Lunarpedia - User contributions [en]

Moon Sims

2007-04-14T19:21:55Z

Davew: spam - Undo revision 8537 by Special:Contributions/200.171.235.145 (User talk:200.171.235.145)

Moon Sims was originally established to present a concept for a lunar settlement using the popular computer game, The Sims. The lunar settlement developed in [http://moo.asi.org ASI MOO] was used as the basis for the description. The project developed a few of the items needed to show what life would be like in the moon a hundred years from now but development ended with the advent of The Sims 2 and the subsequent waning popularity of the orginal version of The Sims.

Moon Sims continues as an infrequently updated fan site for The Sims and The Sims 2, and hosts a few other fan sites.

[[Image:Moonsims-ad-banner.jpg]]
 
[http://moonsims.asi.org/ Moon Sims]
 
{{Stub}}

[[Category:Resources]]

Arithmetic Mean

2007-04-11T01:01:55Z

Davew:

{{Autostub}}

'''Arithmetic Mean'''

 One of several accepted measures of central tendency, physically
analogous to ''center of gravity''. Pertaining to a set of numbers
x 1, x2,...xn, the arithmetic mean,
usually denoted by the symbol [[image:xbar.gif|"mean symbol"]], is the sum x1+x2+...+xn divided by n. Also called '' mean,
average, simple average ''.

 ''Since the word ''mean'' is also
applied to other measures of central tendency, such as weighted
means, geometric means, harmonic means, the adjective ''arithmetic''
is used for clarity. However, when used without further qualification,
the term ''mean'' is understood as ''arithmetic mean.

==References==
''This article is based on NASA's [[NASA SP-7|Dictionary of Technical Terms for Aerospace Use]]''
[[Category%3ADefinitions]]
[[Category%3ANASA SP-7]]
[[Category%3ADefinitions with Missing Images]]

==TeX==
<nowiki><math>\bar{x}</math></nowiki> produces <math>\bar{x}</math> 
<nowiki><math>x_1 + x_2 + ... + x_n</math></nowiki> produces <math>x_1 + x_2 + ... + x_n</math>

Shielded Roadways

2007-04-11T00:52:25Z

Davew:

[[Category:Ground Transport]]
{{subminimal}}

Roads

2007-04-11T00:51:43Z

Davew:

[[Category:Ground Transport]]
{{subminimal}}

New Shepard

2007-04-11T00:46:22Z

Davew:

Suborbital [[VTOVL]] craft being developed by Jeff Bezos' company Blue Origin

==External Links==
[http://public.blueorigin.com/index.html public.blueorigin.com]

{{Subminimal}}

[[Category:Boosters]]

NASA Exploration Strategy

2007-04-11T00:44:26Z

Davew: /* NASA does '''not''' plan to provide: */

[http://www.charm.net/~jriley/Moon/LunarStation01.jpg Lunar Base, NASA Graphic]

==NASA Exploration Strategy and Architecture==

In December 4, 2006, Shana Dele, Deputy Administrator of NASA, gave an important presentation providing NASA exploration strategy and architecture for implementing the vision at the 2nd Space Exploration Conference. A number of points in this presentation are important to this wiki.

==Presentation slides==

An Adobe .pdf version of the slides can be found at:

[http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/163896main_LAT_GES_1204.pdf NASA Exploration Strategy and Architecture Slides]

===Themes===

Six major themes were identified (Slide 6):

* Human Civilization
* Scientific Knowledge
* Exploration Preparation
* Global Partnerships
* Public Engagement

Lunarpedia can make an important contribution in most of these areas, but most strongly in Public Engagement and Economic Expansion.

[[image:ShackletonSite01.jpg]]

===Luna polar base===

Slide 9 through Slide 16 describes a single lunar base at almost exactly the lunar South Pole.

This site is very similar to the Mount Malapert site described in our stories which is about 125 kilometers Earthward from the South Pole. We must confess that until the Lunar Reconnaissance Observatory (LRO) sends back data, there simply is not enough information to choose the best site for a lunar station. We must wait it out.

===What NASA will, and will not, do===

The open architecture is discussed in Slide 17. This is a list of the things that NASA is planning to do, and more importantly '''not''' planning to do.

====NASA plans to provide:====

* Lander and ascent vehicle
* [[EVA]] system
** [[CEV]] and initial surface capability
* [[Navigation]] and [[Communications]]
** Basic mission support
* [[Robotic Missions]]
** [[LRO]] - Remote sensing and map development
** Lander

====NASA does '''not''' plan to provide:====

* EVA system
** Long Duration surface suit
** Power, basic and augmented
* Habitation
* Mobility
** Basic rover
** Pressurized rover
** Other; mules, regolith moving, module unloading
* Navigation and Communication
** Augmented
** High bandwidth
* [[ISRU]]
** Characterization
** Demos
** Production
* Robotic Missions
** Basic environmental data
** Flight system validation
** Small satellites
** Science rovers
** Instrumentation
* Logistic Resupply
* Specific Capabilities
** Drills, scoops, samples handles, arms
** Logistic rover
** Components
** Sample return

The list of '''will nots''' is much longer than the lists of '''wills'''.

===What does this mean to Lunarpedia===

The long list of things that NASA does '''not''' plan to do, and does '''not''' expect to have the money to do, says that industry and other nations must be major contributors to the back to the Moon effort.

The only way that this will happen is if a large number of people retain a strong vision of success for human beings returning to the Moon and that they take action on that vision. One purpose of Lunarpedia is to build and foster that vision and to support those actions.

----

[[Category:NASA]]
[[Category:Business]]
[[Category:Purposes]]

NASA Exploration Strategy

2007-04-11T00:43:15Z

Davew: /* NASA plans to provide: */

[http://www.charm.net/~jriley/Moon/LunarStation01.jpg Lunar Base, NASA Graphic]

==NASA Exploration Strategy and Architecture==

In December 4, 2006, Shana Dele, Deputy Administrator of NASA, gave an important presentation providing NASA exploration strategy and architecture for implementing the vision at the 2nd Space Exploration Conference. A number of points in this presentation are important to this wiki.

==Presentation slides==

An Adobe .pdf version of the slides can be found at:

[http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/163896main_LAT_GES_1204.pdf NASA Exploration Strategy and Architecture Slides]

===Themes===

Six major themes were identified (Slide 6):

* Human Civilization
* Scientific Knowledge
* Exploration Preparation
* Global Partnerships
* Public Engagement

Lunarpedia can make an important contribution in most of these areas, but most strongly in Public Engagement and Economic Expansion.

[[image:ShackletonSite01.jpg]]

===Luna polar base===

Slide 9 through Slide 16 describes a single lunar base at almost exactly the lunar South Pole.

This site is very similar to the Mount Malapert site described in our stories which is about 125 kilometers Earthward from the South Pole. We must confess that until the Lunar Reconnaissance Observatory (LRO) sends back data, there simply is not enough information to choose the best site for a lunar station. We must wait it out.

===What NASA will, and will not, do===

The open architecture is discussed in Slide 17. This is a list of the things that NASA is planning to do, and more importantly '''not''' planning to do.

====NASA plans to provide:====

* Lander and ascent vehicle
* [[EVA]] system
** [[CEV]] and initial surface capability
* [[Navigation]] and [[Communications]]
** Basic mission support
* [[Robotic Missions]]
** [[LRO]] - Remote sensing and map development
** Lander

====NASA does '''not''' plan to provide:====

* EVA system
** Long Duration surface suit
** Power, basic and augmented
* Habitation
* Mobility
** Basic rover
** Pressurized rover
** Other; mules, regolith moving, module unloading
* Navigation and Communication
** Augmented
** High bandwidth
* ISRU
** Characterization
** Demos
** Production
* Robotic Missions
** Basic environmental data
** Flight system validation
** Small satellites
** Science rovers
** Instrumentation
* Logistic Resupply
* Specific Capabilities
** Drills, scoops, samples handles, arms
** Logistic rover
** Components
** Sample return

The list of '''will nots''' is much longer than the lists of '''wills'''.

===What does this mean to Lunarpedia===

The long list of things that NASA does '''not''' plan to do, and does '''not''' expect to have the money to do, says that industry and other nations must be major contributors to the back to the Moon effort.

The only way that this will happen is if a large number of people retain a strong vision of success for human beings returning to the Moon and that they take action on that vision. One purpose of Lunarpedia is to build and foster that vision and to support those actions.

----

[[Category:NASA]]
[[Category:Business]]
[[Category:Purposes]]

LEPAG

2007-04-11T00:34:45Z

Davew:

''LEPAG'', or the ''Lunar Exploration Program Working Group,'' is an ad-hoc organization of lunar scientists commissioned by [[NASA]] as a scientific advisory group on lunar science and exploration issues. It was created on the model of the highly successful ''MEPAG'' group which gives scientific perspective on Mars exploration issues.

 
{{Stub}}
 
 
==Links==
(none)
 
 

[[Category:Organizations]]

Grid Standard Proposal 1

2007-04-11T00:32:37Z

Davew: /* Increased copper usage */

==Specification==

{| style="background:#005F5F"
|- style="Background:white;color:black"
| Type
| '''Alternating Current'''
|- style="Background:white;color:black"
| Voltage
| '''240 Volts'''
|- style="Background:white;color:black"
| Frequency
| '''60 Hz'''
|-
|}

==Reasoning==
This was Tesla's original recommendation to Westinghouse. The voltage was halved for political considerations in allowing its deployment.

==Pros==
===Compatibility with Terrestrial specifications===
There is a great deal of Terrestrial products that will run on a power grid using this specification.

==Cons==
===No break from legacy considerations===

===Increased copper usage===
[[Copper]] is believed to be in short supply on Luna

==Changes==
There have been no changes to this specification

[[Category:Power Supply]]
[[Category:Urban Planning]]
[[Category:Electrical Specifications]]
[[Category:Power Grid Specifications]]
[[Category:Alternating Current Specifications]]
[[Category:Standards Proposals]]
[[Category:Civil Engineering]]

Arithmetic Mean

2007-04-11T00:13:55Z

Davew:

{{Autostub}}
{{Initial Proof Needed}}
'''Arithmetic Mean'''

 One of several accepted measures of central tendency, physically
analogous to ''center of gravity''. Pertaining to a set of numbers
x 1, x2,...xn, the arithmetic mean,
usually denoted by the symbol [[image:xbar.gif|"mean symbol"]], is the sum x1+x2+...+xn divided by n. Also called '' mean,
average, simple average ''.

 ''Since the word ''mean'' is also
applied to other measures of central tendency, such as weighted
means, geometric means, harmonic means, the adjective ''arithmetic''
is used for clarity. However, when used without further qualification,
the term ''mean'' is understood as ''arithmetic mean.

==References==
''This article is based on NASA's [[NASA SP-7|Dictionary of Technical Terms for Aerospace Use]]''
[[Category%3ADefinitions]]
[[Category%3ANASA SP-7]]
[[Category%3ADefinitions with Missing Images]]

Arithmetic Mean

2007-04-11T00:13:31Z

Davew:

{{Autostub}}
{{Initial Proof Needed}}
'''Arithmetic Mean'''

 One of several accepted measures of central tendency, physically
analogous to ''center of gravity''. Pertaining to a set of numbers
x 1, x2,...xn, the arithmetic mean,
usually denoted by the symbol [[image:xbar.gif "mean symbol"]], is the sum x1+x2+...+xn divided by n. Also called '' mean,
average, simple average ''.

 ''Since the word ''mean'' is also
applied to other measures of central tendency, such as weighted
means, geometric means, harmonic means, the adjective ''arithmetic''
is used for clarity. However, when used without further qualification,
the term ''mean'' is understood as ''arithmetic mean.

==References==
''This article is based on NASA's [[NASA SP-7|Dictionary of Technical Terms for Aerospace Use]]''
[[Category%3ADefinitions]]
[[Category%3ANASA SP-7]]
[[Category%3ADefinitions with Missing Images]]

USGS

2007-04-10T23:52:11Z

Davew: /* External Links */

'''United States Geological Survey'''

Federal source for science about the Earth, its natural and living resources, natural hazards, and the environment.

==External Links==
* USGS Home Page

[http://www.USGS.gov USGS.Gov]

USGS

2007-04-10T23:51:23Z

Davew:

Architecture as Mole Hills

2007-04-10T23:49:45Z

Davew: /* Farm */

[[Image:ArchCellar01.jpg|frame|Architecture as Mole Hills, Cellar]]

==Architecture as Mole Hills==

Sometimes you need to see something in your minds eye to make it real.

===Purpose===

This is a discussion of one possible architecture for lunar settlements. There are many other possibilities. This one assumes that large mining machines, called sandworms, have been used to dig trenches while processing regolith for volatiles. These trenches are then used as the location for long inflated halls that are then covered with regolith for radiation protection.

===Generations of Lunar Buildings===

The first buildings on the Moon will be small construction sacks prefabricated on Earth. These will be sitting on the surface with regolith piled against the sides and sandbagged on top. They allowed people to stay on the Moon only for short times as they do not provide enough radiation protection. These will later be recycled to make new buildings.

This first generation of buildings, with their supporting facilities, is best described by [[NASA]] documents and graphics. Where we are most interested in here is the following generations of buildings that can actually support settlement.

The second generation of buildings will be very similar to the first but buried in the regolith. These will provide enough protection to allow people to remain between trips for the first time. Each building had one airlock and was surrounded by surface equipment like solar and thermal panels.

These buildings were the first toe hold in the Astronaut time period, but will be phased out early in the Mining period as they do not provide enough living space nor have enough radiation shielding for long term occupancy.

Some of these second building still remain for use as maintenance shacks at the science station and others for emergency out buildings.

At the time of our stories the living space has been expanded to a third generation with much more space and cellars with a high level of radiation shielding. These buildings are described below.

===Over All Appearance of a Settlement===

All the main building, starting with the mining period, look like mole hills. They have an Earth prefab section at one end. Connected to this is a long tent like hall running in more or less a straight line for up to 100 meters. The hall is covered with 2.5 meters of lunar regolith for radiation protection giving the mole hill appearance. At the far end is a small prefab section that connects the hall to other halls.

One end or the other usually has an airlock assembly with a ramp leading down to the door. By the door will be a surveillance camera and tools for removing dust. The door will open inward in a complex manner like the door of a commercial air liner on Earth. This insures that the inside pressure is helping to keep the door seal tight and that the door can not be opened with any pressure on the inside.

