I am at a crossroads with the blog. I have been doing this for a little over two
months on a full time basis. Do I go forward, or do I stop now? I like doing this,
but as it stands now, it can only be a hobby. What can turn this into a going
concern that will support itself? To answer that question, I put forth the following
proposition. But first, you will have to be familiar with what I have been doing
here. You will have to read the blog first. That is so the rest of this will
make sense. As of my last posts on the subject of space, I found that space
manufacturing and space launch may be feasible. From there, I can begin to
expound upon the proposition.
The energy problem defined: It has long been observed that economic growth is
correlated to affordable energy. In 2008, $150 a barrel oil arrived and a subsequent
persistent recession. Even now, oil is around $80-90 a barrel. This would skyrocket
if economic conditions picked up. Consequently, tight energy supplies forms a barrier
to economic growth. If that barrier is not overcome, economic growth will not be
possible.
The Chinese understand the energy problem as well or better than we do. They are
buying up energy sources briskly from what I hear. This could be one of the causes
of friction in trade relations that could be a flashpoint to a trade war. Tensions
are rising, but what can we do about it? Is conflict inevitable? Or can there be
a solution that would be acceptable to all parties?
The way out of this problem is to increase supplies. But not everyone agrees on how
to do this. This causes friction within as those who want to limit the production
of fossil fuels are in conflict with those who want to free it up for more production.
This is another complication which makes the barrier even higher. Somehow, we have
to come to a solution that will satisfy the needs for clean energy and also make
it affordable so as to promote economic growth and world peace.
As the costs of energy on the moon can be lower than the earth, manufacturing can
be cheaper. As launching objects from the moon is cheaper than the earth, then the
possiblity of merging lunar manufacturing with lunar launching in order to bring
energy to earth on a cost efficient basis looks like it can be feasible. In this
manner, the energy problem can be solved and economic growth can continue.
This is the theory. But can it be put into practice? This is what I am exploring
here. There are daunting practical problems with setting up lunar launching and
manufacturing. First, there is the launch problem from Earth. It is very expensive
to get out of the deep gravity well of the Earth. This imposes how many launches
can be made from Earth. Somehow, these have to be minimized in order to position
a potential lunar base to grow itself from materials available from the moon itself.
Second, there is life support on the hostile environment of the moon. And then
there is all the costs associated with running a going concern that is in the
business of manufacturing items for export. Finally, there is the launch problem
on the moon itself. Can all these problems be solved?
Let's look at the big picture. What needs to be done here? We know this: 1)
there will only be a limited number of launches from Earth 2) from this we know
that there will be a limited amount of material from Earth to work with which
3) means that everything you need for life support and construction and operation
will have to come from the moon itelf. That would be the ultimate goal, but in
the beginning, the lunar facilities will have to be supported with this limited
number of launches from Earth. The Earth provides the seed and the some of the
life support to allow the seed to begin growing. But ultimately the seed will
have to learn how to take over for itself and be responsible for its own growth
from that point forward. That seed will have to grow itself into what is envisioned
here. If this is impossible, or too impractical, then it won't be done.
In future posts, I can look at the possibility of doing this. I'll have to speculate
because I am admittedly not an expert on this. I can research it with whatever
I can find on the subject and report back on it here. In the end, all I can do
is give an opinion. For whatever that is worth. In addition to this, I have to
decide if this is important to me. If I assume this task, I will have to spend
a lot of money and time. Do I want to do this badly enough to spend the money
and time? That's where the readers of this come into play. If you support me,
then I can continue for however long it takes. But if you don't, I will have to
assume all costs myself for as long as I am able and/or willing.
How can readers help? By clicking on ads here. That is worth a little money.
Another way is to hit the tipjar. A third way is to buy stuff which will get me
some commission money from the sale. How much do I need? To support myself, I
will need about about a thousand a month. This blog has yet to earn its first
dollar. But it has gotten over 1000 pageviews in a little over 2 months of active
posting. Very few clickthroughs on the ads. No donations nor sales. So, the
readers here have not supported me in anything but moral support. That is better
than nothing, but in the long run, I will need more than that. I will need more
readers too. And those readers will need to bring more readers and so on and
so forth.
In the end, the readers will have to tell me. Is this worth supporting? I leave
that up to you. I will setup a poll and then I will await your response. How
long? I guess I can wait a few weeks.
Update: the poll is now up and will continue until December first. It is located
near the bottom of the page on the left side. As this poll continues, I will not
post new items. I will update on existing posts. That gives about two weeks to
vote and to read and consider what I have got here.
Update 9:15 am central: I have just updated the more about me page on the
left side.
I am going to continue researching, but as I wrote above, I won't be publishing
it here until I get the results from the poll.
Update 2:45 central: I have added a page on the left. You can click on it to receive new
posts. They will be short. This will be the last update here.
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