A laundry list of proposals for the mining of the moon highlight the lack of available hydrogen in lunar regolith necessary to make viable quantities of water. General suggestions include shipping up literal tanks of hydrogen to the surface of the moon, so that the contents can be mixed with oxygen to produce water, other proposals suggest simply using the leftovers from lunar landings as a seed material. Focusing on only hydrogen stems from the fact that lunar dirt already has a rather high percentage of oxygen fully present, if chemically combined, with minerals found on the surface. From previous research it seems likely that refining said oxygen is a relatively solvable problem, getting the hydrogen necessary to make drinkable water a slightly harder problem. While I applaud the suggestion of recycling the leftover fuel found on a mission, I ask, what about the tank? Now as I am not a material science guy (I really don't know what material properties are possible with the suggestion I am about to put forth) I wonder, can we develop a material, maybe a plastic, that can be used as structural elements for a spacecraft, that at the end of the life of the vessel, the materials can be reduced down, and the hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen (you know the life elements) so that we can start the process of seeding a celestial body. Imagine after every probe is sent to another body, future explorers can know that there will be a few more kilograms of chemicals essential to life available as a resource for the continuation of their mission.
This idea has been rattling in my head for a while, the biggest inspiration for posting this morning is I started reading Neal Stevenson's Seveneves, I haven't gotten too far, but so far I am loving it.
Follow Up 10/6/15 I remembered recently that NASA and private industry have looked into using rubber like materials for space exploration since the 60s. Starting with Goodyear and more recently Bigelow Aerospace. Additionally Kevlar has a decent amount of both hydrogen and carbon, although something that has less oxygen in the chemical make up would be nice as the oxygen is not what is lacking in lunar soil.
Follow Up 10/10/15 I just finished Seveneves, I highly recommend it. While not as much of a mind-f*** as Anathem, it was in intriguing concept on how humanity could push itself when faced with a nigh unimaginable series of disasters. Also I forgot to note with saying that Kevlar could be a good material for a design emphasizing multiple use cases over the material's life span, first as hardware then as feedstock, that the ISS is actually partially made out of Kevlar. Here's hoping we can figure out a strong recyclable material that can aid in long term exploration and colonization.
This idea has been rattling in my head for a while, the biggest inspiration for posting this morning is I started reading Neal Stevenson's Seveneves, I haven't gotten too far, but so far I am loving it.
Follow Up 10/6/15 I remembered recently that NASA and private industry have looked into using rubber like materials for space exploration since the 60s. Starting with Goodyear and more recently Bigelow Aerospace. Additionally Kevlar has a decent amount of both hydrogen and carbon, although something that has less oxygen in the chemical make up would be nice as the oxygen is not what is lacking in lunar soil.
Follow Up 10/10/15 I just finished Seveneves, I highly recommend it. While not as much of a mind-f*** as Anathem, it was in intriguing concept on how humanity could push itself when faced with a nigh unimaginable series of disasters. Also I forgot to note with saying that Kevlar could be a good material for a design emphasizing multiple use cases over the material's life span, first as hardware then as feedstock, that the ISS is actually partially made out of Kevlar. Here's hoping we can figure out a strong recyclable material that can aid in long term exploration and colonization.
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