The layout of the long halls is somewhat erratic as they are laid out to miss craters and may even be curved or bent to suit the lay of the land. Down each side of the halls is a borrow trench where much of the regolith was taken to cover the hall.

One hall, the gym, stands out visually as it is made in a circle of about 100 meters outside diameter. This allows for a continuous internal track.

Scattered among the mold hills are many pieces of outside equipment including tracking terminal arrays, solar concentrators, solar panels, antennas, a retro-reflector, and science instruments. All this equipment looks spindly and weak by Earth standards. It is all made from as little Earth material as possible and takes advantage of the Moon's weak gravity.

One small sandworm, about 1/4 the size of the industrial ones, remains in the building area. It digs trenches for new halls. There are also other mounds around that cover storage tanks and other industrial equipment.

Foot prints and wheel track run every which way. Footprints last a long time on the Moon. There are a few improved roads to the landing pads, to the mining areas, and to a science field. These are simply leveled and packed regolith with the craters filled in. Where the road from the landing pads arrives at the main building is a ceremonial plaza with a ring of flag poles.

In the distance there are a number of designated areas:

* '''Landing pads''' -- About one kilometer off for safety and to control contamination.
* '''Mines''' - Several kilometers off the sandworms dig long furrows 11 meters wide and kilometers long. They operate during all daylight hours digging the regolith in front of them and filling in the trench behind. The result looks a little like a plowed field from a distance.
* '''Bone yard''' - This is the junk yard is near the maintenance shop.
* '''Solar Field''' - This area is only a few hundred meters off and includes large solar collectors for power and large tracking radiator panels. It is situated on high ground.
* '''Science Field''' - A few kilometers off, this field contains many science instruments.
* '''Industrial equipment''' - Between the main settlement and the mines are a number of industrial constructions for refining the He-3 and separating other useful volatiles.

===Notes on Radiation Shielding===

The Earth provides two types of [[radiation shielding]] critical for life: atmospheric mass and magnetic field. The Moon has neither type. On the Moon, our architecture must provide all our shielding. This is so important that it drives the entire architecture of the settlement. For more details see Radiation Shielding.

[[Image:ArchDorm01.jpg|frame| Architecture as Mole Hills, Standard dorm room]]

===The Basic Hall Structure===

All buildings built in the mining and settlement periods are of mole hill construction. Calculations of some of the factors in this design are given in the spreadsheet, MalapertCal0n.xls. The three sections are:

* '''Prefab Utility Section''' - Containing all sanitary and environmental control equipment. This includes a bathroom, shower, launder, and environmental monitoring equipment. Also located there is a hatch leading to a cellar room. This section may contain an airlock assembly or have a simple pressure bulkhead connection to another hall.
* '''Hall''' - A long hall made of a multi layered plastic construction. The layers are supported by the internal air pressure but do need some reinforcement to carry the weight of the regolith piled above the hall.
* '''Prefab End''' - This section is usually a simple pressure bulkhead that allows communication with the next hall. In an emergency it can be sealed off.

The halls have a cross-section something like a loaf of bread. The roof is a curve supported largely by gas pressure. The floor is made of flat insulating panels with a top aluminum skin. Later these floors are covered with tiles made from lunar regolith. The walls are flat and sloped out about 10 degrees. The width of the floor is slightly more than three meters and the roof is almost two and a half meters high. The flat lighting panels make up the ceiling with tubes and cables above them.

Mole hill construction starts with the digging of a long trench by the small sandworm. Unlike its larger brothers, the small sandworm dumps the processed regolith outside of its trench and makes a ramp at both ends. This trench is about 3.5 meters (11 feet) wide and 2.5 (7 foot 3 inches) meters deep (by the beginning of the settler period this will be increased to 4 meters by 3 meters). Robot construction equipment then cleans out trench and digs a big hole at one end for the cellar room.

The prefab sections are then installed stating with the cellar. It is covered with back fill and the prefab terminal assembled above it.

The long tent structure is then unrolled down the trench and the terminating bulkhead is installed. The tent is then filled with the least valuable gas from the mining operation and looks the world for a party balloon.

Stiffeners are then added over the top along with utility conduits. Then the long tent is covered with regolith. The first layer is the very fine sand screened out during He-3 separation. Later comes the gravel and unprocessed regolith.

The internal atmosphere is then adjusted to support people and all the internal partitions, utility fixtures and furniture are installed.

===Basic Lunar Astronaut and Miner Housing===

The basic lunar housing unit for individuals is a long narrow dorm room. The basic open hall structure is partitioned off so as to produce a narrow hallway parallel by long rooms. The partition is light weight but covered with painted graphics that make each doorway unique.

The basic room is about 2.30 meters (7 foot six inches) wide and about 8 meters (26 feet) long. It has a thin metal door. The room is sparsely furnished with a bed, computer desk, shelves, and storage cabinets. There are not kitchen or bathroom facilities, these are communally shared.

The computer monitor is large and flat. It can be turned so as to be seen from anywhere in the room. It can display exterior views like it was a window, science views, TV programs and movies from Earth as well as computer output.

[[Image:ArchCellar01.jpg|frame|Architecture as Mole Hills, Cellar]]

===The Cellar Rooms===

At one end of each hall is a cellar room. It is buried extra deep to provide protection during radiation storms. Zero to five such storms come each year and they last for a few hours to a few shifts (8 hours each). A system of spacecraft monitor the sun for such storm and provide thirty minute to eight hours warning. During a storm, exposure on the surface can be deadly and the level of radiation shielding in the halls is inadequate. During a storm every one must hide in a cellar until it passes.

The cellar room is about the same size and cross-section as an 11 meter (36 foot) section of the common hall and runs at right angles to it. It does have more metal struts in thick plastic walls to support extra weight. The cellar have about 7 meters (23 feet) of regolith shielding which makes them about as save as a high altitude city like Denver or Mexico City.

Each cellar room contains a small head. It is also the permeate home of radiation sensitive equipment such as the environmental controls for the hall. At the hall end are storage cabinets with emergency equipment for use during storms.

The cellar is connected to the hall by pressure hatch that can be sealed. The drop through the hatch is 6.4 meters (15 feet). There is a ladder, but people often simply jump down. The drop takes about 2 seconds and you hit with a velocity comparable to jumping down 1 meter (3 feet 3 inches) on Earth.

The cellars have many uses from food storage to meeting room. Getting one for use as a personal living space is a huge perk.

[[Image:ArchGym01.jpg|frame|Architecture as Mole Hills, Gym track]]

===The Gym===

Every person on the Moon has to do a strenuous workout every day to stay healthy. The gym is one of the most heavily used rooms in the complex. It is build like a standard hall except that it is made in a circle with an inside diameter of 80 meters (260 feet).

Against the outside wall is a continuous track. If you ware a track suit filled with iron pellets recovered in the mining operation (Ironman), you can almost run as if on Earth.

The inside wall of the gym is lined with computer terminals, exercise machines, and exercise mats. Many of the exercise machines have computer screens and speakers. These can be used for a variety of specially devised games, some of which involve competitions with people back on Earth.

Normal entrance and exit is through two cellar changing rooms at opposite sides of the circle. These have double hatches one of which comes up in another hall. These rooms alternately smell antiseptic or sweaty.

===Airlock===

Each hall ends with either a pressure bulkhead connected to another hall or in an airlock to the outside. The airlocks are complex structures consisting of an outside ramp, the airlock, an EVA room for working spacesuits, and a head with shower.

There is a major problem with going from a space habitat to a spacesuit. The atmosphere used in a spacesuit needs to be the lowest possible pressure to allow ease of movement. This is a pure oxygen environment at 21 kPa (3.1 psi). The habitat will have a much higher pressure and the atmosphere will contain at least some nitrogen.

Standard Earth atmosphere is about 101 kPa (14.7 psi). The best atmosphere for a lunar base has not yet determined. In our stories it is assumed to be near earn standard Earth pressure but with different components. The inside atmosphere will have about 21% oxygen, a trace of carbon dioxide, a trace of nitrogen, and enough noble gasses (krypton, neon, and helium-4) to make up the pressure. The noble gases are a byproduct of the He-3 production. It will also contain enough water vapor to hold the relative humidity between 40% and 60%.

To go outside, a person will need to breathe pure oxygen for an hour or more to flush the nitrogen out of the blood. This is one of the purposes of the EVA room. The cleansing time requirement for the noble gasses is not yet understood. In our stories it will take a minimum of one hour to accommodate to the suit atmosphere.

Coming back inside is not easy mater either. Dust control is a major problem at all times on the Moon. Getting back inside can take up to an hour.

You approach the airlock from the outside by way of a dirt ramp. The halls are dug a little head high into the regolith. The sides of the trench and the regolith over the structure are stabilized with sand bags.

At the door is a grounded metal deck. Beside the door hang brushes on cables and above the door is a camera. You must brush yourself off thoroughly to be let in. If you are alone, you will need the help of a robot. Beside the door is also a connection to an oxygen supply and backup communication equipment.

The actually airlock is next and it can handle two people at a time, three in an emergency. It has a pressure door from the outside and a pressure door to the inside. This area is monitored very closely.

Next is the EVA room (Extra Vehicular Activity) it is an area devoted to the spacesuit. It include aids for getting into them and out of them. It has additional dust control to keep them clean. It has rack for storing them that include recharging for oxygen and power. There is a robot to assist if you are alone.

Next comes a full shower with changing rooms, drinking water, and an air shower for drying off. In the outside changing room are fresh interior garments.

===The Mess Hall===

The Mess Hall is one open standard hall without a partition. The kitchen at one end and uses the cellar as a pantry. As the miners are on three shifts to keep the sandworms working, the mess hall is in nearly continuous use.

It is also the only room big enough for all-hands meetings

===Clinic===

The clinic starts as a room in a prefab structure. Later it grows to be a section of a mole hill hall. It provides regular physicals to all the people in the station as well as routine medical attention. It can address some types of major accidents but not all. Medical staff are limited. Research on long term humans living in space are usually going on.

People who are seriously hurt are probably also not well enough to survive travel back to Earth. Also the Moon is too distant to allow robot directed surgery directly from Earth.

===Business and Meeting Rooms===

There are several halls devoted to running the mining operation and science operations. Many of these contain full width areas with large computer displays that show base operations, science being done, or the operation of the mines.

A few of the smaller private rooms can be scheduled for personal use and are popular for movies, television, and parties. All of these rooms has major communication channels back to Earth.

[[Image:ArchFarm01.jpg|frame|Architecture as Mole Hills, Farm hall]]

===Farm===

The farm halls grow plants in a [[hydroponics]] system. Washed and screened lunar [[regolith]] is used for the base and organic material manufactured from waste treatment keeps the plants growing. The farms produce food, fiber, and oxygen.

The atmosphere in the farms had more carbon dioxide, water, and nitrogen than the normal mix. Most people find them stuffy and it is ill advised to go outside after breathing this air for any length of time. All disease organisms have been eliminated.

The farm halls are artificially lighted. They run on a 20 hour day and 4 hour night 365 days a year. This is not unlike the summer growing season in Alaska extended to all year.

[[Image:ArchTomato01.jpg|frame|Architecture as Mole Hills, Tomato Tree]]

One popular vegetable is the tomato. Under these conditions the normally annual tomato plant lives for about four years. It grows to cover a large area of trellis and has a stalk about 150 mm (6 inches) in diameter. Such a plant will produce many tones of fruit.

Only much later in the settler period is animal husbandry introduced. The animals are small and editable. They are not pets. They are important in making the settlement independent from Earth.

===The Factory===

Most industrial equipment is outside. Some of it is independently buried. Some of it is very large and may have moving parts such as large arms.

This equipment converts the raw volatiles mined by the sandworms into useful and valuable substances. The most valuable of which is nearly pure Helium-3. Other products include oxygen, water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and noble gases.

By the time middle of the miner period, the factory also produces ceramic floor tiles, a variety of glass, steal, and titanium.

There are only a few commercial rooms inside but they are very important:

* '''Control Room''' - This is the heart of the He-3 mining operation. It is a long hall with many computer terminals and large displays. It has the most communications links back to Earth.

* '''Main Shop''' - It is first and foremost facility for the maintenance of sandworms, outside manufacturing equipment, life support facilities, and robots.

* '''Prototype Shop''' - The second repair shop can fix anything or build something new when needed. It is a favorite work area of all the Mooners and is used to develop many ideas for commercial development not to mention personal jobs and making gifts.

----

[[Category:Architecture]]
[[Category:Agriculture]]
[[Category:Stories]]

Architecture as Mole Hills

2007-04-10T23:47:32Z

Davew: /* Notes on Radiation Shielding */

[[Image:ArchCellar01.jpg|frame|Architecture as Mole Hills, Cellar]]

==Architecture as Mole Hills==

Sometimes you need to see something in your minds eye to make it real.

===Purpose===

This is a discussion of one possible architecture for lunar settlements. There are many other possibilities. This one assumes that large mining machines, called sandworms, have been used to dig trenches while processing regolith for volatiles. These trenches are then used as the location for long inflated halls that are then covered with regolith for radiation protection.

===Generations of Lunar Buildings===

The first buildings on the Moon will be small construction sacks prefabricated on Earth. These will be sitting on the surface with regolith piled against the sides and sandbagged on top. They allowed people to stay on the Moon only for short times as they do not provide enough radiation protection. These will later be recycled to make new buildings.

This first generation of buildings, with their supporting facilities, is best described by [[NASA]] documents and graphics. Where we are most interested in here is the following generations of buildings that can actually support settlement.

The second generation of buildings will be very similar to the first but buried in the regolith. These will provide enough protection to allow people to remain between trips for the first time. Each building had one airlock and was surrounded by surface equipment like solar and thermal panels.

These buildings were the first toe hold in the Astronaut time period, but will be phased out early in the Mining period as they do not provide enough living space nor have enough radiation shielding for long term occupancy.

Some of these second building still remain for use as maintenance shacks at the science station and others for emergency out buildings.

At the time of our stories the living space has been expanded to a third generation with much more space and cellars with a high level of radiation shielding. These buildings are described below.

