The Moon is a Waterworld!

[Tenzo]

Desalination is far cheaper and easier to do.

True. And we have more than enough salt water on Earth.

It's a pretty huge object. It would be difficult to destroy.

I wouldn't be so sure.

I'm really curious to see how it all "unfolds". To learn more about how the Moon and Earth formed.
Also, moon colonies would be cool.

 

[Painkiller]

Wasn't there a way to have any water turn to fresh water... I swear I saw something like that on discovery.

 

[Zeonix]

What is this nonsense about destroying the Moon? It's a giant rock. We've spent our entire existence destroying the Earth and even if we were to nuke it to hell and back, destroying everything on the planet, it'd find a way to recover.

As for the water, leave it on the moon. We're probably going to need it when we go to Mars.

 

[Spunky]

Wasn't there a way to have any water turn to fresh water... I swear I saw something like that on discovery.

Yes, the process is called distillation. Well, it's not only distillation, but that's unarguably the most important step. Here, you might find this interesting.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081111210838.htm

 

[RavenTrunks]

Well, this maybe something you may not have been thinking about but running water doesn't use fuel truly. You could always go back to water cranks pulling stuff up.

Water cranks require fuel to run too.
If a man pumps up water, he requires fuel too, his fuel just happens to be what he eats.

[video=youtube;Xy0UBpagsu8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy0UBpagsu8[/video]

 

[Brosiris]

Wasn't there a way to have any water turn to fresh water... I swear I saw something like that on discovery.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-co...64485/march-20-2008/dean-kamen?videoId=164485

 

[Rocky]

Rather than steal the moon's water for earth, has nobody considered that water on the moon could make it viable as a habitat?

 

[Spunky]

Aside from there being no atmosphere or efficient way to bring a steady supply of food to it, yes. Not very practical when there are more than enough resources necessary to sustain life on Earth. The moon is also generally pretty boring. This is the most exciting thing to happen with it since 1969.

 

[Boogyman93]

Well, Obama said we might have the new engine systems in less than 10-15 years... but, that's likely just him trying to get the media off his back.

I'm afraid any tampering with the moon might alter or destroy it.

Do you have any idea how big the moon is? Some holes drilled in it and some water pulled out of it won't do anything to it. Why would the moon be altered or destroyed by the same things we do on earth? The moon was bombarded in the past by asteroids the size of countries and people were afraid that a little bomb would blow it up.

But still. Even if water could be somehow extracted from the moon it still wouldn't be drinkable. The moon is a body that doesn't have enough mass to have it's own atmosphere and doesn't have any volcanic activity to generate a magnetic field. So, knowing that we can also understand that any water there is on the moon it would still be toxic to us since it has been constantly bombarded by solar radiation over the course of billions of years.

 

[dutchmeat]

The moon seems to be floating away from earth, when this happens, the socalled natural tides will decrease until it's gone. With no tides on earth, the weather will become instable and earth won't be a pleasent place to live on.
If you increase or decrease the mass of the moon, you have the chance you alter the gravitational pool on/to the earth, which brings you back to sentence one.

Obviously it's posible to live on the moon if you build some kind of sphere. In that sphere you can make your own atmosphere using the moons water. Not saying you will able to live there long tho.

 

[Avenger]

Uhm, I would genuinely like a source that says the moon is floating away from the Earth.

 

[Tenzo]

Wasn't this a fact? (that the Moon is slowly "floating away" from Earth).

 

[dutchmeat]

http://www.google.com/search?btnG=1&pws=0&q=moon+moving+away+from+earth should answer your question.
Obviously, people say this takes bilion of years, but by messing with the moon, like I said before, this could be less.

 

[Spunky]

Uhm, I would genuinely like a source that says the moon is floating away from the Earth.

This is one of the older known facts about it. It was discovered by George Darwin sometime in the 19th century. I can't find a record of the specific year it was discovered, but multiple sources confirm he discovered it.

http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/moon_worldbook.html
http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=124
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/228057/the_moon_is_moving_away_from_earth_.html
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4850
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_the_Moon_slowly_moving_away_from_the_earth
http://blogstronomy.blogspot.com/2009/11/is-moon-moving-away-from-earth.html
http://solar-system-astronomy.suite101.com/article.cfm/the-moon-is-receding-from-the-earth

People posted while I was gathering these sources, but **** that, I'm posting them anyway.

 

[Prozac]

The moon seems to be floating away from earth, when this happens, the socalled natural tides will decrease until it's gone. With no tides on earth, the weather will become instable and earth won't be a pleasent place to live on.
If you increase or decrease the mass of the moon, you have the chance you alter the gravitational pool on/to the earth, which brings you back to sentence one.

Obviously it's posible to live on the moon if you build some kind of sphere. In that sphere you can make your own atmosphere using the moons water. Not saying you will able to live there long tho.

Currently the moon drifts away about three inches a year. (I think)
Taking away less then 0.00001% of it's weight won't influence that noticeably at all


The moon would make a nice base though, for when spaceflight starts. As a passing through station. Water available, food can be grown. Cheaper to land and take off.

 

[Avenger]

I was just curious. I wasn't saying "THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!". I just find it strange that the moon, which is under the influence of Earth's gravitational field, would float away. Thanks for the sources.

 

[Prozac]

I was just curious. I wasn't saying "THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!". I just find it strange that the moon, which is under the influence of Earth's gravitational field, would float away. Thanks for the sources.

What would be curious is that it would be a perfect orbit in such a random universe.

 

[Avenger]

I wasn't talking about perfect orbit, I was talking about gravity pulling it down.

 

[Synth]

I think the moon is a better way to get used to 'lack of atmosphere' situations.

Someone needs to live on the moon to see how it affects him/her.

 

[Prozac]

I think the moon is a better way to get used to 'lack of atmosphere' situations.

Someone needs to live on the moon to see how it affects him/her.

Not that much, Gravity isn't a requirement for life to be sustainable.
Besides that everything can be simulated I suppose.