Declassified: The Government's Secret Plan For a Military Moon Base

[derspiess]

What I thought was interesting was that this was an Army study, which apparently assumed that the Army would be in charge of setting up a moon base.

That's probably the most amusing part of it.

[PRC]

The wheels on this machine look very much like the wheels on the Mars rover.  As ridiculous as the rest of the images are at least the wheels are accurate.

[derspiess]

Too bad the Soviets didn't follow through on their efforts to put someone on the moon.  Would have been an entertaining disaster.

[derspiess]

Looking through Volume II the plan to see if there's anything else of interest.  There is mention of "high definition television" in a chart on page 193.

It is interesting stuff, to be sure.  The whole discussion of the earth-orbit station (and the need for an equatorial launch site, presumed to be in Brazil) that they saw as necessary for a trip to the moon was my favorite part.

Volume II seems to put Brazil and Christmas Island as the frontrunners.  It also mentions Somalia (lol) but dismisses it due to the long distance from the US.

[celedhring]

I'm going to bring this to the present. Do we have (or could attach in relatively short time) the capabilities to put a permanent base in the Moon? Not that there's a need or is it economically justifiable, I'm just curious whether we could.

My uneducated guess is if NASA (or another nation) rebuilds Moon trip capabilities there's nothing stopping them from slowly sending modules over there to set up a base, piece by piece. Supplying it would probably be a PITA, the ISS needs a supply mission every 45 days and ferrying the cargo to the Moon would be much harder.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

I'm kinda curious what the military use of a base on the moon would be.

searching for martian WMDs

anyways:  more moonbases needed

[MadImmortalMan]

I'm going to bring this to the present. Do we have (or could attach in relatively short time) the capabilities to put a permanent base in the Moon? Not that there's a need or is it economically justifiable, I'm just curious whether we could.

My uneducated guess is if NASA (or another nation) rebuilds Moon trip capabilities there's nothing stopping them from slowly sending modules over there to set up a base, piece by piece. Supplying it would probably be a PITA, the ISS needs a supply mission every 45 days and ferrying the cargo to the Moon would be much harder.

A moon base seems almost easier to keep running and expand than the ISS, unless I'm significantly underestimating the difficulty of entering and leaving the moon's gravity well.

As for military use for the moon...well there's always the big catapult that can throw rocks onto the Earth thingie. That sounds more feasible than your average sci-fi superweapon.

[viper37]

I'm kinda curious what the military use of a base on the moon would be.

Deposit nuclear waste, so that if it detonates Earth would be safe.

I think I saw something like that, once

[The Brain]

To fight the moonslim we must understand the moonslim.

[Grinning_Colossus]

I'm kinda curious what the military use of a base on the moon would be.

A staging ground from which to destroy the Soviet moon base.

[celedhring]

I'm kinda curious what the military use of a base on the moon would be.

A staging ground from which to destroy the Soviet moon base.

which would be built as a staging ground from which to destroy the American moon base.

[Duque de Bragança]

I'm kinda curious what the military use of a base on the moon would be.

Deposit nuclear waste, so that if it detonates Earth would be safe.

I think I saw something like that, once

Il fallait que ce fût Viper qui comprît la référence. 

[grumbler]

I'm kinda curious what the military use of a base on the moon would be.

A staging ground from which to destroy the Soviet moon base.

which would be built as a staging ground from which to destroy the American moon base.

We MUST NOT allow a MOON BASE GAP!

[Siege]

Please. Somebody smack timmay, please.

The greatest opportunities for a prosperous future are not in space, but in cyberspace.

[DontSayBanana]

Please. Somebody smack timmay, please.

The greatest opportunities for a prosperous future are not in space, but in cyberspace.

Devil's advocate: cyberspace holds no potential resources to combat the dwindling material resources on Earth.  Cyberspace might be more prosperous, but at some point, extraterrestrial expansion is just going to have to happen.