Mankind Preservation Project - "MoonBeam"

[fibrewire]

What in the world could we do with a broadcast station on the moon? First, a little backstory...

 

A friend of mine sent me a link to something amazing from the mind of Elon Musk, billionaire entrepreneur responsible for PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla Motors. The project I am referring to is the HyperLoop - a genius and economical 5 billion dollar transportation system that costs the end user $20 per one-way ticket and a 30 minute ride between San Francisco and Los Angeles. This is an alternate proposal to Californias CalTrans 70 billion dollar bullet train and cost the end user $250+ per one-way ticket and a 3 hour ride between the two cities sometime in the next 20 years.

 

As I was contemplating the benefits of including existing airports as terminals to the HyperLoop tube transport system, another idea came to mind - that Elon Musk is a very smart guy. While reading Wikipedia of Musks accomplishments, and coping with the fact that I am between jobs at the moment, I realize that I really never applied myself beyond my own short-sighted goals.

 

Today, that will change.

 

There is something to be said about the simplicity of an 8-bit computer. With its limited resources and simple expansion system, it has accomplished so much in the home computing revolution. It has afforded the common person a hands-on approach to not only understanding how computers work, but the opportunity to venture out into uncharted territory and change the way the entire world operates. Where else in history has such a definitive short-term project brought us closer together as a people?

 

There is ONE other discovery that enabled rapid change to the world - the crystal radio. With nothing more than a diode (or equivalent), some wire, and a piezoelectric headphone (or equivalent) one can listen to an AM frequency that corresponds to the length of wire - no power required! Primitive spark-gap transmitters allowed people to communicate all over the world by bouncing radio frequencies off of the ionosphere, and shortwave radio was born.

 

*** The GOOD STUFF ***

 

I propose a simple project to not only enable EVERYONE on earth a means to receive education, but also a way to preserve the collective information of humanity. I want to place a solid-state information repository and broadcast station on the moon. Why the moon?

 

* The moon is tidally locked to the earth, so something placed on the lunar surface facing earth will likely remain pointing at earth for the foreseeable future.

* The moon is the most noticeable object in the night sky.

* The moon can be seen from anywhere on earth.

* The moon is not easily accessible or manipulated by mankind.

 

The ionosphere has a spectrum of frequency called the radio window which allows radio waves from about one centimeter to 10 meters to pass through to the earth. A set of frequencies utilizing ISM bands could provide voice, video, and data to be transmitted to the earth. The primary goal of this project is to provide anyone with a tuned crystal radio a basic language and technical education. The radio station would use a method similar to how newborn children learn a language, incorporating music and speech to promote pattern recognition. This education could enable people to improve their ability to communicate and quality of life. This system would also be capable of teaching construction of complex equipment to interface with the moon station, and would enable mankind to recover from a global catastrophe quickly. Also, this would currently allow less fortunate areas access to information that would normally be unavailable. If executed properly, a durable MOSFET crystal radio could be mass produced and provided to many.

 

As far as power for the lunar station, I suppose some type of efficient thermoelectric device would convert radiation from the sun into usable power, and that solid-state capacitors could be used to hold power. There is also the issue of coronal mass ejections radiating the lunar site, so the lunar station would have to be resistant to these types of mass-radiation bursts from the sun.

 

For delivery of the station to the moon, perhaps Elon wouldnt mind loaning a SpaceX vehicle to launch a private rocket for a lunar mission...

 

I have put quite a bit of grandiose thought into this project far beyond what is listed here, but I am intentionally leaving out details in hopes to see some great ideas shine through on this open source type project. Let me know what you think!

[snicklin]

I am seriously lost for words.

[fibrewire]

I am seriously lost for words.

Totally understandable. Part of the idea came from looking at a Kantronics interface for the Atari, which pointed me in the direction of bouncing signals off of the moon as a reflection satellite for 2-meter communication. Then I thought about the moon, and how one side always faces earth. Turns out the moon has been facing earth because of tidal lock for the last billion years or so, and won't be changing anytime soon. And then it just clicked - put something on the moon that might benefit the rest of the world.