===Over All Appearance of a Settlement===

All the main building, starting with the mining period, look like mole hills. They have an Earth prefab section at one end. Connected to this is a long tent like hall running in more or less a straight line for up to 100 meters. The hall is covered with 2.5 meters of lunar regolith for radiation protection giving the mole hill appearance. At the far end is a small prefab section that connects the hall to other halls.

One end or the other usually has an airlock assembly with a ramp leading down to the door. By the door will be a surveillance camera and tools for removing dust. The door will open inward in a complex manner like the door of a commercial air liner on Earth. This insures that the inside pressure is helping to keep the door seal tight and that the door can not be opened with any pressure on the inside.

The layout of the long halls is somewhat erratic as they are laid out to miss craters and may even be curved or bent to suit the lay of the land. Down each side of the halls is a borrow trench where much of the regolith was taken to cover the hall.

One hall, the gym, stands out visually as it is made in a circle of about 100 meters outside diameter. This allows for a continuous internal track.

Scattered among the mold hills are many pieces of outside equipment including tracking terminal arrays, solar concentrators, solar panels, antennas, a retro-reflector, and science instruments. All this equipment looks spindly and weak by Earth standards. It is all made from as little Earth material as possible and takes advantage of the Moon's weak gravity.

One small sandworm, about 1/4 the size of the industrial ones, remains in the building area. It digs trenches for new halls. There are also other mounds around that cover storage tanks and other industrial equipment.

Foot prints and wheel track run every which way. Footprints last a long time on the Moon. There are a few improved roads to the landing pads, to the mining areas, and to a science field. These are simply leveled and packed regolith with the craters filled in. Where the road from the landing pads arrives at the main building is a ceremonial plaza with a ring of flag poles.

In the distance there are a number of designated areas:

* '''Landing pads''' -- About one kilometer off for safety and to control contamination.
* '''Mines''' - Several kilometers off the sandworms dig long furrows 11 meters wide and kilometers long. They operate during all daylight hours digging the regolith in front of them and filling in the trench behind. The result looks a little like a plowed field from a distance.
* '''Bone yard''' - This is the junk yard is near the maintenance shop.
* '''Solar Field''' - This area is only a few hundred meters off and includes large solar collectors for power and large tracking radiator panels. It is situated on high ground.
* '''Science Field''' - A few kilometers off, this field contains many science instruments.
* '''Industrial equipment''' - Between the main settlement and the mines are a number of industrial constructions for refining the He-3 and separating other useful volatiles.

===Notes on Radiation Shielding===

The Earth provides two types of [[radiation shielding]] critical for life: atmospheric mass and magnetic field. The Moon has neither type. On the Moon, our architecture must provide all our shielding. This is so important that it drives the entire architecture of the settlement. For more details see Radiation Shielding.

[[Image:ArchDorm01.jpg|frame| Architecture as Mole Hills, Standard dorm room]]

===The Basic Hall Structure===

All buildings built in the mining and settlement periods are of mole hill construction. Calculations of some of the factors in this design are given in the spreadsheet, MalapertCal0n.xls. The three sections are:

* '''Prefab Utility Section''' - Containing all sanitary and environmental control equipment. This includes a bathroom, shower, launder, and environmental monitoring equipment. Also located there is a hatch leading to a cellar room. This section may contain an airlock assembly or have a simple pressure bulkhead connection to another hall.
* '''Hall''' - A long hall made of a multi layered plastic construction. The layers are supported by the internal air pressure but do need some reinforcement to carry the weight of the regolith piled above the hall.
* '''Prefab End''' - This section is usually a simple pressure bulkhead that allows communication with the next hall. In an emergency it can be sealed off.

The halls have a cross-section something like a loaf of bread. The roof is a curve supported largely by gas pressure. The floor is made of flat insulating panels with a top aluminum skin. Later these floors are covered with tiles made from lunar regolith. The walls are flat and sloped out about 10 degrees. The width of the floor is slightly more than three meters and the roof is almost two and a half meters high. The flat lighting panels make up the ceiling with tubes and cables above them.

Mole hill construction starts with the digging of a long trench by the small sandworm. Unlike its larger brothers, the small sandworm dumps the processed regolith outside of its trench and makes a ramp at both ends. This trench is about 3.5 meters (11 feet) wide and 2.5 (7 foot 3 inches) meters deep (by the beginning of the settler period this will be increased to 4 meters by 3 meters). Robot construction equipment then cleans out trench and digs a big hole at one end for the cellar room.

The prefab sections are then installed stating with the cellar. It is covered with back fill and the prefab terminal assembled above it.

The long tent structure is then unrolled down the trench and the terminating bulkhead is installed. The tent is then filled with the least valuable gas from the mining operation and looks the world for a party balloon.

Stiffeners are then added over the top along with utility conduits. Then the long tent is covered with regolith. The first layer is the very fine sand screened out during He-3 separation. Later comes the gravel and unprocessed regolith.

The internal atmosphere is then adjusted to support people and all the internal partitions, utility fixtures and furniture are installed.

===Basic Lunar Astronaut and Miner Housing===

The basic lunar housing unit for individuals is a long narrow dorm room. The basic open hall structure is partitioned off so as to produce a narrow hallway parallel by long rooms. The partition is light weight but covered with painted graphics that make each doorway unique.

The basic room is about 2.30 meters (7 foot six inches) wide and about 8 meters (26 feet) long. It has a thin metal door. The room is sparsely furnished with a bed, computer desk, shelves, and storage cabinets. There are not kitchen or bathroom facilities, these are communally shared.

The computer monitor is large and flat. It can be turned so as to be seen from anywhere in the room. It can display exterior views like it was a window, science views, TV programs and movies from Earth as well as computer output.

[[Image:ArchCellar01.jpg|frame|Architecture as Mole Hills, Cellar]]

===The Cellar Rooms===

At one end of each hall is a cellar room. It is buried extra deep to provide protection during radiation storms. Zero to five such storms come each year and they last for a few hours to a few shifts (8 hours each). A system of spacecraft monitor the sun for such storm and provide thirty minute to eight hours warning. During a storm, exposure on the surface can be deadly and the level of radiation shielding in the halls is inadequate. During a storm every one must hide in a cellar until it passes.

The cellar room is about the same size and cross-section as an 11 meter (36 foot) section of the common hall and runs at right angles to it. It does have more metal struts in thick plastic walls to support extra weight. The cellar have about 7 meters (23 feet) of regolith shielding which makes them about as save as a high altitude city like Denver or Mexico City.

Each cellar room contains a small head. It is also the permeate home of radiation sensitive equipment such as the environmental controls for the hall. At the hall end are storage cabinets with emergency equipment for use during storms.

The cellar is connected to the hall by pressure hatch that can be sealed. The drop through the hatch is 6.4 meters (15 feet). There is a ladder, but people often simply jump down. The drop takes about 2 seconds and you hit with a velocity comparable to jumping down 1 meter (3 feet 3 inches) on Earth.

The cellars have many uses from food storage to meeting room. Getting one for use as a personal living space is a huge perk.

[[Image:ArchGym01.jpg|frame|Architecture as Mole Hills, Gym track]]

===The Gym===

Every person on the Moon has to do a strenuous workout every day to stay healthy. The gym is one of the most heavily used rooms in the complex. It is build like a standard hall except that it is made in a circle with an inside diameter of 80 meters (260 feet).

Against the outside wall is a continuous track. If you ware a track suit filled with iron pellets recovered in the mining operation (Ironman), you can almost run as if on Earth.

The inside wall of the gym is lined with computer terminals, exercise machines, and exercise mats. Many of the exercise machines have computer screens and speakers. These can be used for a variety of specially devised games, some of which involve competitions with people back on Earth.

Normal entrance and exit is through two cellar changing rooms at opposite sides of the circle. These have double hatches one of which comes up in another hall. These rooms alternately smell antiseptic or sweaty.

===Airlock===

Each hall ends with either a pressure bulkhead connected to another hall or in an airlock to the outside. The airlocks are complex structures consisting of an outside ramp, the airlock, an EVA room for working spacesuits, and a head with shower.

There is a major problem with going from a space habitat to a spacesuit. The atmosphere used in a spacesuit needs to be the lowest possible pressure to allow ease of movement. This is a pure oxygen environment at 21 kPa (3.1 psi). The habitat will have a much higher pressure and the atmosphere will contain at least some nitrogen.

Standard Earth atmosphere is about 101 kPa (14.7 psi). The best atmosphere for a lunar base has not yet determined. In our stories it is assumed to be near earn standard Earth pressure but with different components. The inside atmosphere will have about 21% oxygen, a trace of carbon dioxide, a trace of nitrogen, and enough noble gasses (krypton, neon, and helium-4) to make up the pressure. The noble gases are a byproduct of the He-3 production. It will also contain enough water vapor to hold the relative humidity between 40% and 60%.

To go outside, a person will need to breathe pure oxygen for an hour or more to flush the nitrogen out of the blood. This is one of the purposes of the EVA room. The cleansing time requirement for the noble gasses is not yet understood. In our stories it will take a minimum of one hour to accommodate to the suit atmosphere.

Coming back inside is not easy mater either. Dust control is a major problem at all times on the Moon. Getting back inside can take up to an hour.

You approach the airlock from the outside by way of a dirt ramp. The halls are dug a little head high into the regolith. The sides of the trench and the regolith over the structure are stabilized with sand bags.

At the door is a grounded metal deck. Beside the door hang brushes on cables and above the door is a camera. You must brush yourself off thoroughly to be let in. If you are alone, you will need the help of a robot. Beside the door is also a connection to an oxygen supply and backup communication equipment.

The actually airlock is next and it can handle two people at a time, three in an emergency. It has a pressure door from the outside and a pressure door to the inside. This area is monitored very closely.

Next is the EVA room (Extra Vehicular Activity) it is an area devoted to the spacesuit. It include aids for getting into them and out of them. It has additional dust control to keep them clean. It has rack for storing them that include recharging for oxygen and power. There is a robot to assist if you are alone.

Next comes a full shower with changing rooms, drinking water, and an air shower for drying off. In the outside changing room are fresh interior garments.

===The Mess Hall===

The Mess Hall is one open standard hall without a partition. The kitchen at one end and uses the cellar as a pantry. As the miners are on three shifts to keep the sandworms working, the mess hall is in nearly continuous use.

It is also the only room big enough for all-hands meetings

===Clinic===

The clinic starts as a room in a prefab structure. Later it grows to be a section of a mole hill hall. It provides regular physicals to all the people in the station as well as routine medical attention. It can address some types of major accidents but not all. Medical staff are limited. Research on long term humans living in space are usually going on.

People who are seriously hurt are probably also not well enough to survive travel back to Earth. Also the Moon is too distant to allow robot directed surgery directly from Earth.

===Business and Meeting Rooms===

There are several halls devoted to running the mining operation and science operations. Many of these contain full width areas with large computer displays that show base operations, science being done, or the operation of the mines.

A few of the smaller private rooms can be scheduled for personal use and are popular for movies, television, and parties. All of these rooms has major communication channels back to Earth.

[[Image:ArchFarm01.jpg|frame|Architecture as Mole Hills, Farm hall]]

===Farm===

The farm halls grow plants in a hydroponics system. Washed and screened lunar regolith is used for the base and organic material manufactured from waste treatment keeps the plants growing. The farms produce food, fiber, and oxygen.

The atmosphere in the farms had more carbon dioxide, water, and nitrogen than the normal mix. Most people find them stuffy and it is ill advised to go outside after breathing this air for any length of time. All disease organisms have been eliminated.

The farm halls are artificially lighted. They run on a 20 hour day and 4 hour night 365 days a year. This is not unlike the summer growing season in Alaska extended to all year.

[[Image:ArchTomato01.jpg|frame|Architecture as Mole Hills, Tomato Tree]]

One popular vegetable is the tomato. Under these conditions the normally annual tomato plant lives for about four years. It grows to cover a large area of trellis and has a stalk about 150 mm (6 inches) in diameter. Such a plant will produce many tones of fruit.

Only much later in the settler period is animal husbandry introduced. The animals are small and editable. They are not pets. They are important in making the settlement independent from Earth.

===The Factory===

Most industrial equipment is outside. Some of it is independently buried. Some of it is very large and may have moving parts such as large arms.

This equipment converts the raw volatiles mined by the sandworms into useful and valuable substances. The most valuable of which is nearly pure Helium-3. Other products include oxygen, water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and noble gases.

By the time middle of the miner period, the factory also produces ceramic floor tiles, a variety of glass, steal, and titanium.

There are only a few commercial rooms inside but they are very important:

* '''Control Room''' - This is the heart of the He-3 mining operation. It is a long hall with many computer terminals and large displays. It has the most communications links back to Earth.

* '''Main Shop''' - It is first and foremost facility for the maintenance of sandworms, outside manufacturing equipment, life support facilities, and robots.

* '''Prototype Shop''' - The second repair shop can fix anything or build something new when needed. It is a favorite work area of all the Mooners and is used to develop many ideas for commercial development not to mention personal jobs and making gifts.

----

[[Category:Architecture]]
[[Category:Agriculture]]
[[Category:Stories]]

Architecture as Mole Hills

2007-04-10T23:46:02Z

Davew: /* Generations of Lunar Buildings */

[[Image:ArchCellar01.jpg|frame|Architecture as Mole Hills, Cellar]]

==Architecture as Mole Hills==

Sometimes you need to see something in your minds eye to make it real.

===Purpose===

This is a discussion of one possible architecture for lunar settlements. There are many other possibilities. This one assumes that large mining machines, called sandworms, have been used to dig trenches while processing regolith for volatiles. These trenches are then used as the location for long inflated halls that are then covered with regolith for radiation protection.

===Generations of Lunar Buildings===

The first buildings on the Moon will be small construction sacks prefabricated on Earth. These will be sitting on the surface with regolith piled against the sides and sandbagged on top. They allowed people to stay on the Moon only for short times as they do not provide enough radiation protection. These will later be recycled to make new buildings.

This first generation of buildings, with their supporting facilities, is best described by [[NASA]] documents and graphics. Where we are most interested in here is the following generations of buildings that can actually support settlement.

The second generation of buildings will be very similar to the first but buried in the regolith. These will provide enough protection to allow people to remain between trips for the first time. Each building had one airlock and was surrounded by surface equipment like solar and thermal panels.

