Re: A Moon base is too far; an asteroid ship better alternative:)

From: Joe Strout (joe_at_strout.net)
Date: 03/16/05

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    Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 09:54:23 -0600

    In article <Pine.LNX.4.44.0503151553570.17279-100000@uurth.com>,
     "Gene P." <alcore@uurth.com> wrote:

    > >I'd consider being isolated from your power supply 50% of the time (for two
    > >weeks at a time) to be a greater problem in need of a solution than the
    > >modest requirements for orbital station-keeping.
    >
    > I've got 2 different answers to this non-issue:
    >
    > 1. The Lunar Power Grid + electric furnace. Who cares if the electricity
    > comes from solar panels on the other side of the moon or from a great big
    > nuclear pile a couple of miles away...

    Running power lines all the way around the Moon is itself a daunting
    engineering challenge (though admittedly, one probably on the same order
    as a mass launcher and large-scale orbital manufactury). A reasonable
    solution, but not such a trivial one as to make lunar night a non-issue.

    A nuclear power plant is also a reasonable solution, but again, it
    doesn't offer the same flexibility or convenience as continuous sunlight.

    > 2. Space furnace mirrors can point down at the lunar surface just as
    > easy as at an orbital processing facility...

    Can they? From where? There are no selenosynchronous orbits.

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