Terraforming the Moon

Subject: Terraforming the Moon

(habshi) wrote in message ...

Titan is not that much bigger than our moon 5k km vs 3.3k km
and yet has a dense atmosphere . So our moon too should be able to
hold on to an atmosphere . What we need to do is to bring icy comets
from the oort cloud and Saturn's rings and let them slow down so they
settle gently on the surface .The water will soon evaporate and form
oceans and then we can colonize it .
...

I may be wrong, but I think that I remembered reading
some while back that the moon may have at least
theoretically had an atmosphere or oceans very early
in its formation. If so, however, it would very
likely have lost it over the course of millions
(not billions) of years very early on, and all vestiges
of an atmosphere or oceans would have been lost
from its geology later, from further asteroid or
cometary impacts on its surface or volcanism,
producing its modern geologic features.

Titan is of coarse very far from the sun, so it
can hold on to an atmosphere composed of more
volatile components, with relatively small
amounts of total mass and gravity. Because
the sun will not gradually boil its atmosphere
away, due to the smaller levels of energy
inputs involved because of its greater distance
from the sun, Titan's atmoshpere can be
stable for billions, and not merely millions
of years, and so it can still have one
remaining there today.

The moon, however, might in theory, only
have atmospheres or possibly oceans, stable
for only millions, and not billions of years,
if that long, before it would evaporate away
into space.

If civilization, or life, or something, were
to remain ordered for millions of more years,
(an open question) and it were to become
or remain spacefaring throughout at least
the rest of the solar system, probably one
of the first places that bases and construction
would be established, would be the lunar surface.

This might put established structures and
capabilities in conflict with potential
terraforming efforts, not to mention rusting
and corrosion, and re-entry and launch
difficulties with regard to the moon, if it
were tried also.

Still, if small moons or comets from the
outer solar system were directed to mildly impact
with the lunar surface, it [might] feasibly
give the moon an atmosphere and maybe even
possibly an ocean that could potentially be
stable for on the order of several million
years (not billions).

Calculations from sci.astro are requested to
verify or deny this statement if possible.