These buildings were the first toe hold in the Astronaut time period, but will be phased out early in the Mining period as they do not provide enough living space nor have enough radiation shielding for long term occupancy.

Some of these second building still remain for use as maintenance shacks at the science station and others for emergency out buildings.

At the time of our stories the living space has been expanded to a third generation with much more space and cellars with a high level of radiation shielding. These buildings are described below.

===Over All Appearance of a Settlement===

All the main building, starting with the mining period, look like mole hills. They have an Earth prefab section at one end. Connected to this is a long tent like hall running in more or less a straight line for up to 100 meters. The hall is covered with 2.5 meters of lunar regolith for radiation protection giving the mole hill appearance. At the far end is a small prefab section that connects the hall to other halls.

One end or the other usually has an airlock assembly with a ramp leading down to the door. By the door will be a surveillance camera and tools for removing dust. The door will open inward in a complex manner like the door of a commercial air liner on Earth. This insures that the inside pressure is helping to keep the door seal tight and that the door can not be opened with any pressure on the inside.

The layout of the long halls is somewhat erratic as they are laid out to miss craters and may even be curved or bent to suit the lay of the land. Down each side of the halls is a borrow trench where much of the regolith was taken to cover the hall.

One hall, the gym, stands out visually as it is made in a circle of about 100 meters outside diameter. This allows for a continuous internal track.

Scattered among the mold hills are many pieces of outside equipment including tracking terminal arrays, solar concentrators, solar panels, antennas, a retro-reflector, and science instruments. All this equipment looks spindly and weak by Earth standards. It is all made from as little Earth material as possible and takes advantage of the Moon's weak gravity.

One small sandworm, about 1/4 the size of the industrial ones, remains in the building area. It digs trenches for new halls. There are also other mounds around that cover storage tanks and other industrial equipment.

Foot prints and wheel track run every which way. Footprints last a long time on the Moon. There are a few improved roads to the landing pads, to the mining areas, and to a science field. These are simply leveled and packed regolith with the craters filled in. Where the road from the landing pads arrives at the main building is a ceremonial plaza with a ring of flag poles.

In the distance there are a number of designated areas:

* '''Landing pads''' -- About one kilometer off for safety and to control contamination.
* '''Mines''' - Several kilometers off the sandworms dig long furrows 11 meters wide and kilometers long. They operate during all daylight hours digging the regolith in front of them and filling in the trench behind. The result looks a little like a plowed field from a distance.
* '''Bone yard''' - This is the junk yard is near the maintenance shop.
* '''Solar Field''' - This area is only a few hundred meters off and includes large solar collectors for power and large tracking radiator panels. It is situated on high ground.
* '''Science Field''' - A few kilometers off, this field contains many science instruments.
* '''Industrial equipment''' - Between the main settlement and the mines are a number of industrial constructions for refining the He-3 and separating other useful volatiles.

===Notes on Radiation Shielding===

The Earth provides two types of radiation shielding critical for life: atmospheric mass and magnetic field. The Moon has neither type. On the Moon, our architecture must provide all our shielding. This is so important that it drives the entire architecture of the settlement. For more details see Radiation Shielding.

[[Image:ArchDorm01.jpg|frame| Architecture as Mole Hills, Standard dorm room]]

===The Basic Hall Structure===

All buildings built in the mining and settlement periods are of mole hill construction. Calculations of some of the factors in this design are given in the spreadsheet, MalapertCal0n.xls. The three sections are:

* '''Prefab Utility Section''' - Containing all sanitary and environmental control equipment. This includes a bathroom, shower, launder, and environmental monitoring equipment. Also located there is a hatch leading to a cellar room. This section may contain an airlock assembly or have a simple pressure bulkhead connection to another hall.
* '''Hall''' - A long hall made of a multi layered plastic construction. The layers are supported by the internal air pressure but do need some reinforcement to carry the weight of the regolith piled above the hall.
* '''Prefab End''' - This section is usually a simple pressure bulkhead that allows communication with the next hall. In an emergency it can be sealed off.

The halls have a cross-section something like a loaf of bread. The roof is a curve supported largely by gas pressure. The floor is made of flat insulating panels with a top aluminum skin. Later these floors are covered with tiles made from lunar regolith. The walls are flat and sloped out about 10 degrees. The width of the floor is slightly more than three meters and the roof is almost two and a half meters high. The flat lighting panels make up the ceiling with tubes and cables above them.

Mole hill construction starts with the digging of a long trench by the small sandworm. Unlike its larger brothers, the small sandworm dumps the processed regolith outside of its trench and makes a ramp at both ends. This trench is about 3.5 meters (11 feet) wide and 2.5 (7 foot 3 inches) meters deep (by the beginning of the settler period this will be increased to 4 meters by 3 meters). Robot construction equipment then cleans out trench and digs a big hole at one end for the cellar room.

The prefab sections are then installed stating with the cellar. It is covered with back fill and the prefab terminal assembled above it.

The long tent structure is then unrolled down the trench and the terminating bulkhead is installed. The tent is then filled with the least valuable gas from the mining operation and looks the world for a party balloon.

Stiffeners are then added over the top along with utility conduits. Then the long tent is covered with regolith. The first layer is the very fine sand screened out during He-3 separation. Later comes the gravel and unprocessed regolith.

The internal atmosphere is then adjusted to support people and all the internal partitions, utility fixtures and furniture are installed.

===Basic Lunar Astronaut and Miner Housing===

The basic lunar housing unit for individuals is a long narrow dorm room. The basic open hall structure is partitioned off so as to produce a narrow hallway parallel by long rooms. The partition is light weight but covered with painted graphics that make each doorway unique.

The basic room is about 2.30 meters (7 foot six inches) wide and about 8 meters (26 feet) long. It has a thin metal door. The room is sparsely furnished with a bed, computer desk, shelves, and storage cabinets. There are not kitchen or bathroom facilities, these are communally shared.

The computer monitor is large and flat. It can be turned so as to be seen from anywhere in the room. It can display exterior views like it was a window, science views, TV programs and movies from Earth as well as computer output.

[[Image:ArchCellar01.jpg|frame|Architecture as Mole Hills, Cellar]]

===The Cellar Rooms===

At one end of each hall is a cellar room. It is buried extra deep to provide protection during radiation storms. Zero to five such storms come each year and they last for a few hours to a few shifts (8 hours each). A system of spacecraft monitor the sun for such storm and provide thirty minute to eight hours warning. During a storm, exposure on the surface can be deadly and the level of radiation shielding in the halls is inadequate. During a storm every one must hide in a cellar until it passes.

The cellar room is about the same size and cross-section as an 11 meter (36 foot) section of the common hall and runs at right angles to it. It does have more metal struts in thick plastic walls to support extra weight. The cellar have about 7 meters (23 feet) of regolith shielding which makes them about as save as a high altitude city like Denver or Mexico City.

Each cellar room contains a small head. It is also the permeate home of radiation sensitive equipment such as the environmental controls for the hall. At the hall end are storage cabinets with emergency equipment for use during storms.

The cellar is connected to the hall by pressure hatch that can be sealed. The drop through the hatch is 6.4 meters (15 feet). There is a ladder, but people often simply jump down. The drop takes about 2 seconds and you hit with a velocity comparable to jumping down 1 meter (3 feet 3 inches) on Earth.

The cellars have many uses from food storage to meeting room. Getting one for use as a personal living space is a huge perk.

[[Image:ArchGym01.jpg|frame|Architecture as Mole Hills, Gym track]]

===The Gym===

Every person on the Moon has to do a strenuous workout every day to stay healthy. The gym is one of the most heavily used rooms in the complex. It is build like a standard hall except that it is made in a circle with an inside diameter of 80 meters (260 feet).

Against the outside wall is a continuous track. If you ware a track suit filled with iron pellets recovered in the mining operation (Ironman), you can almost run as if on Earth.

The inside wall of the gym is lined with computer terminals, exercise machines, and exercise mats. Many of the exercise machines have computer screens and speakers. These can be used for a variety of specially devised games, some of which involve competitions with people back on Earth.

Normal entrance and exit is through two cellar changing rooms at opposite sides of the circle. These have double hatches one of which comes up in another hall. These rooms alternately smell antiseptic or sweaty.

===Airlock===

Each hall ends with either a pressure bulkhead connected to another hall or in an airlock to the outside. The airlocks are complex structures consisting of an outside ramp, the airlock, an EVA room for working spacesuits, and a head with shower.

There is a major problem with going from a space habitat to a spacesuit. The atmosphere used in a spacesuit needs to be the lowest possible pressure to allow ease of movement. This is a pure oxygen environment at 21 kPa (3.1 psi). The habitat will have a much higher pressure and the atmosphere will contain at least some nitrogen.

Standard Earth atmosphere is about 101 kPa (14.7 psi). The best atmosphere for a lunar base has not yet determined. In our stories it is assumed to be near earn standard Earth pressure but with different components. The inside atmosphere will have about 21% oxygen, a trace of carbon dioxide, a trace of nitrogen, and enough noble gasses (krypton, neon, and helium-4) to make up the pressure. The noble gases are a byproduct of the He-3 production. It will also contain enough water vapor to hold the relative humidity between 40% and 60%.

To go outside, a person will need to breathe pure oxygen for an hour or more to flush the nitrogen out of the blood. This is one of the purposes of the EVA room. The cleansing time requirement for the noble gasses is not yet understood. In our stories it will take a minimum of one hour to accommodate to the suit atmosphere.

Coming back inside is not easy mater either. Dust control is a major problem at all times on the Moon. Getting back inside can take up to an hour.

You approach the airlock from the outside by way of a dirt ramp. The halls are dug a little head high into the regolith. The sides of the trench and the regolith over the structure are stabilized with sand bags.

At the door is a grounded metal deck. Beside the door hang brushes on cables and above the door is a camera. You must brush yourself off thoroughly to be let in. If you are alone, you will need the help of a robot. Beside the door is also a connection to an oxygen supply and backup communication equipment.

The actually airlock is next and it can handle two people at a time, three in an emergency. It has a pressure door from the outside and a pressure door to the inside. This area is monitored very closely.

Next is the EVA room (Extra Vehicular Activity) it is an area devoted to the spacesuit. It include aids for getting into them and out of them. It has additional dust control to keep them clean. It has rack for storing them that include recharging for oxygen and power. There is a robot to assist if you are alone.

Next comes a full shower with changing rooms, drinking water, and an air shower for drying off. In the outside changing room are fresh interior garments.

===The Mess Hall===

The Mess Hall is one open standard hall without a partition. The kitchen at one end and uses the cellar as a pantry. As the miners are on three shifts to keep the sandworms working, the mess hall is in nearly continuous use.

It is also the only room big enough for all-hands meetings

===Clinic===

The clinic starts as a room in a prefab structure. Later it grows to be a section of a mole hill hall. It provides regular physicals to all the people in the station as well as routine medical attention. It can address some types of major accidents but not all. Medical staff are limited. Research on long term humans living in space are usually going on.

People who are seriously hurt are probably also not well enough to survive travel back to Earth. Also the Moon is too distant to allow robot directed surgery directly from Earth.

===Business and Meeting Rooms===

There are several halls devoted to running the mining operation and science operations. Many of these contain full width areas with large computer displays that show base operations, science being done, or the operation of the mines.

A few of the smaller private rooms can be scheduled for personal use and are popular for movies, television, and parties. All of these rooms has major communication channels back to Earth.

[[Image:ArchFarm01.jpg|frame|Architecture as Mole Hills, Farm hall]]

===Farm===

The farm halls grow plants in a hydroponics system. Washed and screened lunar regolith is used for the base and organic material manufactured from waste treatment keeps the plants growing. The farms produce food, fiber, and oxygen.

The atmosphere in the farms had more carbon dioxide, water, and nitrogen than the normal mix. Most people find them stuffy and it is ill advised to go outside after breathing this air for any length of time. All disease organisms have been eliminated.

The farm halls are artificially lighted. They run on a 20 hour day and 4 hour night 365 days a year. This is not unlike the summer growing season in Alaska extended to all year.

[[Image:ArchTomato01.jpg|frame|Architecture as Mole Hills, Tomato Tree]]

One popular vegetable is the tomato. Under these conditions the normally annual tomato plant lives for about four years. It grows to cover a large area of trellis and has a stalk about 150 mm (6 inches) in diameter. Such a plant will produce many tones of fruit.

Only much later in the settler period is animal husbandry introduced. The animals are small and editable. They are not pets. They are important in making the settlement independent from Earth.

===The Factory===

Most industrial equipment is outside. Some of it is independently buried. Some of it is very large and may have moving parts such as large arms.

This equipment converts the raw volatiles mined by the sandworms into useful and valuable substances. The most valuable of which is nearly pure Helium-3. Other products include oxygen, water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and noble gases.

By the time middle of the miner period, the factory also produces ceramic floor tiles, a variety of glass, steal, and titanium.

There are only a few commercial rooms inside but they are very important:

* '''Control Room''' - This is the heart of the He-3 mining operation. It is a long hall with many computer terminals and large displays. It has the most communications links back to Earth.

* '''Main Shop''' - It is first and foremost facility for the maintenance of sandworms, outside manufacturing equipment, life support facilities, and robots.

* '''Prototype Shop''' - The second repair shop can fix anything or build something new when needed. It is a favorite work area of all the Mooners and is used to develop many ideas for commercial development not to mention personal jobs and making gifts.

----

[[Category:Architecture]]
[[Category:Agriculture]]
[[Category:Stories]]

Apollo 5

2007-04-10T23:44:51Z

Davew:

[[Image:Apollo_05_LM1_embr_original.jpg|thumb|140px|Apollo 5 Mission Patch]]
'''Apollo 5''' was the first flight test of the [[Lunar Module]].

This flight tested the propulsion components of the [[LM]] for both the ascent and descent modules, including the "fire in the hole" landing abort senario, and tested the spacecraft's structure and mechanical systems.

==References==

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1968-007A

{{Stub}}

[[Category:Apollo]]
[[Category:History]]
[[Category:Spacecraft]]
[[Category:Landers]]

Apollo 5

2007-04-10T23:44:31Z

Davew:

[[Image:Apollo_05_LM1_embr_original.jpg|thumb|140px|Apollo 5 Mission Patch]]
'''Apollo 5''' was the first flight test of the [[Lunar Module]].

