Earth-Moon L1

> I favor colonizing the Moon, a 2 or 3 day trip to get there where one can
>live under ground, as I believe solar power from there can supply a
>significant fraction of the Earth's industrial electrical energy needs
>without generating greenhouse gasses. A useful paper, "Advanced Technology
>Paths to Global Climate Stability: Energy for a Greenhouse Planet, by M. I.
>Hoffert and 17 others, including J. S. Lewis, Science Vol. 298, pages
>981-987" comprehensively reviews the problems. An article by D. R.
>Criswell, "Solar Power via the Moon," The Industrial Physicist, April/May
>2002, pages 12-15, is also very good. I recommend both. Sorry they are not
>on line, that I know of.
>

They are both online, though the first requires a subscription to
Science magazine (many universities already have this). I led a
discussion of the Science article (over 300 comments) at k5:

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/11/11/83056/403

which also has links to Criswell's Industrial Physicist article:

http://www.aip.org/tip/0402.html

and subsequent discussion in later issues.

I'm definitely more optimistic about the prospects for large-scale space
development after reading these articles and their discussion of the
prospects for space-based solar power... Now if we could get NASA and
the energy department working together on such a project...?

Arthur