 

So, do you guys think I'm some sort of lunatic? Perhaps - but if I had influence in an advanced civilization, I would surely try to protect the accumulation of humanity's knowledge by storing it out of harm's way - and the moon surely sounds like a good place to me. But why not take it one step further and make it accessible to all? To me it sounds like a far better use of resources than the Apollo program's 150 billion in 2010 dollars spent to gather a few rocks from the moon...

[TwiliteZoner]

[AtariGeezer]

So, do you guys think I'm some sort of lunatic?

Was the pun intended? LOL, but what about the aliens living on the dark side? you know there is a reason why we haven't returned to the moon. Those aliens might just disagree with humans putting stuff in their backyard

[fibrewire]

Was the pun intended? LOL, but what about the aliens living on the dark side? you know there is a reason why we haven't returned to the moon. Those aliens might just disagree with humans putting stuff in their backyard

Pun intended, and as long as we're on the topic... It is speculated that some type of advanced civilization existed on earth long ago. Maybe there haven't been repeat trips to the moon because we already got what we went for.

[+Faicuai]

(...) I have put quite a bit of grandiose thought into this project far beyond what is listed here (...)

 

[kenjennings]

Even though the same side of the moon faces earth all the time, the moon isn't visible about half the time to any spot on earth, since the earth itself rotates. And since the moon also orbits the earth, the half of the day (or night) that it is visible to a spot on earth changes each day.

 

The real challenge here would be making every human being change from the convenience of the daily rotational cycle of the earth to the period of lunar visibility according to the orbital cycle of the moon in order to make practical use of the moon's broadcast. Good luck with that. I figure that would be harder than putting a radio station on the moon.

 

In other news, scientists invent the "artificial satellite" a network of which allow broadcasts to be transmitted and relayed to and from any place on earth at any time of day.

[ClausB]

I read with open mind until you derided Apollo. IMO Apollo was the greatest thing mankind did in the last century. We did not go to get rocks. We went because we could. And we got apathetic taxpayers to fund it by making it a Cold War competition. It inspired this nine-year-old to study STEM subjects and buy an Atari a decade later.

[Jim Norris]

I have put quite a bit of grandiose thought into this project far beyond what is listed here, but I am intentionally leaving out details in hopes to see some great ideas shine through on this open source type project. Let me know what you think!

 

 

Well, a simple solar powered radio transmitter with a computer to hold a days worth of broadcast would be easy. You'd just upload your next days broadcast when the moon was in position over you. The biggest problems are probably:

 

1) What language would you broadcast in?

2) What frequency of AM would you use that wouldn't conflict with what's already in use and/or regulated?

3) How do you teach everyone to make the simple radio and/or give them an AM radio?

4) How much power would it take for a radio signal to reach the earth from the moon that was spread out over your target area? I'm guessing you would use a cone shape to reach the earth soo the power level would probably drop at the distance squared... well... with a narrow beam you might get 1/distance but realistically you could expect something proportional to distance squared power loss....

 

There really isn't any convenient way to do interactive internet. The travel time of the signal... i.e. ping would be horrendous and the power requirements would be enormous on both ends. I think it's 30 seconds one way... I mean if you just wanted to do downloads, you could have a bunch of info up there but there is no way you could get it to Earth I think without some serious power on the moon for the transmitter, and the people receiving it would need computers. If they already have a computer, having them build a crystal am receiver would be more difficult than buying something ready made that interfaces with the computer. The difficult part in being... 1) obtaining a crystal for the 'diode' (much easier to obtain a commercial diode nowadays) and 2) converting the am radio signal into a digital signal the computer can use. And 3, and probably the most important part.... what power level would it take for the earth based transmitter to reach the moon? Laser would be the lowest power but very difficult to aim and probably hard to build.... I can't see people building a transmitter with that power in their back yards... and then not getting cancer or fried innards from it. You could make the antenna very directional... have to actually or use a satellite dish but those are hard to build and position too.

