Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Madhu Thangavelu's lunar winnebago

When Portree poasts his blog, I (now) know to look to see if it be a repoast so: Nomad. This was Madhu Thangavelu's 1992 movable base on the moon.

The idea was to scout around for a suitable location before marking down stakes. Settling some waterless irradiated region with nothing but that horrible dust about would be a waste. Ideally you'd want a lavatube too. In the early 1990s we hadn't yet mapped the Moon as well as we might. We did know that we didn't like the dust. So: the mobile-home, without spacesuits.

One problem I see straightaway is - how are we LEAVING the Moon, if we've roved 10 km away from the rocket. Also Portree's commenters point out that tugging the power-supply, probably plutonium, along with a big wire cable is purest cods. I mean, really.

Points-for-trying, I guess.

If Apollo 18 or Artemis or whatever intends to scout for a permanent base then they should scout with satellites, or with various drones. If there is a human crew having landed on the Moon already, then: Hop David's hoppity pogo sticks (unmanned of course).

I am not seeing Moon Winnebago as a starter, unless the whole point is to move the plutonium reactor itself, from Base A (having spare plutonium) to Base B (not having plutonium). Along with the plutonium experts. Like I said: not a starter.

Although now I am wondering if The Martian took inspiration from this paper.

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