peterb@pbear.UUCP (03/02/85)
In order to create massive amounts of heat on the moon, I think that a working fluid can be obtained (aka sodium, water, air, or whatever is handy) and use a solar mirror to focus suns energy into a confined zone and pass the working fluid through it. using smaller "furnaces" to drive sterling engines to pump the stuff around would make it work pretty well. The only problem I can forsee is finding enough sodium before the first night fell. This would be a real drag on the idea. I wonder if there is free silicon on the moon (pure enough to smelt) that can be used to produce solar panels. Also are the base chemicals around that would be useful for making batteries (lead and H2SO4 type of battery or lithium, or even better: nickel cadium). There are a lot of problem to overcome before an operation like this could become scientifically or even economically possible. Lets start thinking about it. Could someone post the chemical breakdown of the rocks brought back from the moon? I think this would help direct the dicussion and the ideas. Peter Barada ima!pbear!peterb
henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (03/07/85)
> I wonder if there is free silicon on the moon (pure enough to smelt) > that can be used to produce solar panels. Solar panels need semiconductor-grade silicon, which you aren't going to find in nature anywhere. On the other hand, it's not enormously hard to make if you have the right equipment, and there are plenty of silicate rocks on the moon. > Also are the base chemicals around > that would be useful for making batteries (lead and H2SO4 type of battery or > lithium, or even better: nickel cadium). Lead, nickel, cadmium, maybe. The moon is badly short of hydrogen, and probably sulfur as well. Lithium is a rare metal anywhere, for quite fundamental reasons. Some other things the moon is short of are nitrogen and chlorine, by the way. Both of them rather important to life. One possibility, though, is that there may be frozen volatiles (water, etc.) in some of the lunar polar craters which contain areas that are permanently in shadow. A lunar polar orbiter with remote-sensing gear is what we need to settle this. -- Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry