Category Archives: Building

Building

“Ask” – what Googling is? What is the future equivalent of Google?

Leave a comment

“Ask”, as the term is used in the novel, implies that portals such as Google’s search query are a thing of the past.  Search queries are  simply part of the interface of all handhelds, consoles and computers.  Content and meta data is distributed peer to peer, in fashions that users are not concerned with.

Today we can ask questions of Google and often get good quality answers.  Other times, it appears that business or political interests aligned with Google slant and filter the results.  As such trends continue and amplify, Google becomes more of a traditional “Internet portal” and less of a useful search engine.

From the history of Internet portals, going back to AOL, Compuserve, Protegy, and all the others, we know that the more rigid and structured they become, the more they fall into disuse.

Alternatives exist.  For example, under Kiwix it is easy to run a complete copy of Wikipedia locally, with no Internet connection.  The May 2015 copy is about 55 gigabytes.

Building, Developing, economics, Home Page, Manufacturing, Marketing, Materials, Supporting Life

Why Lunar Tourism Will Never Be Practical.

Leave a comment

The practicality of lunar tourism is a function not just of consumer interest, but by the physical realities of the mission.  These include orbital mechanics, energy requirements and mission duration.  The orbital transfer used, for reasons of safety,  would be the same as used in Apollo, the Hohmann orbital transfer, and from that energy and fuel requirements may be calculated.  The Moon and the launch site on Earth (or the position of a Space Station, if it was from that that departure for the Moon occurred) would need to be in precise alignment.

The location on the Moon for the landing would most likely have to be in lunar “dawn” or “Morning”, Continue reading Why Lunar Tourism Will Never Be Practical. →

Building, Developing, Exploring, Home Page, Navigation, Rover

Rovers Using IFR Navigation on the Moon?

Leave a comment

Pilots navigate aircraft in two separate ways, abbreviated IFR and VFR. IFR is a term pilots use for “Instrument flight rules”, as opposed to “visual flight rules.” Visual is when a pilot flies by using his eyes to reference terrain, and uses his instruments as a secondary reference. They are necessary – for example, a pilot cannot tell with any precision his height above the ground without looking at the altimeter.

But with Instrument Flight Rules the pilot only uses his instruments. Ocean vessels are also captained when necessary in weather conditions by IFR methods.

In the book, it’s proposed that given the existing databases of lunar terrain, accurate down to a half meter for most of the Moon, IFR navigation of rovers on the lunar surface is plausible.  Continue reading Rovers Using IFR Navigation on the Moon? →

Building, Developing, Exploring, Geology, Home Page, Supporting Life

Lava tubes on the Moon

Leave a comment

Lava tubes are natural formations which follow volcanic activity. A stream of lava flows down an incline, the outside freezes while the interior continues flowing, until the interior is an empty tube. These tubes exist on Earth, and on the Moon and Mars.

On the Moon, these tubes are usually located near the boundaries of highland areas with Mares. Various popular articles have touted the possibility that future lunar settlements could house the habitats inside lava tubes. Tubes larger than 1000 feet in cross section may exist, buried under a hundred meters of hard rock. Continue reading Lava tubes on the Moon →

Building, Developing, Home Page, Marketing, Mars

Is selling a one way trip to Mars a scam?

Leave a comment

At this time (2015) they are a scam. The development of technology and solutions for such travel is not, but the selling of trips is, because it presupposes the existence of such technology and solutions. And they do not exist.

When would such a thing not be a scam?

When when facilities existed on the Red Planet to house and shelter humans and provide for their basic needs. When rockets existed in the size and style required for transport.

Therefore, the business opportunity in 2015 would seem to be in those infrastructure developments.   Those would be nanotech fabricators, various forms of 3d printers and replicators, and robots.  If these are not to the required technological level to accomplish the jobs as defined on Mars, then the useful work would be in bringing them to that stage.

This is all particularly true given that Mars has the full complement of elements to produce plastics, composites, and ceramics, as well as metals and metal alloys.

Building, Developing, Geology, Maker, Manufacturing, Materials, Supporting Life

The Moon is Lacking the Ingredients of Life

Leave a comment

The Moon is lacking the basic ingredients of life, therefore it will never be a world with life.

For any manned colony in space, the elements of oxygen, carbon and nitrogen are essential to life.  These elements are common on Mars.  This directly means Mars is a plausible site for manned colonies.  It is also why the Moon is Continue reading The Moon is Lacking the Ingredients of Life →

Building, Home Page, Rover, Solar Power

Lunar WhiteOut – Moon-Blind

Leave a comment

White out on Earth refers to conditions where the sky, due to low clouds, fog or snow, does not clearly transition to the ground.  Typically in a white out there are no shadows, and there is a lot of white, so there is nothing seen but white.  Whether you look down, up or forward, only white with no contrast.  It is similar to a way over exposed photograph.

When the sun hits the Lunar surface close to high noon, there is little shadowing and the surface becomes very uniform, as occurs with  “whiteout” as occurs on earth.  NASA suggests that when the Sun’s angle is within 20 degrees of vertical, manned excursions on the surface would not be wise.

20 degrees of vertical would be a range of 70-110 degrees from the plane of the surface.  However, the sunlit side of a crater could easily be within this range when the sun was in a number of positions.  The same would be true for the sides of hills, at least in certain areas. Continue reading Lunar WhiteOut – Moon-Blind →

Building, Developing, Geology, Home Page

Lunar Ecology – Or Not

Leave a comment

Ecology is defined as “The branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.”   One part of the MotM plot is Eli’s commitment to maintaining the Moon in a pure and untouched condition.  Like many others, he misunderstands what this means.

Preservation of useful attributes of the Moon for future generations has to be figured from first principles.  What are they?

The primary attribute of the Moon which could be damaged by industrialization is Continue reading Lunar Ecology – Or Not →