MMM Glossary - "MMM Speak"

New Words & Old Words with New Meanings

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This Glossary has been a much-interrupted "work in progress"
Introduced May 18, 2009
Transferred from Lunar Reclamation Society website to Moon Society site March 11, 2010
300+ entries and many more to come
Updated September 16, 2010

Foreword

Why a Glossary For Moon Miners' Manifesto?

From the very beginning, we got some criticism for coining new words, giving some old words new meaning. "Readers will be confused.! But we reject this criticism. Every frontier-settling experience has brought with it many new words and meanings. This is inevitable, as every frontier is not only geologically and biologically different, but it brings out new ways to be human, to realize the amazingly bottomless potential within ourselves. And our expansion has just begun!

We have stretched the language without apology, as have the pioneers of the early Americas, of the American West, of Australia and New Zealand and Canada, of Alaska and Hawaii, and the explorers of the Arctic and Antarctic. English is not a fossilized language and the demands of some to enforce a stasis that they somehow imagine that they have the right to control must be rejected. The language belongs to all of us.

Old Words with special meanings

Sometimes, to suggest comparison with familiar ideas and relationships, I have given old words new meaning. For example, "tarn," an isolated mountain lake. On the Moon, an isolated minimal size stakehold, far from the principle settlements, one which must provide for its own pocket-size biosphere - water and air recycling systems, I have dubbed a tarn. Now this word may not stick. The point is that very small boondocks settlements will represent far-bolder initiatives than does setting up a small hamlet at a countryside highway crossing.

Another example is dayspan and nightspan. Lunar pioneers will still live and work on a familiar 24-hour Earth day schedule. But what they do each day will be significantly determined by whether their local is experiencing sunshine or not, and that is on a 29.5 day cycle. To use day and night for both periods would be confusing. Dayspan and Nightspan were not my first attempts, but they have begun to stick, showing up in the works of other writers

New Words to express ideas existing words do not convey

Space and Vacuum are general terms. In the lunar frontier experience, the vacuum layer that washes the lunar terrain, and that enforces limitations on their activities makes the areas outside their pressure-walled settlements special. Taking a cue from the Australian experience, with all the major settlements except Canberra on the coast, and a vast empty underpopulated continental interior "in back" of those cities, which they have come to call the Outback, we coined the word out-vac. Space and vacuum touch the surface of the airless Moon, but this boundary layer, as a setting for human activities, needs a special word.

Again, the establishment of every new frontier as brought with it a flurry of new words, expressions, and figures of speech. For a writer trying to capture how a future frontier will unfold, expanding the language is the only way to get across that the new frontier he talks about will be "new" to the core. Our experience on the Moon will be repeated on Mars and everywhere else we go. It has aways been so.

The Glossary as Subject Index

Many people have asked us to produce a subject index. But as the Glossary matures, it will in fact serve as just that.

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Return to MMM Homepage <<-------->> Return to MMM Classics Directory

Aaditya - The word for "The Sun" in ancient Sanskrit, mother tongue of many languages spoken in India

See Apollo, Copernica, Helios, Ra

Alcyone 1st day of the Pleiad -  See "Plead"

Amateur Astronomy from the Moon - it would be pretty awkward looking through an eyepiece with a space suit helmet in the way! How could you outfit amateur astronomers amongst the Lunan pioneer population? This was the subject of a design competition cosponsored by the (Milwaukee) Lunar Reclamation Society and the American Lunar Society in 1988. Of three entries, all ingenious, this was the winning design.

Access to a spherical viewing room is via a hatch in the ceiling of  a pressurized habitat. Once inside, seated in the chair, the viewer and viewing room rotates in directions needed to aim the telescope at the desired target.

Amphibious Space/Surface Vehicles - In ordinary usage, an animal that is at home both in the sea and on the land. An Amphibious Vehicle on Earth means a craft that can ply the seas as well as land like the "Duck" of World War II familiarity. Here we apply it to a space craft that has an extendable chassis that allows it to drive on the lunar surface after landing. 

See "The Lunar Hostel" and the term "Hostel"

The Frog version is one designed for repeated use both in space and on the lunar surface where its use would be confined to trips between the landing-launch site and a lunar surface habitat with which it would dock, sharing systems aboard the craft with which the waiting habitat had not been provided.

