The Independent Center for Integrative Education: Learning without Limits

12/23/2010

Dear participants of the WLMR Challenge project:

Thank you all for your input and interest. It was a pleasure to work with you today. Please read the summary below and the homework assignment at the bottom.

In our first class, we discussed major life-support issues the Moon expedition will face. They include:

• Temperature. On the Moon, days and nights last for two weeks each. There is no air to scatter sunlight, and there is no seas to smooth the temperature changes. At night, the temperature goes as low as -154^oC and during the day it reaches 107^oC. For comparison, the lowest temperature ever registered on Earth is −89.2^oC and the highest temperature registered is 57.8^oC. We discussed two possible solutions: a movable colony, that moves along with the terminator line that separates night from day (and found this not feasible) and locating the colony at the polar areas, where the temperature changes are less dramatic and the days are almost as cold as the nights.


• Space rocks. The surface of the Moon is not protected by the atmosphere from the meteorites that bombard it all the time. The large ones are rare, but even the small ones move so fast that when they hit the surface, they explode and can damage the colony buildings. The colony would need really thick walls or, better yet, go underground.


• Radiation. Besides visible light and heat, the Sun irradiates enormous amounts of high-energy particles that would harm and even kill any life. On Earth, we are protected by our atmosphere and the magnetic field that turns the electrically charged particles away. The Moon lacks both the atmosphere and the magnetic field. To protect people, plants, and animals from radiation, the colony again needs thick walls or to go underground.


• Low gravity. There is gravity on the Moon, but it is six times lower than the gravity on Earth. This means that if you drop an object, it will take six times longer to fall. You can jump six times higher than on Earth and your jump will last 36 times longer, yet you will not break your legs when you hit the ground. However, you may be hurt by moving objects as much as on Earth because the mass (and therefore inertia) of them is the same. Also, when you walk, you use friction between your feet and the floor, and this friction will be six times less as well. Vehicles also use friction between the tires and the road to accelerate or slow down, and on the Moon, the stopping distance will be six times longer. In other words, all our technology that relies on weight and friction with the ground should be re-engineered. There are also possible health issues in low gravity and the colonists will be needing a special workout. The rotation of a circular building could create additional artificial gravity the same way it is done on sci-fi spaceships, but it may be too expensive for a large colony.


• Lack of breathing air. As there is no atmosphere on the Moon, there is no oxygen to breath. There are also no minerals from which oxygen can be readily extracted. Bringing air from Earth is not feasible. The only solution is to recycle air using electrical power with chemistry and electrolysis or using living plants and a lot of natural or artificial light.


• Lack of traditional sources of energy. There is no oil, natural gas, and coal on the Moon. There are no winds, waterfalls, and tides. There is practically no uranium to build a nuclear power plant. There is plenty of sunlight during daytime, but we still need the power during the nights that last for two weeks. At the same time, energy is essential for heating/cooling, light, machinery, and life support. One possible solution to produce energy is to be constantly delivering uranium or even whole nuclear reactors from Earth. Another is collecting solar power, converting it into some other forms of energy (e.g. chemical) that can be used during the nights. If the colony is located at a pole, we may have sunlight almost all the time.


• Lack of food. The colony will need to produce its own food by growing plants and animals.For that, we need to recycle carbon dioxide along wtih oxygen.


• Lack of water. Water is absolutely essencial for life. We need it to drink and to prepare food, to grow animals and plants, for hygiene, and for many other necessary things. When we use water, it gets contaminated. Recycling water means cleaning it. This is the goal of our project.

 

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT:

Please download the Educator Guide by clicking on this link . Read pages 5 to 13. If you feel like reading more about conditons on Moon, feel free to google around or watch YouTube or Discovery Channel videos. A reasonable source is the following article on Wikipedia. It will be great to hear about your findings at our next class.

The topic of our next class will be the types of water contamination and possible ways to clean it.

Dear parents, I would highly encourage you to help you children with this assignment.