So I figured out how to colonize the moon

[crimsonblue]

It was a high idea, but I think it would still work.
Step 1: crash a comet into the moon.
Step 2: create an atmosphere on the moon by placing O2 and CO2 sprayers.
Step 3: after a sufficient atmosphere has been created, put genetically modified bacteria that can use moon rocks as food.

[rcrush]

1. High ideas are the best ideas

[crimsonblue]

2. I think if we had the technology

It would be totally feasible.

[rcrush]

3. We wouldnt have done it without weed.

Its true.

[Swede]

4. Piss off Jacky Gleason.

Lift off in 5,4,3.......

[petronius]

5. I suspect that the real problem is that the moon's gravity is not

sufficient to retain a thick enough atmosphere. I don't know that for a fact, but I've read a lot of Clarke and Heinlein...

A moon colony would be a nice thing to have, however.

[Swede]

6. Also the weak magnetic field would not protect the atmosphere from solar winds.

Poof,gone.

[petronius]

13. Also a major problem. On top of these, the days/nights are 2 weeks long

That would probably do some weird stuff to the weather conditions if the atmosphere was able to persist. However, kentauros' 'black monolith' solution might solve all these problems...

:)

[crimsonblue]

15. Step 5: drill a hole to the center of the moon

Place a small thermonuclear device(<5 ktons)into the center of the moon, and explode it. It will belt the core, and as liquid iron is magnetic, a magnetic field will be developed.

[kentauros]

7. So, you just add a bunch of

big black monoliths to it to pump up the mass :P

[Urban Prairie]

8. Colonize it with greedy and selfish conservative capitalists

Because the unregulated free-market abhors a vacuum.

[hobbit709]

9. Better yet

Give Venus a moon the size of ours, remove all the excess CO2.

[carlyhippy]

10. I could hang around on the moon, but I gotta get some stuff straight first...

now, if I am looking at the earth from the moon, would I say there is a full earth, or a new earth, or a blue earth, or harvest earth? I need to learn moon etiquette and decorum....should I see a naked hiney in the rear window of the moon rover, would I say that person "earthed" me?

[ReliantJ]

11. A flag will do

It'll be like the Oregon, as in no one wants to move there anyways. So save the energy j/k

[quakerboy]

16. Then why is it full of Californians?

[Deep13]

12. Wouldn't the low gravity and lack of a magnetic field...

...cause any atmosphere to be eroded away by solar wind before it ever got started? :shrug:

[krispos42]

14. We can just put a dome over a crater

We'd have to have a way to cut the sunlight to simulate daytime and we'd need plenty of floodlights.


Hmmmm... I wonder building a small dome in the equator-side of a large crater would be the best way to go about this. The crater wall would always be in shadow and thus protected from radiation but reflected daylight from the polar, east, and west walls would offer plenty of indirect illumination. You'd have solar power for whatever you needed it for. You could even have mirror arrays to shine a prescribed amound of sunlight on the dome for agricultural purposes, if needed.



Hmmm... the Moon's axial tilt (relative to the Sun) is only 5º. I wonder if there's a nice crater at the north or south lunar pole we could put a dome.

If the dome was in the bottom of such a crater, it would always be in shadow, safe from solar radiation. But the crater rims would always (or almost always) be in sunlight as the sun circles the horizon. A few solar panel arrays to power the dome, a few mirror arrays to keep the dome well-lit, a couple of satellite dishes for communications...


Yeah, that could work.