This flight tested the propulsion components of the LM for both the ascent and descent modules, including the "fire in the hole" landing abort senario, and tested the spacecraft's structure and mechanical systems.

==References==

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1968-007A

{{Stub}}

[[Category:Apollo]]
[[Category:History]]
[[Category:Spacecraft]]
[[Category:Landers]]

USGS

2007-04-10T23:43:02Z

Davew: New page: '''United States Geological Survey''' Federal source for science about the Earth, its natural and living resources, natural hazards, and the environment. External Links [http://www.USGS...

'''United States Geological Survey'''

Federal source for science about the Earth, its natural and living resources, natural hazards, and the environment.

External Links

[http://www.USGS.gov USGS.Gov]

Essential elements

2007-01-30T20:46:07Z

Davew: error in text

In the Human Body
{|
!Element
!Percent by Mass*
|-
| [[Oxygen]] || 65 ||
|-
| [[Carbon]] || 18 ||
|-
| [[Hydrogen]] || 10 ||
|-
| [[Nitrogen]] || 3 ||
|-
| [[Calcium]] || 1.6 ||
|-
| [[Phosphorus]] || 1.2 ||
|-
| [[Potassium]] || 0.2 ||
|-
| [[Sulfur]] || 0.2 ||
|-
| [[Chlorine]] || 0.2 ||
|-
| [[Sodium]] || 0.1 ||
|-
| [[Magnesium]] || 0.05 ||
|-
| [[Iron]] || Less than 0.05 ||
|-
| [[Cobalt]] || Less than 0.05 ||
|-
| [[Copper]] || Less than 0.05 ||
|-
| [[Zinc]] || Less than 0.05 ||
|-
| [[Iodine]] || Less than 0.05 ||
|-
| [[Selenium]] || Less than 0.01 ||
|-
| [[Flourine]] || Less than 0.01 ||
|-

|}
'''Percent by mass given in grams present in a 100 gram sample*'''
 
Elements of special interest are the ''trace elements'', including iron (Fe), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), iodine (I), and cobalt (Co). Together these elements make up about 0.1 percent of the body's mass. They are necessary for biological functions such as defense against disease, growth, and transport of oxygen for metabolism. The human body has a delicate balance of these elements and too much or too little over an extended period of time can lead to serious illness, retardation, or even death.

[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Life Support (Food Supply)]]
[[Category:Life Support (Overall)]]
{{Stub}}

Talk:Helium

2007-01-30T20:38:14Z

Davew: Direct Solar Heating

What are the current uses for He3, other than fussion power research? What potential markets open up if the price begins to fall?

[[User:Davew|Davew]] 11:48, 24 December 2006 (PST)

== Application - Medical lung imaging ==

According to Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium_3

Medical lung imaging is an interesting new experimental application of He3.

Details:

http://cerncourier.com/main/article/41/8/14

[[User:Cfrjlr|Charles F. Radley]] 12:35, 7 January 2007 (PST)

== He3 Fusion Works! ==

The opening statement is incorrect: "even though He3 fusion is not yet demonstrated". Gerald Kulcinski's group at the Fusion Technology Institute of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has had a working He3 fusion reactor operational for some time now on a non-governmental research budget. See the article: http://www.thespacereview.com/article/536/1 which describes his research program. Answers to many questions regarding He3 and mining it on the Moon can be found in Jack Schmitt's book: "Return to the Moon: Exploration, Enterprise, and Energy in the Human Settlement of Space", Harrison H. Schmitt, Praxis Publishing (Springer, New York, 2006), a very detailed analysis of the problems, costs, and benefits of setting up a lunar He3 mining colony. This work should form the core of the discussion of this article since there is no other major work on the topic available.[[User:75.41.119.150|75.41.119.150]] 12:33, 31 December 2006 (PST)

Greetings thanks for the link. I will correct the Lunarpedia article accordingly.

Yes I am well aware of the work of Schmitt and his colleagues at Wisconsin-Madison, although I had missed the part about the experimental reactor.
We should note, however, that the reactor they have does not achieve break-even, that is it consumes more energy than it creates. They acknowledge that it will be at least 20 years before break-even of He3 can be demonstrated.
:The fact also remains that De-Tr and De-De fusion are easier to achieve than He3 fusion, and we are nowhere near break even on the other fusion methods. For the past 40 year scientists have claimed that we are 10 to 20 years away from fusion break even. In other words, no measurable progress has been achieved, and there are no credible predictions of how long it will take. When Schmitt and his team claim that He3 is 20 years away, I would says that we could multiply that number by 5 or more.

:Therefore, for all practical purposes, commercial fusion (of any kind, He3 or other) is vaporware. I discount it at a basis for lunar development in my lifetime. My focus is on more near term goals.

Well, yes, of course. But break-even was not the point in suggesting the above correction (for which thanks for the alteration). To have achieved He3 fusion at all was remarkable, given that Kulcinski's operating budget is from two private sources amounting to less than 6 figures, while on the other hand billions of government monies have been poured into the international tokamak reactor (ITER). A larger research budget and more personnel for Kulcinski's group would alter the projected time to break-even considerably. As for the De-Tr cycle, problems with that were also discussed in the Kulcinski interview cited above which make those processes less favorable. [[User:75.41.119.150|75.41.119.150]] 15:01, 31 December 2006 (PST)

== Direct Solar Heating ==

Has anyone done the calculations on the required diameter of a fresnel lens that could be effectively used to heat the regolith in the recovery of He3 and other volatiles?

[[User:Davew|Davew]] 12:38, 30 January 2007 (PST)

Resource Values

2007-01-11T14:58:54Z

Davew:

Prices on Earth circa 2006, in U. S. dollars.
(Note that prices for resources in space will be significantly different, and may be dominated by resource availability in space and transportation costs.)

{|cellpadding="10"
!Element
!Price per Kg
!Price per Troy oz.
!Price per Gram
!Price per Metric Tonne (=1000 kg)
|-
|width="60"| [[Helium3|3He]]
| $1,185,000|| ||$1,185|| $1,185M
|-
| Aluminum || $2|| ||$0.002||$2,000
|-
| Copper || $7|| || $0.007 ||$7,000
|-
| Gold || $20,000|| $525-710||$20||$20M
|-
| Nickel || $20|| ||$0.02||$20,000
|-
| Tantalum || $750|| || $0.75 || $750,000
|-
| Titanium || $8.50 || $0.008 || ||$8,500
|-
| Yttrium || $5,500|| $5.50 ||$4.58|| $5.5M
|-
|''' [[Platinum Group Metals]]''': || || || ||
|-
| [[Platinum_Group_Metals#Iridium|Iridium]] || $20,000|| $300-600||$10-20 || $20M
|-
| [[Platinum_Group_Metals#Platinum|Platinum]] || $35,000|| $950-$1,350||$31-$43|| $35M
|-
| [[Platinum_Group_Metals#Rhodium|Rhodium]] || $200,000|| $5800-$5900||$200 || $200M
|-
| [[Platinum_Group_Metals#Palladium|Palladium]]
|-
| [[Platinum_Group_Metals#Ruthenium|Ruthenium]]
|-
| [[Platinum_Group_Metals#osmium|Osmium]]
|}

 
''Note that a troy ounce is 31.1 g, about 10 percent more than the avoirdupois ounce.''
 
==External Links==
*[http://www.infomine.com/investment/metalprices/ metal prices]
*[http://www.mgb.gov.ph/aveprice-metals.htm price of copper, gold, silver, and nickel 1996-2004] from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau
*[http://www.platinum.matthey.com/prices/current_historical.html platinum group metal prices]
*[http://www.spectrastableisotopes.com/Catalog/Specialty_Gases.aspx prices of specialty gasses from Spectra] (including 3He)]
 

{{Cleanup}}
[[Category:Business]]

Platinum Group Metals

2007-01-11T14:55:48Z

Davew: /* Applications */

{{Stub}} 

'''Platinum Group Metals''' are commonly found in asteroids, most particularly the nickel-iron asteroids, and may possibly be found in lunar impact craters. 
The platinum-group metals (PGM) comprise six closely related metals: [[#platinum|platinum]], [[#palladium|palladium]], [[#rhodium|rhodium]], [[#ruthenium|ruthenium]], [[#iridium|iridium]], and [[#osmium|osmium]], which commonly occur together in nature and are among the scarcest of the metallic elements. Along with gold and silver, they are known as precious or noble metals. Platinum group metals are rare on the surface of the earth because they are ''siderophiles'', and hence tend to be segregated in liquid iron. This means that most of the Earth's inventory of platinum group metals is sequestered in the liquid iron at the Earth's core. Platinum group elements occur as native alloys in placer deposits or, more commonly, in lode deposits associated with nickel and copper. Nearly all of the world's supply of these metals are extracted from lode deposits in four countries--the Republic of South Africa, the U.S.S.R., Canada, and the United States. The Republic of South Africa is the only country that produces all six PGM in substantial quantities. - USGS Platinum-Group Metals Statistical Compendium[http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/platinum/stat/]
==Applications==
The catalytic properties of the six platinum group metals (PGM)– [[#Iridium|iridium]], [[#Osmium|osmium]], [[#Palladium|palladium]], [[#Platinum|platinum]], [[#Rhodium|rhodium]], and [[#Ruthenium|ruthenium]] – are outstanding. Platinum's wear and tarnish resistance characteristics are well suited for making fine jewelry. Other distinctive properties include resistance to chemical attack, excellent high-temperature characteristics, and stable electrical properties. All these properties have been exploited for industrial applications. Platinum, platinum alloys, and iridium are used as crucible materials for the growth of single crystals, especially oxides. The chemical industry uses a significant amount of either platinum or a platinum-rhodium alloy catalyst in the form of gauze to catalyze the partial oxidation of ammonia to yield nitric oxide, which is the raw material for fertilizers, explosives, and nitric acid. In recent years, a number of PGM have become important as catalysts in synthetic organic chemistry. Ruthenium dioxide is used as coatings on dimensionally stable titanium anodes used in the production of chlorine and caustic. Platinum supported catalysts are used in the refining of crude oil, reforming, and other processes used in the production of high-octane gasoline and aromatic compounds for the petrochemical industry. Since 1979, the automotive industry has emerged as the principal consumer of PGM. Palladium, platinum, and rhodium have been used as oxidation catalyst in catalytic converters to treat automobile exhaust emissions. A wide range of PGM alloy compositions is used in low-voltage and low-energy contacts, thick- and thin-film circuits, thermocouples and furnace components, and electrodes. - USGS Platinum-Group Metals Statistics and Information[http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/platinum/]

==Iridium==
{|
| Atomic symbol: || Ir ||
|-
| Atomic number: || 77 ||
|-
| Group: || 9 ||
|-
| Period: || 6 ||
|-
| Series: || Transition Metals ||
|-
|}
Natural Isotopes
*Iridium 191
*Iridium 193
==Osmium==
{|
| Atomic symbol: || Os ||
|-
| Atomic number: || 76 ||
|-
| Group: || 8 ||
|-
| Period: || 6 ||
|-
| Series: || Transition Metals ||
|-
|}
Natural Isotopes
*Osmium 184
*Osmium 186
*Osmium 187
*Osmium 188
*Osmium 189
*Osmium 190
*Osmium 192
==Palladium==
{|
| Atomic symbol: || Pd ||
|-
| Atomic number: || 46 ||
|-
| Group: || 10 ||
|-
| Period: || 5 ||
|-
| Series: || Transition Metals ||
|-
|}
Natural Isotopes
*Palladium 102
*Palladium 104
*Palladium 105
*Palladium 106
*Palladium 108
*Palladium 110
==Platinum==
{|
| Atomic symbol: || Pt ||
|-
| Atomic number: || 78 ||
|-
| Group: || 10 ||
|-
| Period: || 6 ||
|-
| Series: || Transition Metals ||
|-
|}
Natural Isotopes
*Platinum 190
*Platinum 192
*Platinum 194
*Platinum 195
*Platinum 196
*Platinum 198

==Rhodium==
{|
| Atomic symbol: || Rh ||
|-
| Atomic number: || 45 ||
|-
| Group: || 9 ||
|-
| Period: || 5 ||
|-
| Series: || Transition Metals ||
|-
|}
Natural Isotopes
*Rhodium 103
==Ruthenium==
{|
| Atomic symbol: || Ru ||
|-
| Atomic number: || 44 ||
|-
| Group: || 8 ||
|-
| Period: || 5 ||
|-
| Series: || Transition Metals ||
|-
|}
Natural Isotopes
*Ruthenium 96
*Ruthenium 98
*Ruthenium 99
*Ruthenium 100
*Ruthenium 101
*Ruthenium 102
*Ruthenium 104

==Links==
[[Resource Values]]

==External Links==
*[http://www.platinummetalsreview.com/jmpgm/index.jsp The Platinum Group Metals Database]
*[http://www.platinum.matthey.com/prices/current_historical.html Platinum Today: Current and historical prices]
*[http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Pt/index.html WebElements.com — Platinum]
*[http://www.platinummetalsreview.com/ Platinum Metals Review E-Journal]
*[http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/platinum/ USGS Platinum-Group Metals Statistics and Information]
 
[[Category:Business]]