The Toad version is one designed for permanent lunar surface duty as a motor coach, for example, after landing on the Moon.

Androgynous Docking - see matchport

Antarctic Treaty Precedent - Twelve nations, involved in Antarctic exploration, and with frozen land claims, established a treaty that would allow peaceful collaboration and coordination and freeze the land claims, signed the original treaty in 1959. Since then 31 others nations who wish to conduct exploration and scientific research there have now "asceeded" to the Treaty which was extended in 1989. It will next be open to review in another thirty years, that is in 2019. 

The most significant of recent protocols was signed in Madrid in 1991 therefore being known as the Madrid Protocol, though it's official title is, "The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty" which came into force in 1998.

Most of the provisions are reasonable. But some of the provisions create a precedent that must be rejected if we are going to open the Lunar and Martian frontiers to resource-using settlement. Article 3 Environmental Principles is fine as it stands and is not the area of concern. 

Article 7 states "Any activity relating to mineral resources, other than scientific research, shall be prohibited." In our view, it would be better to rate specific areas of the continent according to environmental risk, and to set standards for mining practices such as to protect the environment.  If all mining were bad, we would still be in the stone age.

Article 8 does make distinctions between activities with (a) less than a minor or transitory impact; (b) a minor or transitory impact; or (c) more than a minor or transitory impact. But the overall impact has been chilling.

We certainly do not object to a rigorous review of all mining and commercial activity proposals. But the outright "ban" is counterproductive. 

In effect, Antarctica is off-limits to settlement.

On the bright side, the treaty only applies to areas poleward of 60° south, and if you look at the map, this excludes about a third of the Antarctic coastlands (that portion south of Australia and the Indian Ocean) and most of the Antarctic Peninsula (below South America). The principal base of McMurdo Sound and the very unique Dry Valleys lie south of New Zealand. These valleys are environmentally unique in all the world, but even there some scientific research - they offer the best Moon and Mars analog site conditions anywhere - and even some commercial operations such as photos and footprints only tightly guided tourism - should be allowed.

In our view, the Treaty notwithstanding, humanity has a right to settle and use the resources of both treaty-excluded and treaty-protected areas, under strict safeguards and protocols.

The pro-space community sat on its hands when the Treaty was extended last time. We must rise to the challenge in 2019 and that will require a lot of careful and detailed preparation.

Anthropa - Every species living on an Earthlike world of continents and seas is likely to call its world "Earth" (soil or land) or Earth-Sea in whatever the words are in its language. In that light, it is evident that "Earth" is a common "role name" (like "father") and that we do not have a real distinctive name for our planet. Even "Anthropa" for "world of man" is a "role name." 

Apollo - The Greek God of the Sun, after whom NASA's Manned Moon Program of the 1960s and 1970s was named.

For other Sun names, see - Aaditya, Copernica, Helios, Ra

Aqua  - (paint color) see regolith impressionism

Are(o)zoogenic Preserves - (1) areas on Mars where it is suspected that native microbial life forms may still subsist; (2) areas on a rejuvenated Mars with a more favorable climate, in which Mars-hardened life forms  form Earth might first take hold

Asterope 6th day of the Pleiad -  See "Pleiad"

Artificial zero-G, Artificial micro-gravity - see Negative zero-G

Atlas - 8th day of the Peiad -  See "Pleiad"

Atmospherule - The breathable air contained within a constructed mini-biosphere which settlements on the airless Moon, and low pressure non-breathable atmosphere of Mars must provide. The mini-biosphere also contains a hydrospherule water component and systems that continuously refresh both the air an water.

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Bagel Hybrid Modules -see Hybrid Rigid Inflatables (d)

See MMM Classic #5, pages 53-54 - Inflatable structures attached to, and expanding from, or out of, a rigid component. Three versions are proposed in the Paper "

Barolock - See Liquid Airlocks

Basalt - This entry under construction

Basalt, Cast, Hewn, and Carved

Beachhead - the area that is the first objective of a party landing on an alien shore, which once secured and established, can serve as a base of expansion of the occupation.

Beachhead Interface  - A "beachhead" that is a common boundary [between two worlds i.e. the life coddling Earth, and the barren and sterile Moon]; something that enables separate and sometimes incompatible elements to communicate.

