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Path: utzoo!dciem!mmt
From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: Terraforming vs. Space Stations --> moon vs. asteroids
Message-ID: <636@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 18-Jan-84 18:05:00 EST
Article-I.D.: dciem.636
Posted: Wed Jan 18 18:05:00 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Jan-84 19:56:44 EST
References: <15494@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 38

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I say use Moon for supplying all materials it has in abundance,
taking advantage of its easy location (albeit uneasy gravity well, but
I think we can overcome that with mass driver), and also use the
asteroids, for the stuff they have in abundance (iron, carbon,
hydrogen, etc.; but we don't know for sure yet, none has yet been surveyed).
Ok?

But I concur that processing and fabriction should be done in zero-gee
mostly, not on the Moon. Collect moondirt and asteroid-chunks in low
lunar orbit or at L5 or elsewhere in Earth/Moon vicinity, and do
processing there.
==================
Why not process on the Moon, at least the refining of materials.
It seems quite reasonable to design an automatic isotope refinery
for lunar surface operation, and presumably it would be better
to transport isotopically pure elements that are wanted rather than
the aggregates that are in the whole soil mass.

As I see it, the refinery would be a sort of lunar-rover/mass-spectrometer.
A digging mechanism would deliver soil, suitable fined, to the focus
of a solar furnace that formed the source for the mass spectrometer
section.  The delivered ions would be received on a series of belts
or buckets (remember the Moon is in a better vacuum than we can
achieve in our laboratories, so these receivers could be a long distance
from the source). The receivers could be shielded from sunlight, so
most isotopes would form frozen solids that could be collected
every lunar night and the desirable ones sent where they are wanted.
The rover could slowly move across the lunar surface in a random
way, or could create a widening circular pit like a strip mine.

Is there anything wrong with this conception? Wouldn't it be economically
viable even now for producing valuable and exotic isotopes for
Earth use?
-- 

Martin Taylor
{allegra,linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt