Building Gas Stations and McMurdo Scale Outposts on the Moon

[Judi Lynn]

DECEMBER 4, 2018 BY NEXTBIGFUTURE

Building Gas Stations and McMurdo Scale Outposts on the Moon

When you go on a camping trip, when is it really tough? When are you really roughing it?

It is really tough if there is no supply store and no facilities at the place you are going. If you have to bring everything with you in your car then that makes it tougher.

If there is a gas station, running water and cabins for rent, then it becomes more like a rest stop on the highway.

The moon is a continent-sized place that is cold and difficult. The Moon has frozen ice. What do we do when we seriously want to research a remote continent-sized place that is cold and difficult. The example of that is Antarctica. Antarctica has McMurdo Station and dozens of other research stations.

Another example of a continent-scale undertaking was the Allied invasion of continental Europe. There was the D-Day invasion. This was followed by the construction of Mulberry temporary portable harbors. They were temporary harbors because the plan was to militarily capture the permanent ports. We have no permanent ports on the moon yet. We have to build it all ourselves.

More:
https://www.universetoday.com/140714/building-gas-stations-and-mcmurdo-scale-outposts-on-the-moon/#more-140714

[WheelWalker]

1. The Moon is a harsh mistress.

Yes, she is.

[Staph]

2. TANSTAAFL!

[hunter]

3. We ought to build tiny people to explore outer space...

... tiny people who don't need air, water, food, or precisely controlled temperatures, people who are unaffected by high levels of radiation.

Then we wouldn't need "McMurdo Scale Outposts on the Moon."

I don't think ordinary meat-type humans will ever have a significant presence in space beyond Low Earth Orbit. But our intellectual offspring might.

Artificial intelligence will be the cutting edge of "manned" space exploration, the creation of artificial beings that can look around with a human-like perspective.

The machines we are sending into space today are already sophisticated enough that there's little reason to send fragile humans and all the equipment and supplies required to keep them alive along for the ride.