On the anniversary of the first moon landing: The case for building a settlement on the moon

[boingboing]

Originally published at: On the anniversary of the first moon landing: The case for building a settlement on the moon | Boing Boing

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[Scientist]

When reading “settlement” I was picturing a base for people to live on the moon and tourist visits which seems like a bad idea, but a permanent base for telescopes and space research could be a great idea. Hope they make it happen

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@boingboing

He envisions private moon resorts for the wealthy as soon as 15 or 20 years

Tax billionaires until such an idea is utterly unthinkable and use the money to fund research. None of this catering to a wealthy few in the hopes of later transforming it into something useful to humanity bullshit

[OhHai]

@boingboing

hydrogen goudn

Is that a type of gouda? IS MOON CHEESE REAL?

[MikeTheBard]

@Scientist

Tax billionaires until such an idea is utterly unthinkable and use the money to fund research. None of this catering to a wealthy few in the hopes of later transforming it into something useful to humanity bullshit

For most things I’m in absolute agreement. Every great thing America has done, it did when there was a 90% marginal tax rate.

That said, technology, unlike wealth, does trickle down. I remember the first “affordable” CD recorder to crack the $5k price tag, and I think I paid $14 for the last one I bought. Bill Gates once outfitted his mansion with enormous 30" flat screen TVs for tens of thousands of dollars each, and Walmart now has a 65" for less than $300. My phone has twenty thousand times as much memory as my first desktop computer.

The bleeding edge high tech toys that only billionaires can dream of today are the common consumer goods of tomorrow, and the cheap trinkets of the next decade. I see no reason why space travel will be any different. The first lunar hotel will cost tens of billions. The fifth will be built from decade old technology for pennies on the original dollar.

[smulder]

@MikeTheBard

My phone has twenty thousand times as much memory as my first desktop computer

In my case it’s more like a million times

but Moore’s Law doesn’t apply to everything

The only way a moon landing in 2065 can be one millionth the cost of an Artemis launch today is if future astronauts weigh 50 milligrams each

[MBrody]

The moon should absolutely be colonized. I would also suggest making Donald Trump chief of the Space Force and sending him to the moon to set up operations. I would further recommend sending MTG the moon so she can conduct surveillance on the Jewish space lasers that she’s concerned about.

[oldstevo]

Why do you want to pollute the moon so badly? What did it ever do to you?

[GilbertWham]

Freeze-dried fascists in a cold, dry environment are pretty stable and stack easily. Seems like a reasonable solution to me.

[Tamsin_Bailey]

We just say we’re sending them to the moon.

The rocket doesn’t even have to make orbit to be a success…

[Otherbrother]

@boingboing

NASA is commencing the first test phase of its $93 billion Artemis program, which will send four astronauts to the moon in 2025 and establish a permanent base there

I never saw anyone at NASA claiming that the Artemis program will establish a permanent base there, and the linked Artemis project website doesn’t make that claim. The section of the website that talks about the “base camp” says

One the first few missions, the human landing system will double as lunar lodging, offering life support systems to support a short crew stay on the Moon. In the future, NASA envisions a fixed habitat at the Artemis base camp that can house up to four Astronauts fir a month-long stay.

So their ambition is to eventually support longer (but not permanent) stays at some point in the future. But it isn’t part if the current program.

[FloridaManJefe]

[teknocholer]

@Tamsin_Bailey

We just say we’re sending them to the moon.

Just billionaires and Republicans, though. Keep the telephone sanitizers. I have a feeling we’re going to need them.

[Brainspore]

@MikeTheBard

That said, technology, unlike wealth, does trickle down.

Even if a vacation trip to the moon somehow became an affordable luxury for the masses it would be an environmental disaster. The most optimistic concepts for launch vehicles would still come with a tremendous energy cost and dump a huge amount of carbon into the atmosphere.

There may be good arguments for human moon bases but “it could become the next go-to destination for billionaire tourists!” isn’t one of them. Bad enough so many have been taking holidays in Antarctica just so they could have the bragging rights.

[GilbertWham]

Yup. Given the preponderance of genX-ers here, we have a strong cultural memory of what a dirty telephone box looks like. We cannot let the younglings march into such horrors unprepared.

[teknocholer]

And telephone sanitizing skills can be readily adapted to door handles, gym equipment, sex robots, etc.

[DonatellaNobody]

@GilbertWham

Freeze-dried fascists in a cold, dry environment are pretty stable

That’s the only way to keep them stable.

[DonatellaNobody]

@GilbertWham

dirty telephone box

Standing in the freezing cold in a phone box that has probably just been shat and/or fucked in, dropping quarter after quarter in the little slot trying to reach a taxi dispatcher who will actually pick up, and then the cab might come out might not.

90s Uber.