the Moon

From: The Ghost In The Machine (ewill_at_sirius.athghost7038suus.net)
Date: 02/21/05 

Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2005 23:00:06 GMT

In sci.physics, Morituri-|-Max
<newage@sendarico.net>
 wrote
on Mon, 21 Feb 2005 20:53:43 GMT
<rTrSd.28639$Bx5.10161@fe1.texas.rr.com>:
> habshi wrote:
>>> The problem is at the
>> transmitter end -- where does the station get its power
>> from?)<
>>
>> Solar power charging batteries of course
>
> Uh huh...... typical habshi.. what if there are
> thunderstorms on the moon.. doesn't that screw up your batteries?

Say what?

Solar storms, maybe. Certainly they do a nice job of screwing
up Earth-orbiting satellites.

>
> PS.. one must talk to habshi in terms he can make sense of, i haven't lost
> my mind... but once he terraforms the moon, look out!
>

Then it would no longer be the Moon, but a second Earth. Well,
sort of; my brain is beginning to hurt on the sheer magnitude
of the problem (though terraforming Venus would be even worse).

But I feel the need for an estimation here. Lessee.

In order for humans to survive effectively from a metabolic
standpoint (there's a lot of other issues, however -- for
example, how does the Moon's magnetic field stop incoming
charged particles -- oh, wait, it doesn't have one?!), one
should mimic the partial pressure of oxygen at the Earth's
surface.

This is 101350 * 20% = 20270 Pascal.

The moon's radius is 1.738 * 10^6 m, giving us a surface area
of 3.796 * 10^13 m^2.

If we assume that the oxygen will distribute itself uniformly
from 0 to 5 km up (this is a stretch!), we get as a minimum
a volume of about 1.903 * 10^17 m^3.

We assume a more or less comfortable temperature of 290 K.
(That's another issue; lunar weather will be -- interesting.
Not to mention the issue of flammability and how we prevent
all of the iron from reacting with the very pure oxygen, and
other such niceties. Remember Apollo 1, for example.)

PV = nRT
n = PV/(RT) = 20270 * 1.903*10^17 / (8.314472 * 290)
  = 1.600 * 10^18 moles = 5.120 * 10^16 kg

If we assume $10,000 per kg, that translates into
$ 5.120 * 10^20; since the US's budget is more on
the order of $ 10^13 it's going to be awhile before
we can play "terraform Luna". We'd have to reduce
lifting costs to $0.0002 per kg, for starters --
almost 8 orders of magnitude.

Wouldn't it be nice to pay two cents for a ticket to ride, though? :-) 

-- 
#191, ewill3@earthlink.net
It's still legal to go .sigless.

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