Beacons on the Moon visible from Earth? - The short answer is that we probably can't pull it off. It would take way too much power. And if you focused the beam so that it would remain strong, it would only shine on a small area of Earth. The idea was to land something on the still empty Moon that hundreds of millions of people could see when that area of the Moon was in darkness.

Beneficiation Cascades - see Tailings - successive enrichment of one element which is then extracted, after another.

Big Dumb Volume - a moniker for what is referred to in MMM as a "Hostel"

(a) a structure, such as an inflatable, or an empty shuttle External Tank, which is not pre-outfitted, but designed for outfitting after deployment. 

(b) a pressurized or pressurizable structure that is furnished but does not itself supply life-support systems except when sharing those aboard a docking vehicle such as a "Frog", an amphibious lander that drives itself from the landing point to dock with a waiting "Big dumb volume structure" such as a hostel.

Biodynamic Design - Using architectural plans from nature - An example is the design of a triple helix toroidal space settlement, the inspiration being the double helix design of DNA fame and the basis of all life as we know it.

Black  - (paint color) see regolith impressionism (we used manganese dioxide. Ferrous oxide would be another option.) 

For Stained Glass, there are few truly black inorganic agents. Instead we are left to blend semi-blacks with noticeable green, blue, or brown casts to them in hopes of neutralizing those tints and being left with apparent true black.

Blue  - (paint color) see regolith impressionism (we used cobaltous aluminate for a most beautiful blue) 

For Stained Glass, many blue ceramic stains use zinc oxide, barium carbonate, tin oxide, and copper phosphates. Fortunately cobalt aluminate yields a matte blue, and cobalt silicates and oxides produce mazarine blue, royal blue, flow blue, and willow blue. A titania-alumina blue, TiO2.Al2O3, with a corundum structure is a possibility but it is difficult to prepare by synthesis as opposed to starting with Ti-rich bauxite. Other choices include a vanadium-zirconia blue and a silica-zirconia-vanadia-sodium fluoride system of blues, turquoises and greens.

Brown - (paint color) see regolith impressionism -(the closest we came was a mixture of chromium oxide green and ferric oxide rust )

For Stained Glass, unavailable will be the orange brown of copper-based CuO.Al2O3 and the reddish brown of zinc-based ZnO.Fe2O3. But in stock should be the reddish brown of iron chromate FeO.Cr2O3, the Indian red-brown of magnesium-iron oxide MgO.Fe2O3, and the red-brown manganese titanate MnTiO4

Building Materials from Moondust - From the elements most common in moondust, we should be able to make metal alloys, concrete, glass, fiberglass, glass-glass-composites, and ceramics out of which to make modular lunar habitats, furniture, vehicles and much of what else we will need both to defray importing those items from Earth and to make a profit for the settlement from "downporting" those items to LEO and GEO for the construction and outfitting of space stations, orbiting laboratories and factories, even orbital hotels and tourist complexes. 

The greatest part of the cost of getting anything into space is rocket fuel, and it takes only a 20th as much fuel to deliver a set payload from the Moon all the way to Earth orbit as it does to launch the same payload up the much shorter distance from Earth's surface. It is this fact and this market opportunity that will make the lunar industrial economy work.

On the other hand, our materials formulations will be limited by ingredients scarce on the Moon.

Byproducing - Planned creation of needed or useful byproducts as part of any planned material production operation

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Cableway Suspension Systems - cable cars are one way to travel with minimal disruption of the surface below. Usually built on Earth for traversing up mountain slopes, they can run horizontally as well, as they do at some amusement parks. A suspension system borrowed from bridge systems would guarantee a smoother ride over pristine and scenic moonscapes.

Cagemobile - a vehicle inside a wheel, or unicycle capable of traversing uneven terrain while remaining erect. It could be solar powered or occupant-powered.

A driver pod rides the inside rails of a Lunar Squirrel; Cagemobile tire-frame. Suspended above the weighted driver pod is a solar power array that also supplies some shade, and which is equipped with lights for nightspan operation. This vehicle should be able to negotiate rolling terrain fairly well.

