Can the Moon be given an earthlike atmosphere?

> I just read the Wikipedia dedscription of the Polywell
> reactor design. I had read the excerpt of Dr. Bussards
> talk at Google, but missed the important reference to
> the electron trapping at the reactor core. Wikipedia
> did a really good job clarifying that concept. Dang,
> if I only had a couple of million to invest,,,

Yeah, I feel the same way. :) I've been reading everything I can on
this concept (including the original papers from 1991-92) and I've
grown convinced that he's on to something important. But there isn't
much I can do except cheer from the sidelines, and gather resources
like this:
http://www.strout.net/info/science/polywell/>

> Joe, I expect Nicklas hasn't even read Dr. O'Neill's
> High Frontier or he would already know the answer to
> most of his tirades.

Agreed -- as far as I can tell, he hasn't read anything related to
space development at all. But we've already pointed out several
resources for him; maybe he'll spend the summer catching up.

> I regularly read the Bad
> Astronomer Blog and love Phil Plaits efforts to debunk
> pseudoscience. It's been a life time endeavor on his
> part. Now he has a new book in the works, titled Death
> from the Skies, that should go a long way toward
> showing just how foolish some of these doomsday
> scenarios are. I point this out just to note SSI isn't
> alone in trying to wake people to REAL world
> possibilities.

It's an ongoing battle. :) I know of that blog but haven't read it
too often; thanks for pointing it out.

> I'm trying to figure out a way to show some of my
> design ideas for Colonies. They're very clear in my
> mind, but I have a hard time converting those internal
> images into the real world, having little skill at
> technical drawing.

I find just a good drawing program (on the Mac, I prefer OmniGraffle)
makes it pretty easy to make a clear "blueprint" style drawing. For
real visualization, like this
http://www.strout.net/info/science/settlements/>, you have to work
harder of course. But on the other hand, images like that are made (in
POV-Ray) entirely with math and simple code -- you don't really need an
artistic hand. So maybe that would suit you.

> I hope
> I can accomplish this in some reasonable time and
> upload the images,then I hope SSI can provide some
> critical input. Maybe from such critical analyses I
> can develop some real designs that would work,,,

I'd certainly enjoy kicking some ideas around with you, and I'm sure
others here would as well.

Best,
- Joe

Joe Strout -- joe@...