In 1961, we escaped the bounds of gravity on a pillar of fire. In 1969, 1971, 1972, and 2026, we brought fire to the moon. Now, I propose that this time, we keep it there.
| Phoenix Technologies Research Division Database | |
|---|---|
| File Title | PROJECT GRANT: A Lunar City |
| File Type | Research proposal |
| Author | David Hunt (Ohio, United States of America) |
| Upload Dates | 20-06-2027 (VER:1-FINAl) |
| 31-06-2027 (VER:0) | |
| Keywords | Space flight, colonization, energy, biology, robotics, materials science, physics, sociology, (52 keywords hidden) |
"The earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot forever live in the cradle."
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky - 1911
1. Proposal
It is the dream of all humanity to reach beyond what we are capable of. In 1961, we escaped the bounds of gravity on a pillar of fire. In 1969, 1971, 1972, and 2026, we brought fire to the moon. Now, I propose that this time, we keep it there.
I propose we develop a permanent lunar settlement.
Launch costs have dramatically fallen even before the fall of the veil and with improvements in the field of aportation, costs have fallen even faster. As such I think we have hit the point of economic viability for such a colony. Two alternatives were considered, the Moon and Mars. While Mars is much richer in raw resources needed for life, the energy costs are much, much higher to leave the earth-luna system, which will lead to ecologically unacceptable levels of thaumic backlash.
"Beep Beep Beep."
Sputnik - 1957
2. Reason for Submission
The primary source of funding for this project has been secured from various national governments along with the GOC and Vanguard. The location is based on former Lunar Area-32 to act as a bootstrap structure. What we need is Phoenix's expertise in paratechnologies. We are working with several other groups and organizations for these technologies, so it does not fall entirely on Phoenix's shoulders.
The following is a abridged list of technological problems that need solutions:
2.1 Elemental Acquisition
For water, we will need some system to extract ice from tiny pockets in the regolith.[1] Oxygen needs to be chemically extracted from the regolith, which is an issue due to the electrochemical potential of 2.1V of silicates, requiring vast amounts of energy to heat the silicates that make up the moon to melting point and to electrolyze the oxygen out of it. Vanguard has agreed to lend us VNP-109 for this project, however the rates of extraction are far too low to supply everything we will need and it requires a nitrogen atmosphere, which brings us onto the next problem.
Food is the biggest issue, carbon and nitrogen are incredibly rare on the moon[1] and are two of the most important elements involved in biological organisms. Either vast amounts of lunar regolith will need to be mined for tiny amounts of nitrogen, nitrogen will need to be imported from earth or these elements will need to be alchemically transmuted or ectoentropicaly produced. Nitrogen is also required to ensure that the city is not a giant fuel-air bomb.[2]
2.2 Growing Food
After you have the raw elements of food — ammonia, carbon dioxide, water, phosphate, sulfates, and associated minerals — you need to turn that into food. Some form of genetically engineered algae would be ideal for early steps, but most people are not interested in eating algae 684/0.25. We will need to figure out how to grow plants in space, which will require making soil from scratch as regolith is toxic[1] (thankfully not as toxic as Martian regolith). We currently have a small collection of ectoentropic food generators like VNP-1689. VNP-871 could solve all of our food problems but has been deemed far too dangerous.
2.3 Physical Issues
Radiation shielding will be a major issue. Either we will need to build the settlement inside of a lava tube — we expect the Yeren will have a lot of useful options there — or we will need to construct some form of dome that can resist the constant hard radiation of outer space. This will likely involve a massive covering of lunar regolith.
Gravity will also pose an issue: the much lower gravity of the moon will lead to rapid bone decay,[3] requiring either: very frequent exercise, frequent rotation between the earth and the lunar colony, or some form of artificial gravity. Furthermore, if the colony is to be successful long-term we will need children to be born on the moon. Reproduction in space is almost entirely unstudied, apart from the orbital gecko sex tomb,[4] which sadly produced very little data before everything froze to death. Now that we have gravity, the issues of sex in microgravity are avoided. Pregnancy in low gravity is a big unknown as well,[5] we may need to keep pregnant sophants in a centrifugal gravity system.[6] Children in microgravity may also have significant developmental issues resulting from low bone density.[5] Low lunar gravity also leads to people's eyes rearranging themselves and will require significant investment in optometrists.[7]
Now that we have the simple stuff out of the way, let's move on to the millions of even more complex things.
2.4 Regolith Acquisition
Every part of this project is going to need massive amounts of lunar regolith.1 This will require autonomous mining drones capable of surviving everything the moon can throw at them. Ranging from the machinery destroying lunar dust, the hard radiation, the frequent temperature swings from 120 to -160C and micrometeorite collisions. No known lubricant can work at that temperature range for starters.
Lunar dust is the unholy hybrid of asbestos and polystyrene.[8] It will stick to everything and will kill you slowly if you breathe it in,[9] plus it is a killer on anything with moving parts.[10] The normal way to deal with substances like this is to wash them down in water.[11] However, water is going to be a very precious commodity on the moon.
2.5 Space Medicine
Significant amounts of research needs to be done on dealing with medical emergencies in low gravity.[5] Major trauma in space tends to be dealt with by sending the astronaut back to Earth. We don't have that option here, and as such we will need to figure out how to deal with broken bones, major cuts, strokes, heart attacks, and the many other medical emergencies that require fast responses.
