MMM Classics Year 10: MMM #s 91-100 - Moon Society

ment/construction schedule would be useful on planetary
surfaces as well. For instance, if a small robotic/remote
control digger/hauler were at work now, how ready could it
have an area on the Moon for an oasis in ten or fifteen
years? And if every year or two another robot some with
similar some with other capabilities were also sent then how
far along could an oasis be when it finally became feasible to
send humans? And as construction progressed there would
be greater and greater incentive to send humans and less
and less of an infrastructure hurdle to overcome.
Richard Richardson
< Rrrspace@aol.com>
Doering, Alaska
EDITOR’S REPLY: While a sphere can be imagined as a combination
of radial segments, and perhaps, on Earth where there is
no differential between inside and outside pressure, such
segments could be built one at a time. But not in space, at least
not if you are going to pressurize them. Pressure wants to make
everything round! PK.
Triple Helix Space Colony seems ungainly
[MMM # 87 JUL ‘95 “Space Oases, Part IV”, p. 8]
Nature doesn’t use the triple helix very much.
Myoglobin molecules, which somewhat resemble triple
helices are crosss-braced. Even Watson and Crick’s abortive
initial attempt at modeling DNA as a triple helix had an
internal backbone holding everything together. It’s a rather
ungainly structure.
Jeff Sanburg,
Skokie, Illinois
EDITOR’S REPLY: Just as the torus space colony has a hub, the
helix, double or single has a hub-shaft. And just as the torus
has supporting spokes connecting it concentrically to the hub,
so will the helix, double or triple, have rhythmically spaced
spokes to the central shaft. I was incapable of illustrating this
structural feature in my crude MacPaint graphics program and
hoped that the reader would assume it.
Whether nature uses the triple helix or not is immaterial.
The design is structurally stable from an engineering
point of view, and if growth from all three end points is kept
apace, dynamic equilibrium will be maintained. Nature does
use the radial plan (starfish, octopus, flowers, etc.) and the
triple helix can be seen as a radial derivative. — PK
Dust Control, Space Suits, Terrestrial Uses
11/02/’95. “Dust Control” [MMM #89, pp. 5-7] was
an excellent article. There is a way that we could get some
of this hardware developed prior to returning to the Moon.
The universal door-lock and the turtle-back suit would
appear to have real application in the area of radioactive
waste management and other hazardous environments. The
concepts of keeping the nasties out, shielding, and working
at a positive pressure with respect to your environment are
common to both the radioactive waste problem and the
Moon.
It is becoming increasingly clear that there is an
enormous clean up effort that must be done in the wake of
weapons production and nuclear power generation both in
this country and elsewhere. If we could steer some of the
design concepts in this area, the result would be
technologies highly adaptable to the Moon.
David Graham < Woollym@aol.com >
Woolly Mammoth Co./ECS
EDITOR’S REPLY: Your suggestion is a great example of what
I’ve dubbed "spin-up", pre-developing a technology that will
be needed eventually on the space frontier, now, here on Earth
for for-profit Earthly applications. Relatively free technology,
ready to go or apply, when we need it in spaceis theend result.
Shielding with Bricks? [posted to artemis-list]
11/19/’95 With walls made of bricks or sandbags of lunar
soil, and a roof made of supporting more lunar
soil, we can provide the same protec-tion and still have
access to the exterior surface of the habitat.
Some questions: How quickly does the habitat need
to be shielded? Does it have to be accomplished during the
initial manned mission or can it be done telerobotically after
the first team leaves?
As far as brickmaking is concerned, do we know how
to make bricks at the Moonbase using equipment that will fit
into the first mission's mass budget? I thought brickmaking
would involve producing a glass base product, melting it
and using it as a bonding agent in the bricks. Is there
another way? Maybe using the regolith's natural clinging
properties and a gas operated pressurized ram mold?
Similar concerns for "sandbagging" lunar soil.
Several hundred lightweight plastic and fiber reinforced
plastic bags wouldn't weigh that much. But it would
probably take a little time to fill them up by hand. The
process could be automated but that means the machinery
would have to be there to do it. Maybe a simple frame
holding an electric vibrating hopper with a bag changer/endclosure
device at the outfeed. Still have to have some sort
of lunar earth mover to keep adding material to the hopper
as well as a mechanism to remove and stack the bags as they
are completed. Sounds like a system that would work best
if there were people around to clear any malfunctions.
Supervising it might be a full time job.
Simply piling dirt on top of the compound with a
teleoperated scooper may be the best way to go at first.
Although taking a brickmaking outfit and setting up business
might do a lot to make people understand that we are
serious about building a full fledged moonbase and that we
are there to stay. You don't start a brick factory if you
aren't serious about construction!
If it's essential to have external access to the
first habitat then I suppose an aluminum frame could be set
up like a spindly greenhouse (without the glazing) covering
Moon Miners’ Manifesto Classics - Year 10 - Republished January 2006 - Page 13