XPost: sci.space.policy
From: g_d_pusch_remove_underscores@xnet.com
raf@tiki-lounge.com (Ross A. Finlayson) writes:
> Joe Strout wrote in message news:...
>> In article <3c6b9c1e.0401220223.7407dac3@posting.google.com>,
>> raf@tiki-lounge.com (Ross A. Finlayson) wrote:
>>
>>> I guess my idea of a moonbase is a bunch of domes, using the
>>> "regolith" as structural material.
>>
>> Cylinders are more likely than domes, at least as a first step. And the
>> regolith is shielding material, not structural material.
>> ...
>
> That makes sense.
>
> I'm wondering about "lava tubes on the moon". I guess I was under the
> impression that besides Earth only Jupiter's moon Io had active
> volcanic activity, and I was thinking Luna was a cold chunk of rock.
Non sequitur. There is no need for a body to have _current_ volcanic
activity for it to currently still have lava tubes. _Ancient_ volcanic
activity would have been quite sufficient to create them; on a geologically
"quiet" body with few quakes, some of them might not yet have collapsed.
> Yet, I read here that Luna has a molten, presumably iron, core, thus
> that it would have similar magnetic fields to Earth.
First of all, the still-hypothetical lunar iron core, =IF= it exists
at all, is proportionally many times smaller than Earth's extra-large
iron core. Second, it is not sufficient to merely have an iron core;
the core must still be undergoing active convection due to a sufficient
source of internal heat generation, rather than being stably statified.
Third, the Moon rotates so slowly that the strong coriolis forces essential
to magnetic dynamo action are negligible. Hence, your belief is falsified
not once, but threefold.
-- Gordon D. Pusch
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