What could you do on the moon? (Earth, virtual, evolution)

[michel]

February 2, 2007: If you woke up tomorrow morning and found yourself on the moon, what would you do? NASA has just released a list of 181 good ideas.
Ever since the end of the Apollo program, "folks around the world have been thinking about returning to the moon, and what they would like to do there," says Jeff Volosin, strategy development lead for NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. Now, NASA is going back; the agency plans to send astronauts to the Moon no later than 2020. "So we consulted more than 1,000 people from businesses, academia and 13 international space agencies to come up with a master list of 181 potential lunar objectives."
For example, the moon could be a good location for radio astronomy. A radio telescope on the far side of the Moon would be shielded from Earth's copious radio noise, and would be able to observe low radio frequencies blocked by Earth's atmosphere. Observations at these frequencies have never been made before and opening up a window into this low frequency universe will likely lead to many exciting new discoveries.
Right: A radio telescope on the moon uses a crater to support its giant primary dish. Artist's concept by Pat Rawlings. [More]
The moon would also be an excellent place to study the high-energy particles of the solar wind, as well as cosmic rays from deep space. Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere deflect many of these particles, so even satellites in low-Earth orbit can't observe them all. The moon has virtually no atmosphere, and it spends most of its 28-day orbit outside of Earth's magnetosphere. Detectors placed on the moon could get a complete profile of solar particles, which reveal processes going on inside the sun, as well as galactic cosmic radiation from distant black holes and supernovas.
Bonus: These particles are trapped by lunar regolith, the layer of crushed rock and dust covering the moon's surface. This means that lunar regolith contains a historical record of solar output: core samples could tell us about changes in solar output over billions of years. "We believe that the moon's preservation of this solar record is unique and can provide us with insights on how past fluctuations in the solar output have affected, for example, the history of life on Earth," says Volosin. In particular, it could shed light on the extent to which solar variability and galactic cosmic radiation influence climate change.
But the moon would be far more than just a platform for scientific instruments gazing into space. The moon itself is a scientific gold mine, a nearby example of planetary formation largely unaltered by the passage of time. Some scientists call it "a fossil world." The moon is a small, non-dynamic planetary body and its interior state is largely preserved since the early days of solar system history. Studying its interior would tell scientists a lot about how a planet's internal layers separate and solidify during planetary formation.
Even something as simple as establishing the dates when various craters on the moon were formed can provide us with a unique picture of how the flux of meteoroids in the vicinity of Earth has changed over time. (For more information see Science@NASA's "The Moon is a Harsh Witness.") This impact history is lost on Earth by the constant renewal of the crust but on the moon it is intact, rich with clues to periods in the past when an increase in bombardment may have affected the climatic history of Earth and even the evolution of life.
Science accounts for only about a third of the 181 objectives, however. More than half of the list deals with the many challenges of learning to live on an alien world: everything from keeping astronauts safe from radiation and micrometeors to setting up power and communications systems to growing food in the airless, arid lunar environment.
"We want to learn how to live off the land and not depend so much on supplies from Earth," says Tony Lavoie, leader of NASA's Lunar Architecture Team (Phase 1) at the Marshall Space Flight Center.

[Seyorni]

A lunar amusement park might prove a lucrative venture. Think of the possibilities:
At one-sixth Earth gravity one could strap on some sort of winged apparatus, flap his arms and actually fly (in a bubble of Earth atmosphere, obviously).

[PHOTOTAKER]

low gravity viral research... i 2nd the theam park!!!

[astarath]

motion passed

[FFH]

What would you do on the moon

I would eat green cheese

[Francine]

The solar wind is trapped on the surface of the moon in the form of Helium-3 isotope (two protons and one neutron). This is not found on Earth, and it has the lowest ignition energy requirement for any possible fusion fuel. If we harvested this from the lunar soil, refined it, and shipped it back to earth it would solve our energy problems once and for all.