2.6 Space Psychology
Psychological issues have been long discussed, with the concept of space madness being a major worry.[12] However, the evidence suggests that with proper amenities there should not be much higher levels of mental illness than on earth.[13] The easy parts of this are media, and contact with other humans and the earth. With modern file storage, we can fit millions of movies onto a hard drive and almost real-time communication with Earth is fully possible (a ping time of two seconds is unavoidable however). However, one of the most important parts of ensuring good morale is proper food. The importance of food has been vital ever since the heroic age of antarctic exploration.[14] As such the production of tasty food is vital for keeping everyone sane.
2.7 Power Generation
Power generation is currently a potential issue, as Lunar night lasts for 14 days, thus requiring atomic or esoteric power sources. This will need some form of massive scale anomalous energy generation systems, such as the prototype thaumic driven fusion system.
I see the earth! It is beautiful!
Yuri Gagarin - 1961
3. Expected Costs
Costing is not a factor here, as current funding is being sourced from governmental agencies as well as the GOC and Vanguard.
4. Usage
Self evident.
"We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
John F. Kennedy - 1962
5. Potential Issues
The technical issues with this project are well documented and are why we are making this request. The more complicated issues are legal and sociological.
5.1 Legal issues
Most of space law was developed in the 1970s and is based on the assumptions of the Cold War. Those assumptions since been broken. Spaceflight is no longer a geopolitical costly signal or a mechanism to rain doom on your enemies. Current space law only covers registering what you are launching, who pays if something crashes into your house, not launching nukes into space, and a general pledge to play nice in vague terms. The legal issues here are not on the level of preventing nuclear war but more sensible ones like who owns what.
Currently, the resources of outer space are held in commons, which is a problem the second money gets involved. The status quo is finders keepers on a universal scale, which will lead to conflict if we find some economically valuable material on the moon other than titanium. The Artemis Accords provide some guidance here on the finder's keepers rules, but have not been ratified by Russia or China.
Current international law prohibits sovereign control over any part of space, which will lead to issues of lawmaking. Currently international spaces like the ocean is under the law of whatever country originated the expedition, as this is a former foundation base it falls under their jurisdiction, however the foundation no longer exists and current treaties on extranormal spaces do not cover successor organizations to the foundation leaving jurisdiction unclear.
5.2 Space Bastardocracy
There is a lingering issue with governance in such a hostile environment. How do we maintain liberty when someone controls the oxygen supply?
There are no two ways to say this, Galileo will be a vanguard company town as we will have to provide housing, food, air, amenities, water, law enforcement, and jobs to the people living in the town. This will provide us with a worrying amount of power of the people in the settlement.
In the longer term, there are concerns that the concentration of power involved in life support systems might lead to autocratic systems of government. The discredited idea of hydraulic despotism taken to a whole new level.
5.3 The scramble for the moon
The establishment of such a moonbase might lead to a scramble for the moon. There are very few locations on the moon that have significant value, like locations of lava tubes, easy access to water, low-temperature swings, and other factors. The fall of the Veil and the failure of the Russian invasion of Ukraine have led to a long period of detente between the great powers. However, this might not last forever. The construction of a lunar base will signal that such a thing is feasible, which may spark a new wave of great power conflict over space resources.
5.4 Geopolitical impacts from commodity crashes
The only commodity that the moon can produce in vast quantities is titanium based on present prospecting. Titanium mining is centered in China, South Africa, and Mozambique, and as such, large-scale mining may lead to significant economic strife in the later two nations, with Mozambique being a country dependent on mining. As such, this project may destabilize those countries. Furthermore, several developing and least developed countries have economies dependent on mining, which lunar settlement may disrupt due to cheap asteroid derived metals.
Lunar settlement, due to the Moon's lower gravity well, will also allow for far more effective asteroid mining, which can disrupt the economies of yet more countries. This will be a Kaldor-Hicks improvement in global prosperity, creating more wealth than will be lost, but with significant losses to large parts of the economy.
5.5 Faith in space
Faith is a vital part of many peoples lives. For long term civilian settlement we must make accommodations. For most of these issues there are already partial solutions, however work should be done to conform these as long term solutions.
This will primarily affect Islamic people, but also affect Jews. Current protocol for the direction of the Qiblat in space is in order: Kaabah, Kaabah’s projection, Earth, and any direction. We will need to discuss the best ways to determine this direction. Current guidance is that the timing of the 5 prayers is based off of the point of departure. This is insufficient for long term habitation in a large group.
For both Jewish and Muslim populations there are several religious ceremonies that start or end at sunrise or sunset, which is an issue when those events are 14 days apart. Currently for Muslim populations above the arctic circle the approach is to use the times of sunrise and sunset in Mecca for this, while for the ISS location of departure, which has issues for long term settlement. The same applies to Jewish populations (using the location of Jerusalem), but there is significant debate in Jewish communities, construction of multiple synagogues may be required.
Other issues with Jewish citizens is Sukkot, which requires the sukkah to be outside in open air, this can be an issue when there is no air and Kiddush Levanah requiring the person to look up at the moon before prayer, an issue when the moon is below you. There is has been significant discussion within the Rabbi community, but broader consensus should be sought after.
For Hindu people, several key ceremonies involve fire pits, in an environment like the moon these are highly dangerous. This will mostly impact weddings, specialized structures may be needed.
"This is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
Niel Armstrong - 1969
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Patent Application Publication
TORRES
| THE THAUMONUCLEAR FUSION REACTOR | |
| Applicant: | PHOENIX TECHNOLOGIES, INC. |
| Inventor: | Simon TORRES |
| Patent No: | 11877390 |
| Filed: | May 20, 2028 |
| ABSTRACT: | […] |
Article | Published: 15 November 2029
Modification of staple crops for low gravity
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