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There is plenty of solid worlds which are smaller than Earth/Venus in this universe. Actually as G.Nordley points out in http://www.sfwa.org/members/Nordley/Gra … ravity.pdf , we`ll encounter orders of magnitude much more numerous Mars- and Moon-equivalent surface gravity worlds, than Earth-like ones. The 1 G of earth gravity is serious force so such worlds very often will be either venusian in atmosphere or if colder turned in Neptune-like water-, icy- or gas-giants. This kind of the colonisable worlds mass spectrum is handable with topopolii, planetary shells, etc. Too small irregulary shape bodies are just material... But what to do with all these dozens of 0.4 gees and 0.12 gees SG mons and planets that we expect to find in almost every stellar system.
Low gravity means hard for retaining atmosphere, but it has another also very important feature if we find way non-gravitationally to bound gass around smaller bodies.
the almost entire body is solid - no teconics, the volcanoes are dormant, no exchange of energy and chemicals between the interior and the surface. The last thing is crucial for the long term planetary thermostat and other homeoresist processes making any medium livable for certain forms. NO geothermal energy.
It is hard to imagine starting tectonics on the Moon, but it is possible the lunar mantle to be injected with enough energy in order huge "hot spot" ( google search for "hot spot hawaii"), to form which to last at least several dozens of millions of years. That what the tectonics does - subduction in hotter layers of upper sedimentary rocks and hence - re-release of the CO2, could be achieved without the impossible for lesser bodies as the Moon horizontal independent movement of fractional tectonic plates.
We can make it using vertical descent of the heavy sedimented rocks from the surface in the depths of an artificial hot spot ( or hot spots), pushed down by the weight of the spilled over them lava. ( look the scheme in the G.Nordley article - I think this article is as much important in our area of interest as the P.Birch writings.)
How to create a "hot spot" on the Moon:
1. Impact - special design of the projectile: for example 1 km diameter, 100 km long steel arrow moving with hundreds of km/s. -- but too much transorbited ejecta
2. Using light or particle beam from instalation in free or forced orbit, or from statite or kinethik structire.
See , how to terraform mars quickly by http://www.paulbirch.net]www.paulbirch.net about regolith pyrolysis.
Enormous energy could be focused on small spot of the lunar surface ( say close to the southernmost shores of the Aitken Baisin on the Moon)... Via mirrors we could have ~6000 deg.C, via laser - directly to heat the target material up to plasma.
Sufficiently powerfull beam of light could bore/burn in a hole hundreds of km deep - the vaporized and plasmed material could be retained by using it uprising plumes as a dynamic compresion member for holding the energy supply system. The aluminium or else ions could be acceleated downwards as particle beam vertical TBM. Bigger pieces of regolith and lunar crust extracted metals could be accelerated to thousands of km/s and used as meso=particle kinethik power TBM ( tunnel boring machine).
3. The two methods combined: drill innitialy with light. Form a conical hole , say 1-2 km wide at the top, 100 km wide at the bottom, and 200 km deep. and use it as an access door to hit directly the MANTLE of the planet with usefull impactor made of CHN - say giant kevlar arrow produced in the Main belt, gravity assisted by JUpiter and the Sun and hitting with 50-100 km/s. The walls of the impactor ground funnel could be made so to fall in burrying the impactor content before to dissipate the valuable volatiles back in space -- thus we`ll have together a "hot spot" of several millions of km3 lava, a volcano for sediment rocks recycling, and volcano blowing "good volatiles"...
G.K.
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You might as well laser the words 'geothermal energy' into the surface of the Moon.
We could dump fuel rods into the bottom of a kilometre deep hole on the moon, let them dissapate heat into subsurface heat exchangers and use that heat to power steam turbines on the surface.
We could use the other side of the moon for deep core fuel rod storage and let it heat the lunar core until it achieves a molten state and the innevitiable volcanic activity that would come from magma expansion.
Laser drilling will get you vast quantites of hot metallic plasma gasing out of the hole but the power required will outweigh the benifits.
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r deep core fuel rod storage and let it heat the lunar core until it achieves a molten state and the innevitiable volcanic activity that would come from magma expansion.
You'd need an awful lot of hot stuff for that.
Not practical, IMO
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You might as well laser the words 'geothermal energy' into the surface of the Moon.
We could dump fuel rods into the bottom of a kilometre deep hole on the moon, let them dissapate heat into subsurface heat exchangers and use that heat to power steam turbines on the surface.
We could use the other side of the moon for deep core fuel rod storage and let it heat the lunar core until it achieves a molten state and the innevitiable volcanic activity that would come from magma expansion.Laser drilling will get you vast quantites of hot metallic plasma gasing out of the hole but the power required will outweigh the benifits.
Laser or concentrated via soleta sun light will drill it - I said it.
Uranium or else rods is less cost efficient - youhave to dig holes, produce and deliver the rods from outside space, etc.
Hot metalic plasma is perfect - it is electromagnetically handable, this is automatic export of the excessive redictive elments, runimg the plasma thrrough MHD generators would recover much of the energy... etc.
Inside impact will provide us with all the geothermality we`d need. An arrow 100 km3 hitting the moon directly 100-200 km deeper than the surface with 50-100 km/s will melt significant part of the mantle and core. The recollapsing of the walls of the preliminary constructed via light drilling cone will prevent the heat and material from dissipation. The falling walls will seal the hot wound.
Somewhere I found that the lunar soil heated to 1000 degrees centigrade releases oxygen. Comments on this simpler scenario, but without "geothermalization", later...
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Perhaps worth bumping
China's space program. They still continue to bring samples from the Moon but this one is interesting 'South Pole–Aitken basin' the Lunar far side sample return in 2024
https://twitter.com/CNSAWatcher/status/ … 6512157106
https://twitter.com/AJ_FI/status/1707681485082308828
And a panoramic view from Yutu-2
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China’s Moon Agenda in “Accelerated Pace”
https://www.leonarddavid.com/chinas-moo … ated-pace/
Reportedly departing in May, the Chang’e-6 is headed for a landing in the Moon’s south pole-Aitken basin. The lander will snag and bag lunar soil samples, launch those collectibles into lunar orbit for delivery to Earth.
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