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From: eder@ssc-vax.UUCP (Dani Eder)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: Lunar Mining
Message-ID: <513@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 13-Mar-85 14:50:21 EST
Article-I.D.: ssc-vax.513
Posted: Wed Mar 13 14:50:21 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 14-Mar-85 06:20:49 EST
References: <432@terak.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: Boeing Aerospace Co., Seattle, WA
Lines: 18

> These discussions of a Lunar Walden Pond are fascinating.  They often
> expose terestrial assumptions in construction technology that must be
> reformulated.  One occured to myself while reading Chris' list of a
> minimal bootstrap kit for a Colony...   EXPLOSIVES .
> 
> Explosives would certainly carry a lot of excavation power per pound,
> when compared with a Lunar Rover-Dozer.  [[ At this point, a few pure
> geological scientists might shutter, but survival over there would have
> to cooexist with scientific study ]].  If rock is the major source of
> material and shelter, a lot would have to be broken, crushed and other-
> wise dealt with.  Very energy intensive! 

     Fortunately for us earthlings, the Lunar regolith has already been
pulverized by a billion years of meteors falling on it.  All we have to
do is push it around with our vehicles, and sift it through screens if
we want a particular size: rock, gravel, dust.

Dani Eder / Boeing Aerospace Company /ssc-vax!eder