Carmonox engines - engines burning Carbon Monoxide and Oxygen

Cast Basalt - If we site our settlement along a highland/mare coast instead of at either pole, cast basalt may well become our first lunar building material. In the Czech Republic, basalt rock and powder is melted and cast into thick abrasion resistant tiles for both industrial and residential uses. It is also cast into mold for statues and other art accessories. On the moon, we could use them for factory floors. And in lunar homesteads they could also be used to cover walls, countertops, and tabletops. As well as for decorative items. They are naturally self-glazed, each with a unique pattern formed as it cools.

Cavy - the small mammal known in the United States as a Guinea Pig, and a staple of Peruvian Cuisine. The Cavy is a more efficient producer of meat tissue than either the chicken or the rabbit. Thus it is a logical candidate for the first livestock species to be introduced on the Moon.

Celaeno - 4th day of the -  See "Pleiad"

Central Peaks - Some large craters, probably those formed by impacts at a high angle, have central mountain massifs. These are thought to be composed of upthrust mantle material formed in the rebound. If that proves to be the case, the minerals, and the elements they are composed of, will form a 4th category after Highland regolith, Mare regolith, and KREEP. Sample prospecting may or may not show these peaks to be an enriched source of some elements in high demand.

From another point of view, some of these central peaks may attract climbers, even the erection of chair lifts to enjoy the view from above. Some very notable craters with prominent central peaks are: on the nearside, Copernicus and Theophillus; and on the farside, Tsiolkovsky, shown below. But there are many more.

The Editor, in his Proposed Expansion of the System of Lunar Nomenclature, proposed that Central Peaks bear the first or given name of the person the crater is named for. In the case of Tsiolkovsky, that would yield Mt. Konstantine.

Cheshirecasting - sending messages that tell us nothing about the sender (The "Prime Directive" of the Star Trek TV Science Fiction Series rules!") but could tell us something about ourselves, specifically about our past, as interstellar messages take years, if not thousands, millions, and billions of years to reach us from other parts of the galaxy and of the universe.

The word comes from the Smile of the Cheshire Cat, of course. Many people hope to detect SETI messages that might help us leap forward technologically without earning it by doing it ourselves.  Not what we need, and fortunately, not likely to happen.

Circamestral - according to a month like period

Cloacal drain systems - see Tritreme drain and plumbing

Coastal sites - Areas along the Highland-Mare coasts provide good access to both suites of regolith compositions. Highland regolith is richer in Aluminum, Magnesium, and Calcium. Mare regolith is richer in Iron and Titanium. Coastal sites around Mare Imbrium are also enriched with KREEP deposits consisting of Potassium, Rare Earth Elements, and Phosphorus. 

Industrial complexes in "coastal areas" will have an edge of both those in mid-mare and in mid-highlands

The total of nearside coastal millage is many times longer than that on farside.

Both poles are deep in highland territory. However the distance from the North Pole to the nearest "coast" along the north shore of Mare Frigoris is only some 600 miles, less than half the distance from the South Pole to the nearest coastal area in southern Mare Humorum.

Color-Coded Plastics  - While, in general, plastics, being made of volatile elements that are rare on the Moon and preferentially reserved for biosphere and agricultural feedstocks, those types of plastics that are easily recycled could be used for things for which metal, glass, and ceramics are not a satisfactory substitute. We did once live without plastics of course! Currently, in most communities, Plastics of type 1 and 2 (inside a triangle symbol) are regularly recycled. Types 3, 4, and 5 can be recycled but there is generally insufficient demand for them. 

On the Moon, those plastics which can be easily enough recycled, could be color-coded to identify their type - a much better solution than an embossed triangle and number. Thermoplastics, used for children s toys, could be in Crayola colors. Other plastics could be in gray-shaded colors.

The initial source of these plastics could be from shipping dunnage: containers and packaging and dividers.

See Recycling - See Thermoplastics

Colors for Safety and Survival - Moonscapes and Marscapes are both restricted to narrow color ranges. Against this monotonous and pixelated background, what colors would it be best for individuals in spacesuits, and for vehicles to bear if they are to standout against the background at some distance from the observer or from a search party?

This was the subject of an experiment we carried out at the Mars Desert Research Station on Crew #34 in 2005. The results surprised us. We expected that bright colors outside of the color range of the background would do best. For the details read "Testing Colors for Survival on Mars" in MMM Classics #19 page 16.

