Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!rochester!dietz
From: dietz@cs.rochester.edu (Paul Dietz)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: 1992 moon base
Message-ID: <1989Feb13.074530.17504@cs.rochester.edu>
Date: 13 Feb 89 12:45:30 GMT
Reply-To: dietz@cs.rochester.edu (Paul Dietz)
Organization: U of Rochester, CS Dept, Rochester, NY
Lines: 17

henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:

>If we assume that there is a useful amount of ice in lunar polar craters --
>not ridiculous but not at all certain either -- it clearly is possible to
>start a lunar colony with today's technology.  Before Challenger, in fact,
>there was a proposal to do exactly that in 1992, as a commemoration of the
>500th anniversary of Columbus.  It would have been within reach of (major)
>private funding, given extensive reliance on donated labor and materials...
>but the reliance on six donated shuttle flights killed it.

Wonderful, Henry.  Lunar colonies (= a handful of people huddled
underground) are feasible if you don't have to pay for little things
like labor, materials or launchers.  By the way, how many shuttle
flights per year would be needed for support of this thing?

	Paul F. Dietz
	dietz@cs.rochester.edu