Platinum Group Metals

2007-01-11T14:55:06Z

Davew: /* Applications */

{{Stub}} 

'''Platinum Group Metals''' are commonly found in asteroids, most particularly the nickel-iron asteroids, and may possibly be found in lunar impact craters. 
The platinum-group metals (PGM) comprise six closely related metals: [[#platinum|platinum]], [[#palladium|palladium]], [[#rhodium|rhodium]], [[#ruthenium|ruthenium]], [[#iridium|iridium]], and [[#osmium|osmium]], which commonly occur together in nature and are among the scarcest of the metallic elements. Along with gold and silver, they are known as precious or noble metals. Platinum group metals are rare on the surface of the earth because they are ''siderophiles'', and hence tend to be segregated in liquid iron. This means that most of the Earth's inventory of platinum group metals is sequestered in the liquid iron at the Earth's core. Platinum group elements occur as native alloys in placer deposits or, more commonly, in lode deposits associated with nickel and copper. Nearly all of the world's supply of these metals are extracted from lode deposits in four countries--the Republic of South Africa, the U.S.S.R., Canada, and the United States. The Republic of South Africa is the only country that produces all six PGM in substantial quantities. - USGS Platinum-Group Metals Statistical Compendium[http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/platinum/stat/]
==Applications==
The catalytic properties of the six platinum group metals (PGM)– [[#Iridium|iridium]], [[#osmium|osmium]], [[#palladium|palladium]], [[#platinum|platinum]], [[#rhodium|rhodium]], and [[#ruthenium|ruthenium]] – are outstanding. Platinum's wear and tarnish resistance characteristics are well suited for making fine jewelry. Other distinctive properties include resistance to chemical attack, excellent high-temperature characteristics, and stable electrical properties. All these properties have been exploited for industrial applications. Platinum, platinum alloys, and iridium are used as crucible materials for the growth of single crystals, especially oxides. The chemical industry uses a significant amount of either platinum or a platinum-rhodium alloy catalyst in the form of gauze to catalyze the partial oxidation of ammonia to yield nitric oxide, which is the raw material for fertilizers, explosives, and nitric acid. In recent years, a number of PGM have become important as catalysts in synthetic organic chemistry. Ruthenium dioxide is used as coatings on dimensionally stable titanium anodes used in the production of chlorine and caustic. Platinum supported catalysts are used in the refining of crude oil, reforming, and other processes used in the production of high-octane gasoline and aromatic compounds for the petrochemical industry. Since 1979, the automotive industry has emerged as the principal consumer of PGM. Palladium, platinum, and rhodium have been used as oxidation catalyst in catalytic converters to treat automobile exhaust emissions. A wide range of PGM alloy compositions is used in low-voltage and low-energy contacts, thick- and thin-film circuits, thermocouples and furnace components, and electrodes. - USGS Platinum-Group Metals Statistics and Information[http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/platinum/]

==Iridium==
{|
| Atomic symbol: || Ir ||
|-
| Atomic number: || 77 ||
|-
| Group: || 9 ||
|-
| Period: || 6 ||
|-
| Series: || Transition Metals ||
|-
|}
Natural Isotopes
*Iridium 191
*Iridium 193
==Osmium==
{|
| Atomic symbol: || Os ||
|-
| Atomic number: || 76 ||
|-
| Group: || 8 ||
|-
| Period: || 6 ||
|-
| Series: || Transition Metals ||
|-
|}
Natural Isotopes
*Osmium 184
*Osmium 186
*Osmium 187
*Osmium 188
*Osmium 189
*Osmium 190
*Osmium 192
==Palladium==
{|
| Atomic symbol: || Pd ||
|-
| Atomic number: || 46 ||
|-
| Group: || 10 ||
|-
| Period: || 5 ||
|-
| Series: || Transition Metals ||
|-
|}
Natural Isotopes
*Palladium 102
*Palladium 104
*Palladium 105
*Palladium 106
*Palladium 108
*Palladium 110
==Platinum==
{|
| Atomic symbol: || Pt ||
|-
| Atomic number: || 78 ||
|-
| Group: || 10 ||
|-
| Period: || 6 ||
|-
| Series: || Transition Metals ||
|-
|}
Natural Isotopes
*Platinum 190
*Platinum 192
*Platinum 194
*Platinum 195
*Platinum 196
*Platinum 198

==Rhodium==
{|
| Atomic symbol: || Rh ||
|-
| Atomic number: || 45 ||
|-
| Group: || 9 ||
|-
| Period: || 5 ||
|-
| Series: || Transition Metals ||
|-
|}
Natural Isotopes
*Rhodium 103
==Ruthenium==
{|
| Atomic symbol: || Ru ||
|-
| Atomic number: || 44 ||
|-
| Group: || 8 ||
|-
| Period: || 5 ||
|-
| Series: || Transition Metals ||
|-
|}
Natural Isotopes
*Ruthenium 96
*Ruthenium 98
*Ruthenium 99
*Ruthenium 100
*Ruthenium 101
*Ruthenium 102
*Ruthenium 104

==Links==
[[Resource Values]]

==External Links==
*[http://www.platinummetalsreview.com/jmpgm/index.jsp The Platinum Group Metals Database]
*[http://www.platinum.matthey.com/prices/current_historical.html Platinum Today: Current and historical prices]
*[http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Pt/index.html WebElements.com — Platinum]
*[http://www.platinummetalsreview.com/ Platinum Metals Review E-Journal]
*[http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/platinum/ USGS Platinum-Group Metals Statistics and Information]
 
[[Category:Business]]

Resource Values

2007-01-11T14:53:35Z

Davew:

Prices on Earth circa 2006, in U. S. dollars.
(Note that prices for resources in space will be significantly different, and may be dominated by resource availability in space and transportation costs.)

{|cellpadding="10"
!Element
!Price per Kg
!Price per Troy oz.
!Price per Gram
!Price per Metric Tonne (=1000 kg)
|-
|width="60"| [[Helium3|3He]]
| $1,185,000|| ||$1,185|| $1,185M
|-
| Aluminum || $2|| ||$0.002||$2,000
|-
| Copper || $7|| || $0.007 ||$7,000
|-
| Gold || $20,000|| $525-710||$20||$20M
|-
| Nickel || $20|| ||$0.02||$20,000
|-
| Tantalum || $750|| || $0.75 || $750,000
|-
| Titanium || $8.50 || $0.008 || ||$8,500
|-
| Yttrium || $5,500|| $5.50 ||$4.58|| $5.5M
|-
|''' [[Platinum Group Metals]]''': || || || ||
|-
| Iridium || $20,000|| $300-600||$10-20 || $20M
|-
| Platinum || $35,000|| $950-$1,350||$31-$43|| $35M
|-
| Rhodium || $200,000|| $5800-$5900||$200 || $200M
|-
| Palladium
|-
| Ruthenium
|-
| Osmium
|}

 
''Note that a troy ounce is 31.1 g, about 10 percent more than the avoirdupois ounce.''
 
==External Links==
*[http://www.infomine.com/investment/metalprices/ metal prices]
*[http://www.mgb.gov.ph/aveprice-metals.htm price of copper, gold, silver, and nickel 1996-2004] from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau
*[http://www.platinum.matthey.com/prices/current_historical.html platinum group metal prices]
*[http://www.spectrastableisotopes.com/Catalog/Specialty_Gases.aspx prices of specialty gasses from Spectra] (including 3He)]
 

{{Cleanup}}
[[Category:Business]]

Resource Values

2007-01-09T16:20:57Z

Davew:

Prices on Earth circa 2006

{|cellpadding="10"
!Element
!Price per KG
!Price per Troy Oz.
!Price per Gram
!Price per Metric Tonne
|-
|width="60"| [[Helium3|HE3]]
| U.S.$1.5 MILLION
|-
| Rhodium || $200,000|| $5800-$5900||$200
|-
| Platinum || $35,000|| $1102-$1108||$35
|-
| Gold || $20,000|| $617-624||$20
|-
| Titanium || $8.50
|-
| Yttrium || $5500|| ||$4.58
|-
| Iridium || $2,000|| $600||$20
|-
| Tantalum || $750|| $0.75
|-
| Copper || $7|| || ||$7000
|}

{{Cleanup}}
[[Category:Business]]

List of Discontinued and Cancelled Boosters

2007-01-06T14:31:07Z

Davew:

Cancelled after achieving orbit
(when an entire family was cancelled only the final version is listed - with last flew date)

[[Ariane-4]] 15 February 2003 
[[Athena]] 
[[Black Arrow]] 28, October 1971 
[[Diamant]] 
[[Energia]] - November 15, 1988 
[[Juno]] 
[[Lambda]] 
[[Saturn-1b]] - July 15, 1975 
[[Saturn-V]] - May 14, 1973 
[[Scout]] 
[[Titan-4]] - October 19, 2005 
[[Vanguard]] 

Cancelled after unsuccessful orbital attempt(s)

[[Conestoga]] 
[[Europa-II]] 
[[N-1]] 

Successful Suborbital launches (orbital launches planned)

[[Otrag]] 

Un-successful Suborbital launch attempt(s) (orbital launches planned)

[[Industrial Launch Vehicle]] 
[[Percheron]] 
[[X-33]] 

No launches attempted

[[Black Colt]] 
[[Black Horse]] 
[[Burlak]] 
[[Excalibur]] 
[[Hotol]] 
[[Liberty]] 
[[Maks]] 
[[Mustard]] 
[[Nova]] 
[[Phoenix]] 
[[Rombus]] 
[[Roton]] 
[[Saenger]] 
[[Sea Dragon]] 
[[Venturestar]] 
[[X-30]] 
[[X-34]]

List of Construction Materials

2007-01-05T04:51:45Z

Davew:

[[Cast Basalt]] 
[[Sulfurous Concrete]] 
[[Sintered Regolith]]

New Shepard

2007-01-05T04:14:45Z

Davew:

Suborbital craft being developed by Jeff Bezos' company Blue Origin

==External Links==
[http://public.blueorigin.com/index.html public.blueorigin.com]

{{Stub}}

New Shepard

2007-01-05T03:28:44Z

Davew:

Suborbital craft being developed by Jeff Bezos' company Blue Origin

[http://public.blueorigin.com/index.html public.blueorigin.com]

New Shepard

2007-01-05T03:28:27Z

Davew:

Suborbital craft being developed by Jeff Bezos' company Blue Origin

[http://public.blueorigin.com/index.html|public.blueorigin.com]

New Shepard

2007-01-05T03:28:02Z

Davew:

Suborbital craft being developed by Jeff Bezos' company Blue Origin

[http://public.blueorigin.com/index.html]

Talk:Helium

2007-01-01T07:27:09Z

Davew: /* He3 Fusion Works! */

What are the current uses for He3, other than fussion power research? What potential markets open up if the price begins to fall?

[[User:Davew|Davew]] 11:48, 24 December 2006 (PST)

== Application - Medical lung imaging ==

According to Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium_3

Medical lung imaging is an interesting new experimental application of He3.

Details:

http://cerncourier.com/main/article/41/8/14

== He3 Fusion Works! ==

The opening statement is incorrect: "even though He3 fusion is not yet demonstrated". Gerald Kulcinski's group at the Fusion Technology Institute of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has had a working He3 fusion reactor operational for some time now on a non-governmental research budget. See the article: http://www.thespacereview.com/article/536/1 which describes his research program. Answers to many questions regarding He3 and mining it on the Moon can be found in Jack Schmitt's book: "Return to the Moon: Exploration, Enterprise, and Energy in the Human Settlement of Space", Harrison H. Schmitt, Praxis Publishing (Springer, New York, 2006), a very detailed analysis of the problems, costs, and benefits of setting up a lunar He3 mining colony. This work should form the core of the discussion of this article since there is no other major work on the topic available.[[User:75.41.119.150|75.41.119.150]] 12:33, 31 December 2006 (PST)

Greetings thanks for the link. I will correct the Lunarpedia article accordingly.

Yes I am well aware of the work of Schmitt and his colleagues at Wisconsin-Madison, although I had missed the part about the experimental reactor.
We should note, however, that the reactor they have does not achieve break-even, that is it consumes more energy than it creates. They acknowledge that it will be at least 20 years before break-even of He3 can be demonstrated.
:The fact also remains that De-Tr and De-De fusion are easier to achieve than He3 fusion, and we are nowhere near break even on the other fusion methods. For the past 40 year scientists have claimed that we are 10 to 20 years away from fusion break even. In other words, no measurable progress has been achieved, and there are no credible predictions of how long it will take. When Schmitt and his team claim that He3 is 20 years away, I would says that we could multiply that number by 5 or more.

:Therefore, for all practical purposes, commercial fusion (of any kind, He3 or other) is vaporware. I discount it at a basis for lunar development in my lifetime. My focus is on more near term goals.

Well, yes, of course. But break-even was not the point in suggesting the above correction (for which thanks for the alteration). To have achieved He3 fusion at all was remarkable, given that Kulcinski's operating budget is from two private sources amounting to less than 6 figures, while on the other hand billions of government monies have been poured into the international tokamak reactor (ITER). A larger research budget and more personnel for Kulcinski's group would alter the projected time to break-even considerably. As for the De-Tr cycle, problems with that were also discussed in the Kulcinski interview cited above which make those processes less favorable. [[User:75.41.119.150|75.41.119.150]] 15:01, 31 December 2006 (PST)

Helium

2006-12-27T20:07:24Z

Davew: /* Applications */

The Moon is an abundant source of He3. He3 has a market value, even though He3 fusion is not yet demonstrated. It might be worth collecting He3 from the Moon today simply to sell into the existing terrestrial market.

Current market price for He3 is about $46,500 per troy ounce ($1500/gram, $1.5M/kg), more than 120 times the value of gold and over eight times the value of Rhodium.

Question: can we reduce the cost of recovering He3 from the lunar surface to that level, e.g. $1500 per gram? What would be the capital cost of setting up a small He3 production facility on Luna?

Would it depress the market price today? That depends on the size of the market, and there is not much data on that.

The US tritium and helium-3 stockpile sizes are classified, because they give a hint as to how many US nuclear weapons are still functional. According to Wikipedia “approximately 150 kilograms of it (He3) have resulted from decay of US tritium production since 1955.” We could assume a similar quantity has been accumulated in the ex-USSR, and perhaps additionally from other thermonuclear powers (UK, France, China).

Today, the world's supply of Helium-3 can probably be counted in hundreds of kilograms, value of 100 kg would be $150M. So the total stockpile value today is probably about half a billion USD.

The US DOE does sell He3 commercially, but how much of the present stockpile has actually been sold on the open market? Not sure if that number is publicly available.

But for arguments sake let us start at the level of collecting 100kg of He3 from the Moon and assume its value would be $150M.

Well alas even those number do not look good.

The cost of soft landing even a small probe on to the lunar surface would easily cost that much or more. How much He3 could a small lander manufacture? How many grams per day?

Well that of course depends on the production method.

A commonly discussed method is cooking the regolith to about 1400 degF or 760 deg C.
This would require a lot of energy, requiring the lander to have either a nuclear source, or large solar panels.

Basalt has specific heat capacity of 0.24 cal/g/degC or 0.84 KJ/kg degK.

To heat 1kg of basalt by 700degC requires about 600 KJ

Best lunar regolith (Maria) is 0.01 ppm of He3

So the 600 KJ will yield 0.01 milligrams of He3

So 600 Watts power source could produce 0.01 mg He3 per second
= 0.6 mg/minute = 36mg/hour = 864mg/day = 315 grams per year

Whether this business concept is viable depends on how quickly we want to amortize our investment.