 

It would be interesting to see someone actually figure out the engineering for all this along with detailed instructions which include how to obtain and build the parts from scratch. If you do it, please include safety information. If you use lead solder for the connections keep in mind it is very toxic. Radio crystal rocks are not found everywhere I think soo you'd have to actually research where to find them and put that in the instructions too. Making the parabolic reflector at the frequency you are talking about is a challenge also.... I mean even at 10cm wavelength.... it's gonna be huge. Need lots of careful measurements.

 

I wonder if the cost of printing the instruction book for making this thing would be more than the cost of a satellite wifi connection?

It would have to be in a ton of different languages too.

 

Good luck.

 

P.S. Probably the most practical way (and this is just a wild guess) to exchange information with a moon based repository is to use a satellite in orbit above the atmosphere as an intermediary. That way the satellite could use a low power laser to reach the moon. If the satellite was in a geosynchronous orbit, it would also simplify positioning the ground based satellite dishes. Only the satellite in orbit would have to track the moon. But if you are gonna do that, why not just have the information on the satellite... except for the fact that the satellite will eventually fall and you could probably build a much bigger repository on the moon.

 

 

Edited September 2, 2013 by Jim Norris

[fibrewire]

I read with open mind until you derided Apollo.

I apologize ClausB, I didn't mean it like that. The lunar missions are still to this date the greatest accomplishment in the 20th century - but with projects like SpaceX and the ISS, I don't understand why the lack of plans to CONTINUE to go to the moon. I imagine it will cost a lot less that $150 Billion in 2013, with a few trips to the ISS with fuel, then a trip to the moon and back. Like an ISS for the moon, and a SpaceX plane to relay between the two.

 

For now, lets just tow the entire ISS to the moon and back every 6 months

[+Faicuai]

(...) IMO Apollo was the greatest thing mankind did in the last century. We did not go to get rocks. We went because we could. (...)

 

...Without a doubt. Could not avoid dropping a tear or two, standing next to Apollo in Kennedy Space Center. The immense respect and appreciation I felt for all the people involved, and their legacy, and their generations-lasting triumph, is hardly describable with words.

 

In fact, Apollo is STILL alive, today, and the last two or three members of that mission currently operate a "laser telemetry / telescope" that actually sends a Laser to the moon, just to be sent back from a reflector left by Apollo's mission-crew (takes four hours to locate, at night). Once it returns, the actual DISTANCE to the moon is measured with about 10^-7 to 10^-8 precision... confirming what many scientists suspected (pre-Apollo): the Moon is GETTING AWAY from Earth... at rate of 1 inch/year, approx.

 

Always carry my Apollo-Mission (tiny and symbolic) decal neatly placed on my HP 48GX leather-case...

[Keatah]

I am seriously lost for words.

I'm lost..

[MEtalGuy66]

Fiberwire, what is this doing in the 8-bit forum? It has zero relevance to atari 8-bit computers other than the fact that you dreamed it up while screwing around with some obscure piece of 8-bit hardware.

 

Stop acting like a kid and posting when you are high..

Edited September 4, 2013 by MEtalGuy66

[+Faicuai]

(...)

Today, that will change.

 

There is something to be said about the simplicity of an 8-bit computer. With its limited resources and simple expansion system, it has accomplished so much in the home computing revolution. It has afforded the common person a hands-on approach to not only understanding how computers work, but the opportunity to venture out into uncharted territory and change the way the entire world operates. Where else in history has such a definitive short-term project brought us closer together as a people?

 

There is ONE other discovery that enabled rapid change to the world - the crystal radio. (...)

 

Had another go at this, trying to tie-it-up the best I could...

 

The above is the part that I am struggling with... I presume that's where the "intentionally left-out parts" would come into play. However, this is what I am having a hard time with:

1. May not be relevant, but... our machines did not exactly transcended beyond the Home-Computing scene (at least not like the IBM-PC did). I say this with no detriment of the Atari's true potential, which can now be seen in SDX, Last-Word, etc...
2. No clear connection between the Atari 8bit line-up and the Crystal-Radio... Sort of an abrubt, (historical) jump into another innovation.

Not sure about others, but this may be a key point, for both clarity and relevance of the idea.