/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.4486318]

How expensive would it be to build and maintain a lunar base?

No really, if it was international and everyone shared the load. Finance-wise, how much of an expense would it be to the countries?

>inb4 but there's no motive
I know that. It wasn't my question.

[Anonymous No.4486322]

That's a good question. But you haven't given enough information.

How many people do you want there? How self-sustaining should this base be? Do I include the upkeep cost of sending supplies and replacement parts?

[Anonymous No.4486341]

I think after it was built for a fair while the cost to maintain it would be minimal, if it was self sustainable. Building it on the other hand would be hard. If we got something like the space shuttle but better (Bigger load) going it would significantly help. If every developed country, or even every country with a space programme, chipped in it wouldn't be too much, very possible anyway, maybe not at the moment with the economic crisis, but certainly doable in the near future. I couldn't give you a figure, because honestly, I wouldn't know where to start.

[Anonymous No.4486353]

Alright, /sci/ OP here and I'm giving us some things to work with. I just really want a number here. Let's say.

>Lunar Station 01
>Population: 20
>Supplies: Brought in large stock every other year. Emergency repairs come at times when needed (obviously)

Costs for building it should be included.

Ask me if you need more.

[Anonymous No.4486355]

>Expensive

[Anonymous No.4486356]

>>4486353
Best I could start with is looking at the space station's costs and upkeep, and extrapolating linearly up to 20 people.

The big thing missing will be the rockets to send it to the moon. LEO is a lot cheaper than going to the moon. Maybe you could find a cost/kg to send things to the moon, and compare to the similar costs for the LEO, and use that to estimate the additional cost of a moon base over the space station?

[Anonymous No.4486365]

Is there a lunar base equivalent of Zubrin's Mars Direct book? If so, I'd be keen to read it.

[Axel the Possum No.4486372]

The ISS cost 1.8 billion to maintain in 2005, so certainly not less than 1.8 billion inflation-adjusted 2005 dollars.

[Anonymous No.4486380]

Clearly this had to be carried by everyone. Every citizen of the earth had to participate in that. So you had to pay everyone of them a salary. Let's say 30% of the world population are workers. Now you have to pay wage floor to all of them. Good thing is, resources, calculations, logistics, and manpower would be for free.

[Anonymous No.4486395]

Why does the moon have those dark >>4486318 spots on it?
Why isn't it all the same colour?

[Axel the Possum No.4486409]

>>4486395

Those are dried lava rock. Basically, areas of the moon were made re-molten by impacts. Google it, it's fun stuff.

[Anonymous No.4486410]

>>4486380
The fuck are you on about? Don't you think this would be paid by governments? Tax-money, in other words?

You only pay the people working on the project.

>>4486356
That sounds good, we'll do that. I suppose the next thing we -could- do is look at what the costs have been for flying to the moon. I'm not sure how we'll make out any realistic estimates for -building- on it though.

[Anonymous No.4486416]

>>4486395
maria and regolith
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_maria

[Anonymous No.4486424]

>>4486410
>Tax-money funded moon base

Try to explain that to hungry children

[Anonymous No.4486438]

>>4486395

Those are the alien refueling spots that have grown over time. Every time they land a spaceship they will harvest a little bit of the regolith for the Helium to fuel their fusion powered machines.

[Anonymous No.4486440]

>>4486424

Stupid stupid stupid people like you are responsible for destroying NASA. Now we are wasting money paying Russians to repair American satellites.

FUCK YOU retord

[Anonymous No.4486443]

>>4486424
>implying it's ever stopped us before.

I don't even expect a single African nation to contriboot to this. Mostly USA, Europe, China, Mother Russia, Japan and glorious Democratic People's Republic of North Korea.

[Anonymous No.4486450]

>>4486424

>Get a job you fucking nigger

[Anonymous No.4486472]

Instead of sending people there to build a moon base, send robots to do it by remote control. Some kind of lunar rovers with heavy manipulators, so engineers on earth can figure out how to construct things on the moon, and eventually do it with robots.

Then when the base is constructed you can just send your personnel, and supply them with unmanned flights from earth.

The amount of self-sufficiency they could have can't be predicted right now, I think. We have to find out. But it's certainly possible.

[Harriet !x6oGOnISPY No.4486474]

>>4486472
I am sure it would be easier to do with astronauts than with robots; at least with the technology we have thus far.

[H+ No.4486479]

There might be a motive soon, apparently we're running out of helium.

[Anonymous No.4486489]

>>4486479
I hope helium-3 isotope will make our balloons float.

[Harriet !x6oGOnISPY No.4486490]

>>4486479
So?
What is it used for besides childrens party balloons?

[Anonymous No.4486492]

>>4486490
To drown bitches like you.

[Anonymous No.4486517]

>>4486438


not sure if troll or serious...

[Anonymous No.4486546]

Okay. Would it be fair to say that, while it isn't likely to happen soon. It wouldn't really be a drain on any economy to have one?

I'm just trying to figure out whether I should call a lunar base expensive or cheap.

[Harriet !x6oGOnISPY No.4486555]

>>4486546
Obviously expensive.
It would cost so much that it will be paid for by taxpayers, almost all of which will not gain any benefit from it, and most of which will not care.

[Anonymous No.4486558]

>>4486424
>Try to explain that to hungry children

The obvious solution is to feed hungry children to other hungry children until they aren't hungry anymore.

[H+ No.4486567]

>>4486490

Liquid helium has certain chemical properties that are not found in any other material, for example it's still liquid at ~4K, which is the temperature superconducting magnets like in the LHC must be kept to retain superconductivity.

There are many other uses based on similar chemical properties. Medical and science based mostly, and it's indispensable for those situations.

Which is why it's depressing to see it wasted, as you say, in children's party balloons.

>>4486424

Since the US spent more last year on air conditioning tents in Iraq and Afghanistan than on NASA, I'd suggest you find another place to trim money from to feed those starving children. I hear there are a few pretty expensive wars going on. Oh, and some Wall Street CEOs are buying their 7th yacht. That's a lot of apples.

[Anonymous No.4486571]

Very expensve perhaps.
Now if you distribute the cost between all nations, it'll be reduced considerably.
Now which are the nations that would actually afford or even be interested, or more likely, have the jurisdiction to decide or ever be considered for such an enterprise?
England france germany spain and some other erupean countries? russia? china perhaps? japan? north korea, the US?
Also, there must be a utility for that. And wathever it is, it would have to be distributed among the powers involved in such a construction. Who is it going to benefit? businessmen? are there going to be turistic trips to the moon? perhaps some fuel exploitation? science? And what would be the utility from doing science up there? radioastronomy? off-world colonies and their behavior after a few generations? off-world colonia self-sustainability?

[Anonymous No.4486574]

>>4486555
Yeeeah. I'm talking relative to other things. ISS was around 1.8 billion dollars in 2005. And that's all tax-payer's money. All of Nasa is. But you won't even have to spend a bloody cent each for any of that. So I'm wondering if in the big picture of space exploration. Will this be a vastly more expensive undertaking, or relatively cheap, if we share the load?

[Anonymous No.4486581]

>How expensive would it be to build and maintain a lunar base?
Depends on how efficiently it utilizes/recycles its consumables.

[Anonymous No.4486648]

>>4486567
>some Wall Street CEOs are buying their 7th yacht. That's a lot of apples.
that's also a lot of hungry children