Japan plans to turn the moon into a solar energy plant

[I-Hate-Hulse]

I feel lunar power will simply enable yop gobbers to take suburban sprawl to new heights.

Squint closer at that diagram and it's Cal Wenzel sizing up the Sea of Tranquility for a "Montana's".

[octothorp]

So wait... they plan to bombard stations off their own shoreline with vast amounts of moon microwaves? I hope that by 2040 they also have the technology to build a monstrous mechanical robot to combat whatever ancient sleeping creature the moon radiation awakens.

[Jacks]

Originally Posted by troutman

The first phase is called Moon Unit Alpha ....

The final phase will be called Moon Unit Zappa. Like, gag me with a spoon.

[Wormius]

Nm.

[McG]

the moon better not be planning on leaving after we turn it into a giant sun lamp.

[Baxter Renegade]

Pppfffffttttt... Forget this. We need to start throwing up a Dyson Sphere.

We need to go full on efficient; showing our civilization's muscles by harnessing the entire energy output of our star.

Next, Intergalactic war ships with photon torpedoes and high-tech cannons and warp drives and stuff. Our Dyson Sphere will require the utmost protection from alien invaders.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Zulu29

So who determines what is done with the moon? Is it kind of if you can get there do what you want or would they need to get approval from the majority of nations?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Treaty

The Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies,[2] better known as the Moon Treaty or Moon Agreement, is an international treaty that turns jurisdiction of all celestial bodies (including the orbits around such bodies) over to the international community. Thus, all activities must conform to international law (notably this includes the UN Charter).

In practice it is a failed treaty since it has not been ratified by any nation which engages in self-launched manned space exploration or has plans to do so (e.g. the United States, some member states of the European Space Agency, Russian Federation, People's Republic of China, Japan, and India) since its creation in 1979, and thus has a negligible effect on actual spaceflight. As of 2013, it has been ratified by 15 states.[1]

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Baxter Renegade

Pppfffffttttt... Forget this. We need to start throwing up a Dyson Sphere.

We need to go full on efficient; showing our civilization's muscles by harnessing the entire energy output of our star.

Next, Intergalactic war ships with photon torpedoes and high-tech cannons and warp drives and stuff. Our Dyson Sphere will require the utmost protection from alien invaders.

Just for fun I did some calcuations:

The surface area of a sphere built around the sun at the radius of earth's orbit would be roughly 273 sextillion square metres. (2.7 x 10^23)

If the construction of the sphere was only 1 metre thick, the matter required to simply build the sphere would be a cube roughly 65,000 km on each side.

[photon]

I seem to remember reading a calculation that there wasn't enough matter (regardless of type) in the solar system to construct a Dyson sphere of any more than in the range of a few to a few dozen cm thick.

Dyson swarms (basically lots and lots of orbiting things to approach the coverage of a solid surface) are another idea.

And a ringworld, scare the hell out of the Puppeteers...

[McG]

And then some numpty would hit it with a tachyon pulse, open the window, and let all of the heat out.

[Cuz]

Originally Posted by Daradon

Wouldn't think you'd have to dust the cells as there is no wind. Don't they say that the footprints up there are largely undisturbed?

Always wondered about this technology in the future. The scariest part seems getting the energy back to earth. Mircowaves and lasers. Heheh, I'm sure the smart people have a plan, just hard to picture in my mind.

I recall from reading about the Apollo Moon landings that the moon dust got everywhere, so they would likely need to be dusted some how.

I also wonder, how many Saturn V's would be needed to get the equipment up there?

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Cuz

I recall from reading about the Apollo Moon landings that the moon dust got everywhere, so they would likely need to be dusted some how.

I also wonder, how many Saturn V's would be needed to get the equipment up there?

Probably thousands and with the horrible pollutions emitted by those rockets they'd probably off set any energy good by probably giving thousands lung cancer.

Best way to achieve something like this would be to build a manufacturing facility in space or on the moon and mining the resources that you need from asteroids.

I think in terms of the next evolution of space travel etc, you know the trip to the moon and so forth, we need a proper staging orbital station for the assembly of larger craft.

And a massive rail gun aimed at Dennis Rodman's house.