Private Russian Company Proposes Lunar Base 81
MarkWhittington writes According to an article in Sputnik, a private Russian company called Lin Industrial has announced that it is capable of building a lunar base. However, according to information contained to a recent post in Parabolic Arc, this announcement may be more the result of idle boasting than an objective assessment of actual ability. Nevertheless, Lin seems to be one of the few entrepreneurial startups in Russia in the style of much more robust enterprises in the West such as SpaceX and Blue Origin.
This is what qualifies as "news" here these days.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Random boasting from people unable to carry them out... Well, they better not build it where all those time-share lots have been sold...
until they get on Putin's bad side (Score:2, Insightful)
then they are capable of bankruptcy and the modern gulag. Russian business is ebb and flow like that.
Scamming investors can be profitable (Score:3)
There are two kinds of people who announce they can do something like that - the ones who don't have a clue how hard it is, and the ones who don't care because their objective is to scam investors. (Seasteading's a lot easier, but most of the proposals I've seen for that have been the scammer types.)
Yes, getting enough equipment up to the moon to build a moon base is something you can do if you've got enough cash. Doing it as a private industry (rather than a government doing it) means you also need a re
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So which one is Elon Musk? (I'm voting for Type I myself.)
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don't use Biosphere II as an example. It never was a serious scientific experiment
That has always made me wonder why nobody followed up on these projects with a rigorous scientific version. It seems we can learn plenty from it.
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The system was not capable of generating enough oxygen for the inhabitants, one of the people inside stated in an interview that it was painful to breath because there was so much CO2 in the atmosphere
It was taken over by Columbia University in 1995, and they changed from an air tight system to a flow through system in 1996
They continued to make studies on CO2 levels etc for a few years and it has recently been turned over to the University of Arizona who will continue to perform similar studies
Any long ter
Science V. Media (Score:2)
There's been a variety of related and rigorous work - but unlike Biosphere II, they haven't been large and gaudy and thus haven't captured the media and the public's attention. That the more rigorous research has only lead to the conclusion that we don't currently actually know all that much rather than making sexy headl
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You forget that there is a third type of people doing such announcements:
A bunch of Russian oligarchs during a Vodka orgy.
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I'll bet there a bunch of companies capable of building a lunar base [as in, a facility capable of supporting life for a non-trivial amount of time on the surface of the moon]. Of course, none of them have any chance of actually getting the base to the moon.
OOOOhh!! Me too!! Me too!!! (Score:1)
I propose a private base on Venus!
Look how easy that was!?
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You have no technical knowledge, financial means, or support from the government. In other words, you're a loser and no one cares about your proposal.
Exactly. And does "Lin Industrial"? Probably not.
Who are these people? Are they more than a couple of guys looking for "venture capital" to spend for a few years? Any actual rocket know-how? Do they employ an office full of qualified Russian rocket engineers?
I can't find anything - English or Russian - about these people, who's backing them, what their experience level is. My guess is that it's a pipe dream of flat out a way to sponge up "venture capital".
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One you wont hear : I propose a private mission to Uranus !
Well, maybe in San Francisco.
With blackjack and hookers, I presume? (Score:4, Funny)
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I think you are forgetting the impact of communications latency.
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I'm not sure it would be that big a deal. Figure it's, what, about 2 or 3 seconds? Yeah, I don't think you'll be ducking and weaving things that are coming at you. But a humanoid robot could probably walk around (slowly) and pick up stuff.
Heck, the old Soviet lunokhod rovers were remote controlled.
MAY BE more the result of idle boasting??? (Score:2)
Call us back when you've at least orbited a space station or two...
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Call us back when you've at least orbited a space station or two...
...says the person who forgot what country put the first human in space.
me, too!1! (Score:5, Funny)
I, too, am capable of building a lunar base.
I just need some funding. And a rocket. And a team of trained engineers/astronauts (both, not either or).
Rocket fuel, I guess. And plans. Plans would be good.
But I am totally capable.
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You sound like Elon Musk.
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Don't forget the hookers and blackjack.
In fact, forget the lunar base!
Special request (Score:2)
Whoever sets up the lunar base, do you mind also putting a Pirate Bay server up there, too? I never finished downloading the second season of Hannibal.
They couldn't build a heavy booster (Score:1)
They couldn't even build a heavy booster back when the USSR was at the peak of its military and economic might. They sure as hell aren't capable of it now, with thieves and crooks running the country.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energia
Launched two times, booster performed flawlessly each time (payload failed on first launch).
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Still smaller than Saturn-V, with less payload capacity to both LEO and the Moon. Never flown with human payload. Never flown beyond LEO. Better luck next time.
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Yes I do. I also realize those engines can't get humans to the moon, let alone an entire manned base.
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now, with thieves and crooks running the country.
Wow, what a remarkably naive thing to think. Pray tell, when was Ru^H^Hany country not run by "thieves and crooks?"
Lunar Command is a good old school game (Score:2)
In the style of SpaceX, building a moon base (Score:2)
In the style of SpaceX? So I suppose they're undercutting other traditional space launch companies and are on track to developing a a heavy lifter and other technologies they hope could get them to Mars?
Wait, you're telling me they don't even have one rocket yet [community.sk.ru], never mind having actually achieved orbit, any sort of revenue, or even the beginnings of the capability of building, launching, landing, and assembling a moon base? Slashdot, why?
Russians had the most expensive olymic games (Score:1)
Russians had the most expensive olympic games in the history $50 Billion, while the living standard of the average russian, if measured by GDP per capita is probably 50% lower than average western country.
Clearly, those who were part of it, liked the taste of the money and want more "projects". In US they would start a new war, or would bring another entitlement program aka "Obamacare". In EU they are playing with the LHC. Russians want to colonize the moon now that Ukrainians kicked their teeth in East Ukr
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Re:Russians had the most expensive olymic games (Score:5, Informative)
At the same token, in Russia, significant part of population still uses outhouses, average life expectancy of males is 50 years
Do I smell a troill? It's currently 65 years [wikipedia.org] and the lowest it's been since 1950 is 58 years [wikipedia.org].
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What are they going to pay for it with?
Maybe they can fuel it with vodka, the price of which has dropped significan;y in Russia: http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/3... [cnn.com]
Fuck yeah, moonbase! (Score:2)
Robert Heinlein provided much of the philosophical legwork for how to make it work: Don't worry about building large reinforced airtight structures above ground, but instead bore into the ground and/or use caves that can be sealed up and fortified.
i.e., live IN the moon not ON the moon
So first you send up rockets with tunnel-boring moon machines, then you build hatches over the holes, then you seal up the leaks in th
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