Let us say our target is to produce 100 kg He3 in one year, then we need a power source of about 200 KW. That would give us a revenue stream of $150M per year assuming the He3 market does not become flooded and the price drops.

How much would it cost to set up a 200KW power source on the Moon?

A solar based system would be in darkness 50% of the time, so would need to operate at 400 KW. If it were on a lunar polar mountain top it might be in near continuous illumination. Let us assume that best case of 100% lighting.

Assuming PV10% efficiency and a fully steerable array, this would need an area of about 2,000 square meters, or about 45 metres square.

A simple non-PV solar reflector could be near 100% efficient, needing only 200 sq-m or 14 metres square, or aperture.

Setting up a 14 m aperture mirror on the Moon would be a major engineering challenge, although fortunately would not need to be particularly accurate, certainly nothing like as difficult as an astronomical telescope mirror.

How much would it weigh?

Would a nuclear power plant have better performance per kilogram of lander payload?

Maybe other contributors are interested to develop these lines of thinking.

More thermal analysis needs to be done. For example, might it be possible to recycle the heat using some form of cogeneration. Such as use the hot waste regolith, after it has been processed, to pre-heat the next incoming batch of raw dust, and thus reduce the number of solar joules needed?

That could greatly reduce the size of solar array needed and/or significantly increase the system mass throughput.

== Extraction ==

==== Baked Regolith ====
:{|
|-
|A commonly discussed method is cooking the regolith to about 1400 degF or 760 deg C. This would require a lot of energy, requiring the lander to have either a nuclear source, or large solar panels.

Basalt has specific heat capacity of 0.24 cal/g/degC or 0.84 KJ/kg degK.

To heat 1kg of basalt by 700degC requires about 600 KJ

Best lunar regolith (Maria) is 0.01 ppm of He3

So the 600 KJ will yield 0.01 milligrams of He3

So 600 Watts power source could produce 0.01 mg He3 per second = 0.6 mg/minute = 36mg/hour = 864mg/day = 315 grams per year
|-
|}

== Applications ==

*Medical Lung Imaging
:According to Wikipedia:
:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium_3
:Details on this experimental application of He3: http://cerncourier.com/main/article/41/8/14

Helium

2006-12-27T20:06:51Z

Davew: /* Applications */

The Moon is an abundant source of He3. He3 has a market value, even though He3 fusion is not yet demonstrated. It might be worth collecting He3 from the Moon today simply to sell into the existing terrestrial market.

Current market price for He3 is about $46,500 per troy ounce ($1500/gram, $1.5M/kg), more than 120 times the value of gold and over eight times the value of Rhodium.

Question: can we reduce the cost of recovering He3 from the lunar surface to that level, e.g. $1500 per gram? What would be the capital cost of setting up a small He3 production facility on Luna?

Would it depress the market price today? That depends on the size of the market, and there is not much data on that.

The US tritium and helium-3 stockpile sizes are classified, because they give a hint as to how many US nuclear weapons are still functional. According to Wikipedia “approximately 150 kilograms of it (He3) have resulted from decay of US tritium production since 1955.” We could assume a similar quantity has been accumulated in the ex-USSR, and perhaps additionally from other thermonuclear powers (UK, France, China).

Today, the world's supply of Helium-3 can probably be counted in hundreds of kilograms, value of 100 kg would be $150M. So the total stockpile value today is probably about half a billion USD.

The US DOE does sell He3 commercially, but how much of the present stockpile has actually been sold on the open market? Not sure if that number is publicly available.

But for arguments sake let us start at the level of collecting 100kg of He3 from the Moon and assume its value would be $150M.

Well alas even those number do not look good.

The cost of soft landing even a small probe on to the lunar surface would easily cost that much or more. How much He3 could a small lander manufacture? How many grams per day?

Well that of course depends on the production method.

A commonly discussed method is cooking the regolith to about 1400 degF or 760 deg C.
This would require a lot of energy, requiring the lander to have either a nuclear source, or large solar panels.

Basalt has specific heat capacity of 0.24 cal/g/degC or 0.84 KJ/kg degK.

To heat 1kg of basalt by 700degC requires about 600 KJ

Best lunar regolith (Maria) is 0.01 ppm of He3

So the 600 KJ will yield 0.01 milligrams of He3

So 600 Watts power source could produce 0.01 mg He3 per second
= 0.6 mg/minute = 36mg/hour = 864mg/day = 315 grams per year

Whether this business concept is viable depends on how quickly we want to amortize our investment.

Let us say our target is to produce 100 kg He3 in one year, then we need a power source of about 200 KW. That would give us a revenue stream of $150M per year assuming the He3 market does not become flooded and the price drops.

How much would it cost to set up a 200KW power source on the Moon?

A solar based system would be in darkness 50% of the time, so would need to operate at 400 KW. If it were on a lunar polar mountain top it might be in near continuous illumination. Let us assume that best case of 100% lighting.

Assuming PV10% efficiency and a fully steerable array, this would need an area of about 2,000 square meters, or about 45 metres square.

A simple non-PV solar reflector could be near 100% efficient, needing only 200 sq-m or 14 metres square, or aperture.

Setting up a 14 m aperture mirror on the Moon would be a major engineering challenge, although fortunately would not need to be particularly accurate, certainly nothing like as difficult as an astronomical telescope mirror.

How much would it weigh?

Would a nuclear power plant have better performance per kilogram of lander payload?

Maybe other contributors are interested to develop these lines of thinking.

More thermal analysis needs to be done. For example, might it be possible to recycle the heat using some form of cogeneration. Such as use the hot waste regolith, after it has been processed, to pre-heat the next incoming batch of raw dust, and thus reduce the number of solar joules needed?

That could greatly reduce the size of solar array needed and/or significantly increase the system mass throughput.

== Extraction ==

==== Baked Regolith ====
:{|
|-
|A commonly discussed method is cooking the regolith to about 1400 degF or 760 deg C. This would require a lot of energy, requiring the lander to have either a nuclear source, or large solar panels.

Basalt has specific heat capacity of 0.24 cal/g/degC or 0.84 KJ/kg degK.

To heat 1kg of basalt by 700degC requires about 600 KJ

Best lunar regolith (Maria) is 0.01 ppm of He3

So the 600 KJ will yield 0.01 milligrams of He3

So 600 Watts power source could produce 0.01 mg He3 per second = 0.6 mg/minute = 36mg/hour = 864mg/day = 315 grams per year
|-
|}

== Applications ==

*Medical lung imaging
:According to Wikipedia:
:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium_3
:Details on this experimental application of He3: http://cerncourier.com/main/article/41/8/14

Helium

2006-12-27T20:06:24Z

Davew: /* Applications */

The Moon is an abundant source of He3. He3 has a market value, even though He3 fusion is not yet demonstrated. It might be worth collecting He3 from the Moon today simply to sell into the existing terrestrial market.

Current market price for He3 is about $46,500 per troy ounce ($1500/gram, $1.5M/kg), more than 120 times the value of gold and over eight times the value of Rhodium.

Question: can we reduce the cost of recovering He3 from the lunar surface to that level, e.g. $1500 per gram? What would be the capital cost of setting up a small He3 production facility on Luna?

Would it depress the market price today? That depends on the size of the market, and there is not much data on that.

The US tritium and helium-3 stockpile sizes are classified, because they give a hint as to how many US nuclear weapons are still functional. According to Wikipedia “approximately 150 kilograms of it (He3) have resulted from decay of US tritium production since 1955.” We could assume a similar quantity has been accumulated in the ex-USSR, and perhaps additionally from other thermonuclear powers (UK, France, China).

Today, the world's supply of Helium-3 can probably be counted in hundreds of kilograms, value of 100 kg would be $150M. So the total stockpile value today is probably about half a billion USD.

The US DOE does sell He3 commercially, but how much of the present stockpile has actually been sold on the open market? Not sure if that number is publicly available.

But for arguments sake let us start at the level of collecting 100kg of He3 from the Moon and assume its value would be $150M.

Well alas even those number do not look good.

The cost of soft landing even a small probe on to the lunar surface would easily cost that much or more. How much He3 could a small lander manufacture? How many grams per day?

Well that of course depends on the production method.

A commonly discussed method is cooking the regolith to about 1400 degF or 760 deg C.
This would require a lot of energy, requiring the lander to have either a nuclear source, or large solar panels.

Basalt has specific heat capacity of 0.24 cal/g/degC or 0.84 KJ/kg degK.

To heat 1kg of basalt by 700degC requires about 600 KJ

Best lunar regolith (Maria) is 0.01 ppm of He3

So the 600 KJ will yield 0.01 milligrams of He3

So 600 Watts power source could produce 0.01 mg He3 per second
= 0.6 mg/minute = 36mg/hour = 864mg/day = 315 grams per year

Whether this business concept is viable depends on how quickly we want to amortize our investment.

Let us say our target is to produce 100 kg He3 in one year, then we need a power source of about 200 KW. That would give us a revenue stream of $150M per year assuming the He3 market does not become flooded and the price drops.

How much would it cost to set up a 200KW power source on the Moon?

A solar based system would be in darkness 50% of the time, so would need to operate at 400 KW. If it were on a lunar polar mountain top it might be in near continuous illumination. Let us assume that best case of 100% lighting.

Assuming PV10% efficiency and a fully steerable array, this would need an area of about 2,000 square meters, or about 45 metres square.

A simple non-PV solar reflector could be near 100% efficient, needing only 200 sq-m or 14 metres square, or aperture.

Setting up a 14 m aperture mirror on the Moon would be a major engineering challenge, although fortunately would not need to be particularly accurate, certainly nothing like as difficult as an astronomical telescope mirror.

How much would it weigh?

Would a nuclear power plant have better performance per kilogram of lander payload?

Maybe other contributors are interested to develop these lines of thinking.

More thermal analysis needs to be done. For example, might it be possible to recycle the heat using some form of cogeneration. Such as use the hot waste regolith, after it has been processed, to pre-heat the next incoming batch of raw dust, and thus reduce the number of solar joules needed?

That could greatly reduce the size of solar array needed and/or significantly increase the system mass throughput.

== Extraction ==

==== Baked Regolith ====
:{|
|-
|A commonly discussed method is cooking the regolith to about 1400 degF or 760 deg C. This would require a lot of energy, requiring the lander to have either a nuclear source, or large solar panels.

Basalt has specific heat capacity of 0.24 cal/g/degC or 0.84 KJ/kg degK.

To heat 1kg of basalt by 700degC requires about 600 KJ

Best lunar regolith (Maria) is 0.01 ppm of He3

So the 600 KJ will yield 0.01 milligrams of He3

So 600 Watts power source could produce 0.01 mg He3 per second = 0.6 mg/minute = 36mg/hour = 864mg/day = 315 grams per year
|-
|}

== Applications ==

*Medical lung imaging
:According to Wikipedia:
::http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium_3
::Details on this experimental application of He3: http://cerncourier.com/main/article/41/8/14

Helium

2006-12-27T20:04:56Z

Davew: /* Extraction */

The Moon is an abundant source of He3. He3 has a market value, even though He3 fusion is not yet demonstrated. It might be worth collecting He3 from the Moon today simply to sell into the existing terrestrial market.

Current market price for He3 is about $46,500 per troy ounce ($1500/gram, $1.5M/kg), more than 120 times the value of gold and over eight times the value of Rhodium.

Question: can we reduce the cost of recovering He3 from the lunar surface to that level, e.g. $1500 per gram? What would be the capital cost of setting up a small He3 production facility on Luna?

Would it depress the market price today? That depends on the size of the market, and there is not much data on that.

The US tritium and helium-3 stockpile sizes are classified, because they give a hint as to how many US nuclear weapons are still functional. According to Wikipedia “approximately 150 kilograms of it (He3) have resulted from decay of US tritium production since 1955.” We could assume a similar quantity has been accumulated in the ex-USSR, and perhaps additionally from other thermonuclear powers (UK, France, China).

Today, the world's supply of Helium-3 can probably be counted in hundreds of kilograms, value of 100 kg would be $150M. So the total stockpile value today is probably about half a billion USD.

The US DOE does sell He3 commercially, but how much of the present stockpile has actually been sold on the open market? Not sure if that number is publicly available.

But for arguments sake let us start at the level of collecting 100kg of He3 from the Moon and assume its value would be $150M.

Well alas even those number do not look good.

The cost of soft landing even a small probe on to the lunar surface would easily cost that much or more. How much He3 could a small lander manufacture? How many grams per day?

Well that of course depends on the production method.

A commonly discussed method is cooking the regolith to about 1400 degF or 760 deg C.
This would require a lot of energy, requiring the lander to have either a nuclear source, or large solar panels.

Basalt has specific heat capacity of 0.24 cal/g/degC or 0.84 KJ/kg degK.

To heat 1kg of basalt by 700degC requires about 600 KJ

Best lunar regolith (Maria) is 0.01 ppm of He3

So the 600 KJ will yield 0.01 milligrams of He3

So 600 Watts power source could produce 0.01 mg He3 per second
= 0.6 mg/minute = 36mg/hour = 864mg/day = 315 grams per year

Whether this business concept is viable depends on how quickly we want to amortize our investment.

Let us say our target is to produce 100 kg He3 in one year, then we need a power source of about 200 KW. That would give us a revenue stream of $150M per year assuming the He3 market does not become flooded and the price drops.

How much would it cost to set up a 200KW power source on the Moon?

A solar based system would be in darkness 50% of the time, so would need to operate at 400 KW. If it were on a lunar polar mountain top it might be in near continuous illumination. Let us assume that best case of 100% lighting.

Assuming PV10% efficiency and a fully steerable array, this would need an area of about 2,000 square meters, or about 45 metres square.

A simple non-PV solar reflector could be near 100% efficient, needing only 200 sq-m or 14 metres square, or aperture.

Setting up a 14 m aperture mirror on the Moon would be a major engineering challenge, although fortunately would not need to be particularly accurate, certainly nothing like as difficult as an astronomical telescope mirror.

How much would it weigh?

Would a nuclear power plant have better performance per kilogram of lander payload?

Maybe other contributors are interested to develop these lines of thinking.

