Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 The Importance of the Moon
- Chapter 2 First Steps
- Chapter 3 Moon/Mars
- Chapter 4 An International Flotilla
- Chapter 5 The Moon Rises from the Ashes
- Chapter 6 Moons Past
- Chapter 7 The Pull of the Far Side
- Chapter 8 Water in a Land of False Seas
- Chapter 9 Inconstant Moon
- Chapter 10 Moonlighting
- Chapter 11 Lunar Living Room
- Chapter 12 Lunar Power
- Chapter 13 Stepping Stone
- Chapter 14 Return to Earth
- Glossary
- Appendix A Von Braun et al. Space and Lunar Exploration Issues
- Appendix B Topics in Transient Phenomena on the Moon
- Index
- References
Chapter 12 - Lunar Power
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 The Importance of the Moon
- Chapter 2 First Steps
- Chapter 3 Moon/Mars
- Chapter 4 An International Flotilla
- Chapter 5 The Moon Rises from the Ashes
- Chapter 6 Moons Past
- Chapter 7 The Pull of the Far Side
- Chapter 8 Water in a Land of False Seas
- Chapter 9 Inconstant Moon
- Chapter 10 Moonlighting
- Chapter 11 Lunar Living Room
- Chapter 12 Lunar Power
- Chapter 13 Stepping Stone
- Chapter 14 Return to Earth
- Glossary
- Appendix A Von Braun et al. Space and Lunar Exploration Issues
- Appendix B Topics in Transient Phenomena on the Moon
- Index
- References
Summary
For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be,
Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales.
– Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1835, “Locksley Hall”Tennyson reminds us that despite the scope for humanity of exploration, personal fulfillment rests on immediate accomplishment: on commerce, personal opportunity, and peace versus conflict – measured on a human scale. How can outer space fit into human lives?
From the start, Columbian-era Europeans set out to explore the world for profit. Although investors often lost their stakes and crew-members their lives, both dreamed of riches, and some were rewarded. In intervening centuries ships sailed the globe to exploit and trade in natural resources: spices, whale oil, and more. In the twentieth century, exploration of Earth’s polar regions and outer space was a contest for the prestige of nations and individuals more than profit. Lunar explorers need not fear unreasonably for their lives given precaution (Chapter 11), but what have investors to gain? Can distant space including the Moon be monetized for profit?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The New MoonWater, Exploration, and Future Habitation, pp. 368 - 391Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014