(4 of 5)
These vast resources are important not only for their potential use on earth, but also for their value in making a lunar colony self-sufficient. Although engineers hope eventually to reduce the cost of shipping payloads to the moon by using simple, unsophisticated boosters and flyable stages that can be returned to earth and used again, it now costs $22,187 per lb. with Saturn 5. The key to tapping lunar resources, Zwicky believes, is energy from the sun, which beats down directly on the moon's surface, unfiltered by atmosphere. Solar furnaces could be constructed, consisting of mirrors that focus the sun's fierce beams on a target. Using these, Zwicky suggests, man could work wonders with lunar rock. The furnaces could melt lunar gravel and soil, which could be cast into bricks for building shelters. They could also be used to heat moon rocks enough to release their locked-in water. Even the proverbial pig's squeal could be used. Water vapor steaming out of the heated rocks could drive power turbines before being condensed into drinking water. When lunar water is finally available in ample supply, it could even be used for rocket fuel. Moon technicians will decompose it into hydrogen and oxygen gases by electrolysis, then feed the gases into a lunar cryostat, a device that can reach extremely low temperatures during the chill lunar night without using power. The resulting products would be liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, familiar space-age fuels.
Zwicky would also produce carbon dioxide by focusing the rays of a solar furnace on rocks containing calcium carbonate. The carbon dioxide would be released into the atmosphere of a covered garden to sustain green algae living in a tank of water. The rapidly reproducing algae would not only be an excellent source of protein for humans on the moon but would also produce vitally needed oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis.
Astronomer I. M. Levitt, director of the Pels Planetarium of Philadelphia's Franklin Institute, believes that colonizers of the moon will eventually produce their own water, a contained atmosphere, food and other necessities completely from lunar materials. He envisages vegetables grown from seed, rooted in tanks of water in which the necessary lunar minerals have been dissolved. His moon colonies, complete with farm animals and factories, launch pads and lunar surface vehicles, and the comforts of home, would be located underground—in sealed-off caves and domes—to protect inhabitants against meteors, solar radiation and the extremes of lunar temperatures.
Nor would the inhabitants want for luxuries. Levitt believes that virtually anything man—or woman—might desire can be produced on the moon by combining available minerals with a source of energy to produce chemical reactions. One of Levitt's chemical chains, beginning with carbon and calcium, can lead to the manufacture of medicines, plastics, dyes, food additives, rubber, ceramics, even fertilizers and textiles. "Naturally, we're going to insist that the girls go with us to the moon," grins Levitt, "and when we get there we'll be able to make all of their lipsticks, perfumes, nail polishes—you name it."