Since solar power is the most easily accessible form of energy available on the Moon, then is it better to harness the Sun's rays directly by focusing them, or is better to first convert to electricity by photovoltaics and use that to power something?Harnessing Sun's rays directly by focusing them would avoid a conversion step, and but would require the use of lenses, mirrors and/or fiber optics, which would also incur power loss.Photovoltaically converting the Sun's rays to electricity would incur a conversion loss, but that electric power would then be fungible towards a variety of uses.Zaptec is a Norwegian company that mainly makes hardware for electric vehicles, but they have a very small high-voltage transformer that's the basis for an electrically-powered "plasma drill":http://www.zaptec.com/spacehttp://www.shackletonenergy.com/news/2015/3/17/us-lunar-mining-company-and-norwegian-technology-company-to-develop-drilling-and-power-solutions-for-operations-on-the-moonWhat's the best way to drill on the Moon?
Also, I'd like to ask - is it worthwhile to bring equipment for artificially tunneling on the Moon right away, or would it be better to initially rely on pre-existing natural tunnels and caverns for protected habitation space?If you go with the former, then you have more choice on where you can locate your underground facilities. But if you go with the latter, then you're dependent on wherever the natural tunnels and caverns happen to be located.On the other hand, making use of naturally occurring caverns and tunnels (eg. lava tubes) could save you a lot of excavation work. What you'd mainly have to do is spray coat the interior walls and perhaps provide a liner envelope fitted to the dimensions of that interior space. Then you'd fit an airlock over the mouth of the cavern/tunnel for ingress & egress.
The walls and floor of a lava tube are unlikely to be smooth so rocks will need removing before they can be lined.IMHO Astronauts will be living in surface habitats brought from Earth for many years before we switch to tubes. The original mines are likely to be strip mines.
Quote from: A_M_Swallow on 10/08/2017 04:06 amThe walls and floor of a lava tube are unlikely to be smooth so rocks will need removing before they can be lined.IMHO Astronauts will be living in surface habitats brought from Earth for many years before we switch to tubes. The original mines are likely to be strip mines.So you feel that the underground spaces humans first move into will be ones which initially were being used for resource extraction?How do we guarantee the stability of such underground spaces before occupying them?
What's the best way to convert tunnels into living spaces?Will tunnel walls be heated into glass? Or maybe cement reinforcement walls will be extruded/slathered onto the bare tunnel surfaces? Or will tunnel dimensions be mapped precisely, so that inner liners can be constructed on Earth to match those dimensions precisely and placed inside those tunnels to make them airtight?Will tunnels have to be pressurized first before they can be reinforced and converted into living spaces? Or can that work be done in the still evacuated tunnels, which would later be pressurized towards the end of the process?
What you can and can't do depends entirely on the material you're working with. If it's solid basalt, then you probably don't have to seal it but drilling/tunnelling into it is going to be a real b**ch. If it's softer stuff (similar to limestone or sandstone) then it's more workable but, being porous, may or may not need some kind of sealing.There are many places on Earth where to escape the harsh environment, entire communities live underground so the techniques required are well refined already. For example:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coober_PedyIMHO, it's more likely a type of 'cut-and-cover' - an impermeable roof over a crater - would be a first step on the moon, with digging commencing shortly thereafter.
Wouldn't a crater be considered a more exposed area? Wouldn't it be better to tunnel into a mountainside instead? (Or, I suppose tunneling into the side of a crater wall would do, but that could likely encounter the harder re-solidified rock)
FWIW, crater walls here on earth don't tend to be "harder re-solidified rock" but merely what didn't get blasted away on impact and just as easy (or hard) to tunnel into. Maybe that's different up there? I dunno.. so I guess I'll go back into lurk mode.
This company is probably very pertinent for this thread, and I can't spot it here already.https://www.offworld.ai/
Quote from: Athrithalix on 10/17/2017 03:18 pmThis company is probably very pertinent for this thread, and I can't spot it here already.https://www.offworld.ai/They talk seed factory but appear to really be about autonomous mining and construction vehicles...
to plunder resources in space.