The next step?

From: madflyer388 [mailto:madflyer38@...]

> My view is that we should go to the moon to set up a habitat in
> order to build fairly large colonies in space. By manufacturing the
> pieces of the colony on the moon, they could be launched with a rail
> gun- sort of like an aircraft carrier catapult- into orbit to be
> assembled.

Good plan overall, but the NASA/Ames space settlement studies
recommended EM launch of raw ore only from the moon, with refinement and
manufacturing taking place in orbit. Some reasons for this:

1. If raw ore is being launched into space rather than manufactured
components, then we aren't limited by G-forces, which means we can get
by with a shorter (and hence less expensive) launcher. SSI verified
that mass-driver accelerations of 1,800 G's were possible. Also we can
get by with a launcher of very small bore size (about the diameter of a
dinner plate).

2. There's an advantage to refining ore and working metal in HEO, and
it's that such operations can be solar powered and yet take place
continuously. Solar powered operations on the lunar surface would have
to cease for 2 weeks out of every 4.

Regards,

Mike Combs