In-situ resource utilization

From the Project rho site.

Quote:

Aluminum and oxygen can be used as chemical rocket fuel, though the specific impulse is a pathetic 285 seconds. This is made up for by the fact that aluminum and oxygen is quite plentiful in lunar regolith, i.e., it's in the dirt.

Comment:

Holy crap!  Why go to the permanently shadowed craters for water when you've got most of what you need for a solid rocket booster in the lunar regolith!

This may well be a gross oversimplification, but...

Really, I never thought of that.  Dang.  You could build rockets on the moon and then launch them.  Provided, of course, that you can get there in the first place.

One forgets that there isn't much need for thrust to get to orbit on the moon.  The tiny lunar module ascent stage weighed only 10k pounds, but was SSTO from the moon.  You wouldn't need big rockets to get off the lunar surface.

Update:

This is being designated a series.  Let this be considered as part 1.  Part 2 is the next post.