Joe Strout wrote in message ...
In article ,
(Ross A. Finlayson) wrote:

I guess my idea of a moonbase is a bunch of domes, using the
"regolith" as structural material.

Cylinders are more likely than domes, at least as a first step. And the
regolith is shielding material, not structural material.

Agree cylinders will be first, covered in regolith. But domes could
easily follow. The "structural material" will be a high strength
fabric. Regolith is not suited to tension structures.

Assuming you can get some silicates out of the dirt and rocks there,
then a primary step for long term habitibility is food production,
using the materials to build largescale greenhouses to grow earthly
plantlife.

That's certainly one step I'd like to see, though I doubt it's a primary
one -- you could live on imported food for a while.

1. Extraction of oxygen
2. Production of glass metals such as aluminium
3. Production of solar cells
4. Production of food
5. Creation of a mass driver

snip

I agree we should be separating cargo and people.

Esprecially if we can get cargo from LEO to Lunar orbit by electric
propulsion.

Landing stuff on Earth is kind of easier than landing on the moon, it
has an atmosphere, so giant supertankers could be aeroformed in space
and floated gently to land in the ocean with maybe only a few
kilotons. Landing on Luna requires retrorockets.

Well, yes, but the delta-V to the Moon's surface is substantially less
too. As is the gravity for that matter. Of the two, I'd much rather
land on the Moon than on the Earth.

Hopefully, the aim will be to get lots of mass off the moon for which
a mass driver is probably the easiest way. (Though NASA should look at
aluminium / oxygen rockets).

snip
On the surface what you want are solar cells, tons of 'em.

Perhaps. A small fission plant would be a heckuva lot easier, though.

1. Put down a 1 MW fission plant (weighs about 30 tons) to provide
constant electricity.
2. Add solar panels made on the moon to provide day time electricity.
Certain high energy processes (for example, electrolysing potassium
and fluoride) would take place only during the day.
3. Eventually, a solar power station at L1 would beam down energy as
microwaves to the base, and perhaps even as laser to individual
vehicles.

About getting to the moon, what I think should be done straightaway
are dozens of unmanned micromissions. We need about eighty or ninety
remote control ATVs zooming around up there, in, say, fifteen months.

More fumes. However, if you said "five years" I would tend to agree.

Several things they should do immediately. One of these is to give a
few million $ in research grants to some University Chemistry
department to test methods for processing lunar regolith. They should
aim to build and test a prototype chemistry unit, perhaps along the
lines described he
http://www.asi.org/adb/02/13/02/silicon-production.html

If that can be made to work, give a few million $ in research grants
to some University Engineering department to build a machine that
could produce useful aluminium and glass shapes. Something like an
aluminium frame, glass walled 4m diameter tunnel.