Sun-earth Lagrange points vs earth-moon Lagrange points vs elsewhere

Radiation will likely be one of the biggest obstacles faced by any settlement out there anywhere. It's hard to appreciate just how much our wonderful little planet here does to protect us. Even in in low-Earth-orbit radiation is still going to be an issue for long term settlement.

I think settlements out in the open, especially ones closer to the sun like the Earth-Sun L1, will be sparse for a while. It would probably eventually be easy enough to shield the residential area of the settlements and to dissipate the heat, but there would always be weak points, including exterior electronics, and shuttle craft and such.

For right now it's easy to discuss the social or organizational/political aspects of where we are going to place settlements, but until we get a little practice doing it, it's kind of difficult to fully explore the technical aspects. And unfortunately, without the technical side being considered, all the social and political organization schemes have to be taken with a grain of salt. Who really knows what technologies will or won't develop? Some things may become possible, but simply too expensive/difficult/dangerous, etc. We need to plan on starting with what we know (L-E-O), and then seeing where we can go next. But in the meantime, it is fun to speculate and fantasize about what might be someday.

At any rate, I think the center of civilization will choose its own location, regardless of any planning or intent by us. The principle of emergence at work.

Douglas May
CWA Local 6215 - Steward

From: the_gunfighter_45acp
To: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2007 11:06:02 PM
Subject: [spacesettlers] Re: Sun-earth Lagrange points vs earth-moon Lagrange points vs elsewhere

--- In spacesettlers@ yahoogroups. com, "Xenophile"

>

> I can see the reasoning here. Problem is, as soon as someplace

> becomes the "center of civilization, " or even "one of several centers

> of civilization, " there will be a lot of traffic. Which means that

> junk thrown off willi-nilli will be in people's flight paths.

>

Humm my worry is the civilization would have to have some really heavy

radiation shielding.. One major solar storm and everyone is toast...

Now as far as waste. A civilization with no waste management is going

to choke on its own trash.. With a good wast management plan they

should be free from a lot of space trash and so forth...