US Officially Out of the Space Program

[Heraclitus]

The true value of the moon is in making an interstellar spaceship out of it.

JM

Aren't asteroids just a bit easier to convert into generation ships?

[Blaupanzer]

For what began as an apparent troll by the robot, David Floyd, this has turned fun. I must admit that using up most of the moon by transporting it to earth, crushing the rock, and converting a colony's worth to oxygen to be breathed then lost in space had never crossed my mind. I can see how we could use up much of the earth's iron shooting at the aliens that come to attack us, but the WHOLE mantel's worth? Ever amazed at what people and Turing Test bots don't know about the world.

[KrazyHorse]

DF's not a bot. Just not that bright.

[Drake Tungsten]

I disagree. He's obviously a pleasure bot sent back in time to pick up drunk fat chicks in bars.

[KrazyHorse]

I think he's a liar-bot actually

[Drake Tungsten]

Pleasure bots specializing in fat chicks need to be consummate liars to keep their clients happy. It all fits.

[KrazyHorse]

Fat chicks
Guys on the internet who sleep with fat chicks
Guys on the internet who lie about sleeping with fat chicks

[Drake Tungsten]

- Of course I think that you are beautiful. *beep* *boop* Shall we go back to my resting station and have sexual intercourse? *whirr* You are such a cool girl and totally not fat at all. *sproing* -

[David Floyd]

A physics dork making fun of me for hooking up with women. Priceless.

[Ben Kenobi]

It's just another good reason not to mine the Moon. The only thing the moon is really good for (in terms of development) is acting as a stopover to Mars.

[Ben Kenobi]

I nearly started to calculate what the effect on the moon's orbit would be if we mined a million tons of material per person for 7.36 billion people (to make the arithmetic a bit easier). But I couldn't be arsed. I would still be interested in the answer though.

7x10^15 T

Mass of moon.

7x 10^19 T.

Even assuming a million tons for everyone, that would remove roughly 1 ten-thousandths of the mass of the moon.

Fg = Gm1M2/r^2.

Gm1M2/R2^2 = Gm1M3/R3^2

M2/R2^2 = M3/R3^2

M2/M3 = R2^2/R3^2

1.0001 x (R2) ^2 = (R3^2)

SQRT (1.0001 x (4x10^8)^2) = R3

R3 = 400019995 metres = + 20 kms.

Ok, that's right. The radii of the orbit will increase by about 20 kms.

[BlackCat]

Can't figure out wether KH is sober or just trolling, but he certainly are pulling arguments out of his arse.

Gov. funded research doesn't need to have any value besides pure knowledge - if it has, well, good, some companies will gain a profit. Private companies will never do such research.

Claiming that some kind of research is done too early because it could be done cheaper if we just wait a bit, is idiotic - how do we decide what can wait because in a few years some invention will make it cheaper ?

That said, NASA probably has played their role and should be shut down - russians and europeans are way more efficient in sending things into orbit.

Wonder if somebody not on KH's ignore list please will risk to quote this

[Solomwi]

Why bother quoting it? You can just go back through the thread and see KH's responses the first time each of those arguments came up.

[Solomwi]

Fg = Gm1M2/r^2.

r^2 = Gm1M2(Fg)

If m1 changes by 0.0001, then r will change by the root of that, which is 0.01 metres. So the orbit will lengthen by about a centimetre in radii.

[BlackCat]

Why bother quoting it? You can just go back through the thread and see KH's responses the first time each of those arguments came up.

Well, KH is an idiot that puts people on ignore, so he can only read my postings if others quote them