More thermal analysis needs to be done. For example, might it be possible to recycle the heat using some form of cogeneration. Such as use the hot waste regolith, after it has been processed, to pre-heat the next incoming batch of raw dust, and thus reduce the number of solar joules needed?

That could greatly reduce the size of solar array needed and/or significantly increase the system mass throughput.

== Extraction ==

==== Baked Regolith ====
:{|
|-
|A commonly discussed method is cooking the regolith to about 1400 degF or 760 deg C. This would require a lot of energy, requiring the lander to have either a nuclear source, or large solar panels.

Basalt has specific heat capacity of 0.24 cal/g/degC or 0.84 KJ/kg degK.

To heat 1kg of basalt by 700degC requires about 600 KJ

Best lunar regolith (Maria) is 0.01 ppm of He3

So the 600 KJ will yield 0.01 milligrams of He3

So 600 Watts power source could produce 0.01 mg He3 per second = 0.6 mg/minute = 36mg/hour = 864mg/day = 315 grams per year
|-
|}

== Applications ==

*Medical lung imaging
:According to Wikipedia:
::http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium_3
:Medical lung imaging is an interesting new experimental application of He3. 
::Details: http://cerncourier.com/main/article/41/8/14

Helium

2006-12-27T18:20:59Z

Davew:

The Moon is an abundant source of He3. He3 has a market value, even though He3 fusion is not yet demonstrated. It might be worth collecting He3 from the Moon today simply to sell into the existing terrestrial market.

Current market price for He3 is about $46,500 per troy ounce ($1500/gram, $1.5M/kg), more than 120 times the value of gold and over eight times the value of Rhodium.

Question: can we reduce the cost of recovering He3 from the lunar surface to that level, e.g. $1500 per gram? What would be the capital cost of setting up a small He3 production facility on Luna?

Would it depress the market price today? That depends on the size of the market, and there is not much data on that.

The US tritium and helium-3 stockpile sizes are classified, because they give a hint as to how many US nuclear weapons are still functional. According to Wikipedia “approximately 150 kilograms of it (He3) have resulted from decay of US tritium production since 1955.” We could assume a similar quantity has been accumulated in the ex-USSR, and perhaps additionally from other thermonuclear powers (UK, France, China).

Today, the world's supply of Helium-3 can probably be counted in hundreds of kilograms, value of 100 kg would be $150M. So the total stockpile value today is probably about half a billion USD.

The US DOE does sell He3 commercially, but how much of the present stockpile has actually been sold on the open market? Not sure if that number is publicly available.

But for arguments sake let us start at the level of collecting 100kg of He3 from the Moon and assume its value would be $150M.

Well alas even those number do not look good.

The cost of soft landing even a small probe on to the lunar surface would easily cost that much or more. How much He3 could a small lander manufacture? How many grams per day?

Well that of course depends on the production method.

A commonly discussed method is cooking the regolith to about 1400 degF or 760 deg C.
This would require a lot of energy, requiring the lander to have either a nuclear source, or large solar panels.

Basalt has specific heat capacity of 0.24 cal/g/degC or 0.84 KJ/kg degK.

To heat 1kg of basalt by 700degC requires about 600 KJ

Best lunar regolith (Maria) is 0.01 ppm of He3

So the 600 KJ will yield 0.01 milligrams of He3

So 600 Watts power source could produce 0.01 mg He3 per second
= 0.6 mg/minute = 36mg/hour = 864mg/day = 315 grams per year

Whether this business concept is viable depends on how quickly we want to amortize our investment.

Let us say our target is to produce 100 kg He3 in one year, then we need a power source of about 200 KW. That would give us a revenue stream of $150M per year assuming the He3 market does not become flooded and the price drops.

How much would it cost to set up a 200KW power source on the Moon?

A solar based system would be in darkness 50% of the time, so would need to operate at 400 KW. If it were on a lunar polar mountain top it might be in near continuous illumination. Let us assume that best case of 100% lighting.

Assuming PV10% efficiency and a fully steerable array, this would need an area of about 2,000 square meters, or about 45 metres square.

A simple non-PV solar reflector could be near 100% efficient, needing only 200 sq-m or 14 metres square, or aperture.

Setting up a 14 m aperture mirror on the Moon would be a major engineering challenge, although fortunately would not need to be particularly accurate, certainly nothing like as difficult as an astronomical telescope mirror.

How much would it weigh?

Would a nuclear power plant have better performance per kilogram of lander payload?

Maybe other contributors are interested to develop these lines of thinking.

More thermal analysis needs to be done. For example, might it be possible to recycle the heat using some form of cogeneration. Such as use the hot waste regolith, after it has been processed, to pre-heat the next incoming batch of raw dust, and thus reduce the number of solar joules needed?

That could greatly reduce the size of solar array needed and/or significantly increase the system mass throughput.

== Extraction ==

== Applications ==

*Medical lung imaging
:According to Wikipedia:
::http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium_3
:Medical lung imaging is an interesting new experimental application of He3. 
::Details: http://cerncourier.com/main/article/41/8/14

Resource Values

2006-12-27T18:20:08Z

Davew:

Prices on Earth circa 2006

[[Helium3|HE3]] - U.S.$1.5 MILLION / Kg

Rhodium - $5800-$5900/troy oz, $200/gram, $200,000 / kg

Platinum - $1102-$1108/troy oz , $35 / gram, $35,000 / kg

Gold - $617-624/troy oz , $20/gram, $20,000 / kg

Titanium alloy wholesales at GBP 17,000 /tonne

Yttrium - price of 99.9 % pure yttrium ingot is 229.00 € for 50 g, so about $5500 /kg

Iridium - $600 / tr-oz == $20/gram = $2,000 / kg

Tantalum - price varies a lot, lowest seen is 0.75 cents / gram, $750/kg

Copper is dirt cheap, $7000/tonne, $7 / kg

[[Category:Business]]

Category talk:Physics

2006-12-27T18:17:21Z

Davew:

Info on resource values moved to [[Resource_Values|Here]]

[[User:Davew|Davew]] 10:17, 27 December 2006 (PST)

Resource Values

2006-12-27T18:15:27Z

Davew:

Prices on Earth circa 2006

HE3 - U.S.$1.5 MILLION / Kg

Rhodium - $5800-$5900/troy oz, $200/gram, $200,000 / kg

Platinum - $1102-$1108/troy oz , $35 / gram, $35,000 / kg

Gold - $617-624/troy oz , $20/gram, $20,000 / kg

Titanium alloy wholesales at GBP 17,000 /tonne

Yttrium - price of 99.9 % pure yttrium ingot is 229.00 € for 50 g, so about $5500 /kg

Iridium - $600 / tr-oz == $20/gram = $2,000 / kg

Tantalum - price varies a lot, lowest seen is 0.75 cents / gram, $750/kg

Copper is dirt cheap, $7000/tonne, $7 / kg

[[Category:Business]]

Resource Values

2006-12-27T18:14:51Z

Davew:

Resource Values

2006-12-27T18:13:52Z

Davew:

Category talk:Physics

2006-12-27T18:13:09Z

Davew:

Helium

2006-12-27T06:21:52Z

Davew:

The Moon is an abundant source of He3. He3 has a market value, even though He3 fusion is not yet demonstrated. It might be worth collecting He3 from the Moon today simply to sell into the existing terrestrial market.

Current market price for He3 is about $46,500 per troy ounce ($1500/gram, $1.5M/kg), more than 120 times the value of gold and over eight times the value of Rhodium.

Question: can we reduce the cost of recovering He3 from the lunar surface to that level, e.g. $1500 per gram? What would be the capital cost of setting up a small He3 production facility on Luna?

Would it depress the market price today? That depends on the size of the market, and there is not much data on that.

The US tritium and helium-3 stockpile sizes are classified, because they give a hint as to how many US nuclear weapons are still functional. According to Wikipedia “approximately 150 kilograms of it (He3) have resulted from decay of US tritium production since 1955.” We could assume a similar quantity has been accumulated in the ex-USSR, and perhaps additionally from other thermonuclear powers (UK, France, China).

Today, the world's supply of Helium-3 can probably be counted in hundreds of kilograms, value of 100 kg would be $150M. So the total stockpile value today is probably about half a billion USD.

The US DOE does sell He3 commercially, but how much of the present stockpile has actually been sold on the open market? Not sure if that number is publicly available.

But for arguments sake let us start at the level of collecting 100kg of He3 from the Moon and assume its value would be $150M.

Well alas even those number do not look good.

The cost of soft landing even a small probe on to the lunar surface would easily cost that much or more. How much He3 could a small lander manufacture? How many grams per day?

Well that of course depends on the production method.

A commonly discussed method is cooking the regolith to about 1400 degF or 760 deg C.
This would require a lot of energy, requiring the lander to have either a nuclear source, or large solar panels.

Basalt has specific heat capacity of 0.24 cal/g/degC or 0.84 KJ/kg degK.

To heat 1kg of basalt by 700degC requires about 600 KJ

Best lunar regolith (Maria) is 0.01 ppm of He3

So the 600 KJ will yield 0.01 milligrams of He3

So 600 Watts power source could produce 0.01 mg He3 per second
= 0.6 mg/minute = 36mg/hour = 864mg/day = 315 grams per year

Whether this business concept is viable depends on how quickly we want to amortize our investment.

Let us say our target is to produce 100 kg He3 in one year, then we need a power source of about 200 KW. That would give us a revenue stream of $150M per year assuming the He3 market does not become flooded and the price drops.

How much would it cost to set up a 200KW power source on the Moon?

A solar based system would be in darkness 50% of the time, so would need to operate at 400 KW. If it were on a lunar polar mountain top it might be in near continuous illumination. Let us assume that best case of 100% lighting.

Assuming PV10% efficiency and a fully steerable array, this would need an area of about 2,000 square meters, or about 45 metres square.

A simple non-PV solar reflector could be near 100% efficient, needing only 200 sq-m or 14 metres square, or aperture.

Setting up a 14 m aperture mirror on the Moon would be a major engineering challenge, although fortunately would not need to be particularly accurate, certainly nothing like as difficult as an astronomical telescope mirror.

How much would it weigh?

Would a nuclear power plant have better performance per kilogram of lander payload?

Maybe other contributors are interested to develop these lines of thinking.

More thermal analysis needs to be done. For example, might it be possible to recycle the heat using some form of cogeneration. Such as use the hot waste regolith, after it has been processed, to pre-heat the next incoming batch of raw dust, and thus reduce the number of solar joules needed?

That could greatly reduce the size of solar array needed and/or significantly increase the system mass throughput.

== Applications ==

*Medical lung imaging
:According to Wikipedia:
::http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium_3
:Medical lung imaging is an interesting new experimental application of He3. 
::Details: http://cerncourier.com/main/article/41/8/14

Helium

2006-12-27T06:13:32Z

Davew:

Lunarpedia:Outline draft/TRADE AND THE BOTTOM LINE

2006-12-27T06:11:57Z

Davew: /* Energy exports */

<big><big><big>'''''[[Lunarpedia:Outline_draft|Back To Main Outline Draft Index]]'''''</big></big></big>

=[[Lunarpedia:Outline_draft/PRELUDE|PRELUDE]]=
=[[Lunarpedia:Outline_draft/WHERE TO|WHERE TO]]=
=[[Lunarpedia:Outline_draft/THE RETURN|THE RETURN]]=
=[[Lunarpedia:Outline_draft/BREAKOUT AGENDA|BREAKOUT AGENDA]]=
=[[Lunarpedia:Outline_draft/SETTLEMENT GROWTH|SETTLEMENT GROWTH]]=

=TRADE AND THE BOTTOM LINE=

==Exports & Market Development==
===Specific markets===
*Low Earth Orbit industrial parks
*Low Earth Orbit tourist facilities
*Mars, Phobos, Deimos
:made-on-Luna heavy equipment
:Nuclear fuels (lunar thorium 232 > uranium 233)
:Seasoned pioneers
:Technology expertise
*Asteroids
*other
===Value added product types===
*Products made for domestic use
*Construction materials
*Furnishings
*Arts & crafts
*Unique jewelry
*Food products
*New crop variety seeds
*Lunar-sourced chemical fuels
*Lunar-produced nuclear fuels (the thorium 232 > uranium 233 cycle), essential to the opening of Mars to settlement
*other
===Raw materials to be processed in space for solar power satellite construction===
===Technology licenses===
*Biospheric technologies
*Agricultural technologies
*Recycling technologies
*Building material technologies
*Poor ore mining technologies
*other
===Infotainment products===
*Travelogues
*Explorations
*Dance, sport, music, etc.
===Other "zero-mass" products===
===Energy exports===
*Lunar fuels
:Hydrogen
:Oxygen
:Silane
:other
:Lunar processed nuclear fuels (thorium 232 > uranium 233)
*Lunar solar arrays
*[[helium3|Helium-3]]
*Building materials for solar power satellites
*other

==Development of other export markets==
===LEO industrial parks===
===LEO tourist clusters===
===GEO satellite farm-platforms===
===L4, L5 Lunar Flank relays, telescopes===
===L1, L2 Lunar Gateways for people, cargo===
===Asteroid mission support===
===Mars, Phobos, Deimos===
===Other===

==Imports==
===The "MUS/cle strategy" for Import Reduction===
===Institute of Lunar-apropriate Industrial Design===
===Stowaway import strategies===
===Development of locally made substitutes===
===Going without===

==Developing other import market sources==
===Phobos, Deimos (methane, ammonia?)===
===Mars ("pipeline" inventory items)===
===Near-Earth asteroids (volatiles, lunar-deficient elements)===
===comets (volatiles)===
===other===

=[[Lunarpedia:Outline_draft/HEALTHY CITIZENS|HEALTHY CITIZENS]]=
=[[Lunarpedia:Outline_draft/UNIVERSITY OF LUNA|UNIVERSITY OF LUNA]]=

<big><big><big>'''''[[Lunarpedia:Outline_draft|Back To Main Outline Draft Index]]'''''</big></big></big>

Talk:Helium

2006-12-26T02:31:30Z

Davew:

Talk:Helium

2006-12-24T19:48:40Z

Davew:

What are the current uses for He3, other than fussion power research? What potential markets open up if the price begins to fall?
[[User:Davew|Davew]] 11:48, 24 December 2006 (PST)

Talk:Home

2006-12-10T18:54:11Z

Davew: