Steven Den Beste Strawman

From: ssi_list@yahoogroups.com [mailto:ssi_list@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of Frank

>http://denbeste.nu/entries/00001113.shtml

excerpt:
"The L5 society originally suggested mining it on the moon and
shooting it towards Lagrange Point 5 with mass accelerators on
the
surface of the moon. To mine and refine millions of tons of mass
on
the moon would itself require a substantial moon colony. But
that
whole concept ignores one basic problem: how do you stop those
capsules when they reach the L5 point? Momentum is always
conserved;
you've got to get rid of it some way. For each ton moved to
stable
orbit, you're going to require a lot of fuel for rocket engines
to
slow the stuff down"

You know, there sure is a lot of misunderstanding on this point. When I
wrote my Space Settlement FAQ, I made and put up in front of me a sign
that said, "K.I.S.S.: Keep It Simple, Stupid". So when it came time to
talk about where the lunar ore flying out the mass-driver goes, I just
said, "...to a point in space where it can be easily retrieved". One
can get into a multi-page discussion of Lagrange point stabilities and
achromatic trajectories. But after seeing so many people either make
the above mistake, or mistakenly assume that the mass-driver launches
its payloads into low lunar orbit, I finally decided to compromise a
little, and at least add the parenthetical "(Earth-moon L-2)".

I agree that decelerating masses mined on the moon will need a
lot of
energy. But building a habitat has not to depend on masses mined
on
the Moon. Masses mined on asteroids will not carry this heavy
gravitation well ballast.

There's no need for us to agree with Den Beste's above comment because
it's factually wrong. There's also no need for us to give up on the
moon for this reason. The originally lunar proposal was just fine; Den
Beste's argument derives from a fundamental misunderstanding of the
proposal on his part.

Ideally the habitat would be built near the asteroid which
delivers
the most material.

This would be a fine strategy if the only goal were to build a home in
space, and do it as cheaply as possible. But in all likelihood, for the
first generation of space habitats the goal will be to provide housing
for space workers who are serving an existing market. And at the start
of the process, the only market in existence is Earth. I still expect
that the first habitat will be built in High Earth Orbit in order to be
close by to the market being served. That said, in the long term, I
fully expect the vast majority of space habitats will be built as you
describe: close by to an asteroid with a wide variety of raw materials.

Regards,

Mike Combs