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| Thursday / 13 July 2006 | ||
Lunar
Base Quarterly Editors Invite Participation in 1,000 on the Moon by
2100 Plan.
The editors of the Lunar
Base Quarterly (LBQ, cover pictured)
have been thinking about and analyzing lunar settlement and human
space
build-out
for
a long
time.
Now that
NASA and the rest of the
world agree with their advocacy, they don't want to be limited by
international governments' plans, which end after
the year 2025. By 2050, the Moon may resemble Antarctica in the year
1950, say the LBQ editors -- a permanent rotational crew
of 50, but hopefully international. "The people who will make the
decisions
that will
continue or curtail human progress at that time are alive today,"
says a written proposal that begins the July 2006 LBQ edition
and is signed by Hermann Koelle and David Stephenson. "By the end
of
this century, humanity's foothold on the
Moon should have expanded to become a permanent and productive settlement
of over a thousand inhabitants." They say only time will tell if
its population will be rotating or permanent. The truth is it may
be a little of both. Koelle and Stephenson say their "lofty" goal
of 1,000 Lunarians by the end of the century will require planning
now that lays a foundation for official plans in the future.
"You are
invited
to contribute
to an effort to foresee the settlement of the Moon during the second
half of this century," concludes the proposal. It asks interested
space professionals and enthusiasts to respond to two "work papers"
currently being circulated. One asks "What issues must be addressed
at this time?" and the other asks "What assumptions must be built
into the first plausible model?"
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