Space habitats

I don't remember how I ended up on this page, but that is the really cool thing that I like about the internet. Whatever thought pops up in my mind, I can put it into the Google search and up comes an entry on the Wikipedia.   I can spend hours or even a whole day doing this.  Someone might say, "Go get a life!" to which  I say: "Hey, I like doing it, so it ain't a bad life if you like what you are doing."

Anyway, this space habitat thing got my speculative thoughts going again.  You know, with all this talk about space elevators, and the use of carbon nanotubes to build it, I got this latest hair brained idea.  Why not build a space station out of carbon nanotubes?  It would be light weight, strong, and you could make the station really large.  But my brain storm didn't end there.

This next part is so crazy it almost makes sense.  You see, people believe so much in this carbon dioxide problem- it causes global warming, we are told- that perhaps it could be "sequestered" in outer space.  If it is in outer space, it would become a valuable resource.  It is like Rodney Dangerfield here on Earth: it gets no respect.  But in outer space, it could support life.  Kinda like what it does here too.  But we got more of it here than some people want.  Just send it off into space, I say.  It might even make Al Gore happy.

Where would you put it in space?  I'd say somewhere that it could be gathered up again in the future when it is time.  Perhaps space probes could be smashed into permanently shaded craters on the Moon.  The probes would be full of carbon dioxide.  The plumes would rise, and measurements could be taken of what is inside every such crater on the Moon. Hopefully, enough of the carbon dioxide would remain so that it can be reused later.

Eventually, when a base is built on the Moon near one of these craters, this carbon dioxide can be mined.  That is, it could be mined as well as anything else that is already in the crater.  If there is enough stuff there, you can start building one those space habitats.  A really large one that could be launched from the Moon.  It could be built out of carbon nanotubes.  It could be filled with enough lunar regolith that it would be adequately shielded from ionizing radiation in space.  These space habitats, if big enough, can be rotated at 1 revolution per minute. At such a speed, it would generate 1 g of artificial gravity.  Voila!  A true habitat in space that resembles Earth enough so that nobody will notice the difference.