- Our future and the earth itself are in danger from pollution, global warming, climate change and a looming energy crisis. The energy crisis will lead to a political crisis and continual and worsening energy wars. In addition we are discovering very real mega dangers from asteroid strikes and supervolcanos. Space technology in general and colonizing the moon in particular, as a first step into space, have the potential to mitigate and/or eliminate these dangers and guarantee a human future.—C. Proser
- There is no guarantee of a human future. There is no guarantee that the earth will remain capable of supporting our rapidly growing numbers and the demands we are making on the environment. Global warming is real, abrupt climate change is possible and they are energy problems. By the year 2050, to maintain our lifestyles, to permit the third world to develop, we will need three times the present primary energy and it will have to be three times as clean. There are no earthly technologies now online or capable of coming on line in time that can fulfill these needs.
The sun has been bathing the earth with energy for four and a half billion years. An extremely small fraction of that energy has been captured in fossil fuels. In little more than a century, we've used up nearly half of that bank of energy. We've wasted it, blown it into the atmosphere, and now we're choking on our own gasses.
Fossil fuel power is destroying the environment and threatening our ability to survive in a number of ways; both directly in terms of earth-altering events and, also, secondarily, in the conflicts engendered by the fact that this precious commodity, vital to the economies of the Developed World, is, to a great part present as finite, non- renewable resources in the Undeveloped World. Our past and present conflicts, to a great extent are over energy resources which are directly related to personal and national wealth, health and well-being.
Earth-based renewables comprise only 1% of our power needs, are dispersed and incapable of the necessary growth. Nuclear fission presents a clear and present critical danger and needs to be replaced as soon as possible. Although conservation is very important, it alone, cannot solve the problem.
There are two and a half technologies capable of providing abundant, clean, renewable energy and they are all based in space, they are: Space Solar Power, Lunar Solar Power and Nuclear Fusion powered by helium3 harvested from Lunar regolith; i.e. moondust.
Space Solar takes advantage of the sun's total energy flux, eight times that on the surface of a spinning, cloudy earth. However, at a chemical rocket launch cost of $10,000 a kilo to orbit, only the potential of the "Space Elevator" makes this possible.
Lunar Solar Power uses in-situ lunar materials to manufacture solar panels and to microwave power back to earth. On earth, rectennas at the site where the power is needed transform the microwaves directly into the local power grid, on time, on target.
Helium3, laid down by the solar wind and captured only in the lunar dust can be boiled off and transported to earth to fuel stage three helium fusion reactors, such as the prototype now in operation at the Fusion Lab at the University of Wisconsin. The nuclear waste from the 3He-3He reaction is H2O, water. Almost at once, nuclear fusion solves the problems of power, of nuclear proliferation and nuclear waste.
Is this possible? We've been to the moon...forty years ago with technology comparable to that in a Dodge Dart. In fact, there were secret American and Soviet plans for lunar bases. The Moon Race was a product of the Cold War that really only served to divert the Arms Race. We quit the Moon to fund a war in Vietnam and have lost forty years' development in space.
We can go back, now. It requires no breakthroughs in technology. We will live underground in the rilles; evacuated lava tubes. The possible site for the first outpost is Malapert Mountain in the South Pole. Very Large Array Telescopes on the Far Side, shielded from earth, can scan the heavens for danger. Moon-based lasers and moon-manufactured mining ships will be able to divert potential hazardous asteroids and comets, or even capture and mine them, turning earth-killing, civilization-ending threats into resources. Spreading humanity into space hedges the bet against supervolcanos, nuclear and biological accidents and climate changes that threaten humanity.
The Lunar Prospector discovered water. We will produce oxygen and all the material we need from the lunar surface and transform humanity into a spacefaring species. This will make the re-greening of the earth possible by eliminating the need for fossile fuels and providing abundant, clean energy. The limitless resources of space will be available, will raise the living standard of everyone on earth.
The transformation of homo sapiens to homo spaciens may guarantee that humanity has a future, something that today, is only a possibility and a long shot at that.
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