Space Transportation - mmmt_transportation.pdf - Moon Society

MMM #65 - May 1993
Using Hitchhiker and Bonus Imports to Hasten Settlement Self-Sufficiency
STOWAWAY IMPORTS By Peter Kokh
Three Opportunities for strategic substitutions
There are three basic categories of opportunity to ship to the Moon badly needed “Lunar deficient elements” -
strategic metals and volatile feedstocks - virtually “for free”. That is,
• The freight is actually being billed to other Import items,
and would still be levied …
Whether these opportunities are seized and reused or not
.
These are (1) containers and packaging materials or “tare stuffs” used to ship the principal items on the
Manifest; (2) parts and components of imported items that would normally be made of elements in which the Moon is
already well endowed [see the end of the “MUS/cle” article just above]; and (3) cannibalizable parts of the shipping
vehicle or of its outfitting that either are not needed for the return trip to Earth and could be replaced there, or which
could be replaced with Lunar substitutes upon arrival on the Moon.
In all three cases, play in the “substitution game” is initiated on Earth. In the second and third case, there is a
“counter” or “complementary” substitution made on the Moon. In the second case, this match move could be delayed
for some time, the endowment being “banked” in the imported item as it is being used. [see previous article].
What substitutes for what?
On the one hand, the stuffs, parts, and components in question are those that would normally be made of
elements for which the settlement has no need, namely, those which can be produced economically on location:
oxygen, silicon, iron, aluminum, and titanium especially. The operative rally cry here is “No Coals to Newcastle” i.e.
no ice for the Eskimos, no sand for the Saudis, etc. Shipping or co-shipping items so formulated constitutes no less
than a criminally wasted opportunity to bootstrap industrial diversification.
Instead, we want to substitute other metals such as copper, zinc, lead, gold, silver, platinum, etc., or alloys
rich in them such as duralumin, monel, bronze, brass, pewter, etc. Where such substitution is impractical, an alternate
option is to preferentially use stainless steel or any of several other industrially desirable steel or aluminum alloys for
which the alloying ingredients cannot be easily produced on the Moon.
Some constraints apply: the substitute metals must be formulated to perform adequately, and must not
involve added weight. The trick is to avoid paying a weight penalty in substituting heavier metals for lighter ones by
using less of them or by other tricks. If this pitfall is avoided, substitution costs aside, the actual transportation costs
will be nil, charged as “overhead” on the bill for the principal shipment, whether the helpful endowing substitution is
made or not.
As to oxygen, it is a principal component - often in the 50% range - of paper, cardboard, wood, plastics,
styrofoam, and other materials often used as containers, packaging wrap, separators, and fill. Instead, it will be to the
settlement’s great advantage to substitute tare stuffs formulated from low polymer hydrocarbons that can easily be
broken down into the constituent hydrogen and carbon - both very precious on the Moon - or used as chemical
feedstocks in Lunar industries.
Other substitution possibilities include soaps and waxes and friable or biodegradable compositions rich in
those agricultural micro-nutrients or fertilizers in which lunar regolith soils are impoverished. A stuffing and cavityfiller
option that could sometimes be appropriate would be to use air- or freeze-dried luxury food items (to be
reconstituted with water made with lunar oxygen) (e.g. fruit, milk, eggs, spices) not likely to be produced in the early
stages of lunar agriculture and which would add much to special occasion menus and to over all morale and moraledependent
productivity. Such items (along with human wastes from arriving ships) will be much valued accumulating
additions to the local biosphere.
Oxygen is also an unnecessary 21% of the Earth air with which cargo holds would normally be pressurized.
Instead we could use pure Nitrogen, the extra 21% most appreciated on the Moon. For the return trip, the holds could
be pressurized with Lunar Oxygen, either alone or buffered with Argon and Neon scavenged from the regolith by
modest heating.
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