A lunar base proposition

 

This post will be an excursion into the imagination. That's because it will be not done, but it may be fun to think about. It will be about a scenario in which the Starship could be used as a device to deliver a Moon-base from which other Starships might be serviced on their way to and from Mars. There's definitely going to be a Starship flying to the Moon. Since they're going anyway, why not build it to do something really amazing?

Let's start out with the proposition that a single Starship could deliver over 50 tons to the lunar surface. It could not do it and leave, however. If it leaves, it may be able to deliver about 25 tons. This is the likely plan. But if the Starship was left there, could somebody still get home? Why, of course. But how?

The Apollo astronauts got home by taking off from the Moon in a device that weighed in at only 10k pounds. Since that is only about 5 tons, then that leaves just about 50 tons of cargo inside the Starship. That cargo could be set up to do some support work for the continuing project to build out a lunar base. But how to get a space ship inside the Starship? You'd do it like the Apollo program did. You'd place it on top of the thing, and launch off the top of the Starship into lunar orbit.

The Starship is already going to need engines to soft land on the lunar surface. That's so it won't dig out a big hole like it did at Starbase recently. The SuperDraco engines could be used to get the top part of the Starship off the surface as well. It will need some fuel, so the little ship needs to be big enough to hold the necessary volume of fuel needed. If it weighs 10 tons (twice as much as the lunar ascent module during Apollo), it will need 10 more tons of fuel in order to get to orbit. Basically, it will detach from the Starship, and so the top of the Starship will fly and leave the bottom part behind. Just like the old times.

Perhaps the nose cone could be made detachable?  Then use it as a return ship.

So we can get astronauts on the surface, and get them back. We can leave the Starship there with whatever equipment we want, and let that equipment operate in support of future missions. Let's leave the future missions aside for the moment. What could these devices do?

You'd like to be able to use in-situ resourcing to make stuff on the surface. This will keep you from having to bring stuff from the Earth, which is inconvenient to say the least. Eventually, you may want to bring the Starship back into service, so you'd like to build some habitat on the lunar surface, while the Starship can work in that capacity until you do so. Once the habitat is built out, that frees the Starship to fly again. But to do that, you'll need some fuel. The Starship will need methane and oxygen. Oxygen is abundant on the Moon, but you have to work at getting some. Oxygen is also useful for people to breathe. Oxygen will come in handy. How to make some?

The moon isn't made of cheese, but a lot of it is oxygen.  Plus a few other things.

There are certain types of printers that could take lunar regolith, and melt them into useful shapes. That's how you can make habitat. You can make oxygen in a similar way. All of these activities take energy, which may be supplied from solar panels. It may even be possible to make solar panels on the moon. Whatever you can't make will have to come from Earth. The idea with in-situ resourcing is to keep these transported items to a minimum. The more you can make on the Moon, the less you need to bring from Earth.

So we have a starter list of things that could be brought along on the first trip. The first trip will pave the way for the next trip, and so on and so forth. With enough trips, it may be possible to bootstrap yourself into a capable lunar base. If you make enough oxygen, you can bring along a little methane, and that will enable you to reclaim the first Starship. If there needs to be many more, you can reclaim them one at a time. Therefore, no need to discard any Starship. It can be reused again and again, just like it was intended.

If the base can be made capable enough, the Starships could start delivering fuel (oxygen) into lunar orbit. It may make sense to do that, as the Moon has plenty of oxygen, and oxygen is needed to run the Starship engines. If you can get far enough along, the fuel can be parked along the way to Mars. From there, it could support Mars landings. When the Starships arrive at Mars, it can bring along fuel to replenish the bases at Deimos and Mars orbit. There'd be "gas stations" all along the trip, you might say.

Propellent depots @ LEO, GEO, LLO (low lunar orbit)

Propellant depots @ Mars orbit, Phobos and Deimos

It could take plenty of fuel to land the Starship on Mars. Why not do a fill up at Deimos beforehand? Or you could use Deimos to deliver more cargo to the surface of Mars. More fuel means more capability. Sending it all the way from Earth will severely limit what you can bring along. As with the Moon, in-situ resourcing could allow you to make all of your fuel, and that could be transported back to the lunar "gas stations" along the way back to Earth. It works the other way too. The more fuel available, the more capability you'd have. Perhaps a gas station could be built on Deimos as well. While you are at it, one at Phobos may come in handy. It all depends upon what's available at these two Martian moons as to what you could make out of the material there.

The process thus far described was done once before in the Pacific War with Japan. The concept is called "island hopping". Rather than trying to conquer all of the Japanese holdings, it was decided to hop from one strategic location after another in order to bypass a lot of Japanese along the way. It was a flanking maneuver as opposed to a full frontal assault. As with the Pacific War, an "island-hopping" technique could be employed. Instead of islands it could be orbits around Earth and Mars, plus moons such as Earth's moon, the Martian moons--- Phobos and Deimos.

It's all in a matter of feasibility and will. If it is feasible, then does the will exist to do it?

Going straight to Mars may be more feasible, but it was fun to think this one up. Perhaps it could work. But it won't come overnight. There's a lot of building to do to make those bases work. The idea is intriguing. Perhaps it is worth studying more, yes?