[net.space] ...when WHAT was inhabited...?

knudsen (09/17/82)

Concerning lunar installations of lasers capable of zapping Earth,
as well as plagues & nucler war, maybe the future will be:

Inhabitants of Moon and/or L5 colonies reminiscing about the good old
days when that big blue & white cloudy planet was inhabited.

aka779 (09/17/82)

No one, in my opinion, has ever shown any justification--survival,
economics, ecological, or even FUN--for the enormous expense and 
doubtful possibility of building anything at Lagrangian points.
To date, I've read cute little stories postulating an elitist
population that evolves an independent society as follows:
(1) trillions are spent by the working taxpayers of Earth, elite and all;
(2) after the New Heaven is established, Old Earth asks for taxes or
    tribute or whatever;
(3) the indignant Fivers revolt & destroy O.E. with asteroids, mass drivers,
    microwaves, etc.
(4) Heaven exists for the elite, all tucked away in their big tin can in
    the middle of nowhere.

(5) And I always ask, lunatic that I am--if the technology and $ exist
    to build big floating tin cans, why not use those resources to
    build at the bottom of the Moon's gravity well--there's a lot more
    *stuff* laying around, and once you're there, it's nearly free.

(6) Those of us who are settled on the Libertarian State of Luna will
    be charging a stiff price for our planet; 

(7) Free space Ain't!

jef@LBL-UNIX@sri-unix (09/21/82)

From: jef at LBL-UNIX (Jef Poskanzer [rtsg])
It is likely that L4 and L5 are chock-full of stardust, just begging
to be build into useful factories, powersats, resort hotels, etc.
Various people have looked for the dust and so far have found nothing,
but I am still confident that it is there.  We could find out exactly
how much dust is there for a paltry $20M or so - one of those upper
stages used with the shuttle to get to geosynch should be able to get
to L4/5 and back, considering that its payload could be as simple
as a sheet of plastic for the dust to embed itself into.

We REALLY should find out.  Does anyone know of any plans for missions
like this, or for more extensive telescopic searches?
---
Jef