Colloquipause - The Moon is in Earth’s “Conversational Space” But how much further out does that go?

The further out we go, the more difficult it will be to carry on a conversation. Between Earth and Mars we can only trade reports, as the time delay is a minimum of 6 minutes, and can be as long as 40 minutes - time to take a good break. To Jupiter's moons, the delay will will range from 70 to 104 minutes" time to go out for lunch. To Pluto, the delay will range from nearly 8 hours to nearly 14 hours - leave it to the next shift!

Mars is beyond Conversational Space, but within Hourly  Report space. Pluto is within Daily Report Space.

Communications lag with Alpha Centauri A prime (hypothetical) is 8.6 years, well within "Co-generational or Contemporary" space. A a reply from star 50 light years out would get to us a century after we sent it. And that's still very much in our own backyard!  Call that Consecular space. Conversation loops of up to a thousand years would take place in Co-millennial space;  it gets even more pointless as we go still further out, yet we are still in a tiny pocket of our own galaxy!

This creates a series of "onion peels" of space centered on our Solar System. The laws of Physics, science fiction fan hopes notwithstanding, set a practical limit to visiting, and even to conversation, even to just "keeping in touch." Beyond a certain point, we can only study and wonder, and perhaps in time, wander in a migration that will inevitably lose contact with its roots, staying in touch only with other migrating pockets of humanity nearby.

Co-millennial Space  - see Colloquipause just above

Commercial Space - "any for-profit endeavor or enterprise which increases the amount, scope, feasibility, and/or sustainable economic viability of robotic and/or human presence in Earth orbit and beyond."

One might get the idea from many space activists that commercial space means private launch companies and small satellite manufacturers - only! Even if this is qualified with an "at this stage of the game" this short list betrays a troubling lack of imagination, coming as it does, from people who say they want to live somewhere other than on Earth!

While it may be easier, and safer, to restrict one's ambitions to the "toy space" of microsats and small launchers, our goal is to create a self-sustaining human economy beyond Earth's atmosphere. This clearly requires commercial entry into man-rated rockets and habitat hardware. This has already begun. The for-profit SpaceHab shuttle payload bay module is already a reality, but has faced a rocky road.

Early plans for commercial tourist modules were ill-fated because they depended either on paper study spacecraft, or upon the government owned shuttle. Any effort to piggyback commercial for-profit activity on profit-be-damned agency programs is at the mercy of political pressures and bureaucratic procedures; hardly a place to put dearly acquired capital.

Many put all their hopes on the X-33 program. But the dream of Cheap Access from NASA seems troublingly self-deceptive. Meanwhile, would-be commercial players stall.

We clearly need commercial manned access to space. Yet the very presence of the shuttle system works in a highly preemptive manner to prevent such access from materializing. What is needed is to tie in with a commercial manned destination: a commercial space station. With the adoption for the International Space Station Alpha of the high inclination orbit favored by the Russians, there has never been more reason than now for an alternative, a commercial station-depot in a low inclination orbit vastly superior as a staging and refueling place for deep space missions. Alpha would serve Moon and Mars missions at a severe handicap in comparison. There will also be need in orbit for more lab space at commercial disposal than ISSA can or will provide.

We also need to dust off the "Space Cartage Act" proposed many years ago whereby anything once in orbit and without its own motive power, could be moved to another space location or orbit only by a commercial vehicle.

Yet there is another kind of entrepreneurial activity which has the potential to accelerate the realization of an open space frontier. It is not at the mercy of bureaucratic, administrative, or congressional whim. Why not? Simply because it is a path that does not threaten powerful vested interests. We are talking about "spin up" research & development.

"Spin up" works like this. The entrepreneur considers the many and varied technologies that will someday be needed on the space frontier. Next he/she considers what profitable terrestrial applications there may be for each of these. There follows a business plan, and ultimately a for-profit terrestrial enterprise which has the happy effect of pre-developing and de-bugging and putting "on the shelf" a technology which will one day help open the frontier - sooner and at less cost.

Compostlet - a composting toilet

Consecular Space - see Colloquipause 

Consolarcy - Circumsolar Space as the future domain of mankind

Contemporary Space - see Colloquipause 

Copernica - We call our star "The Sun" because it provides us with sunshine and creates our days. But so will every intelligent species, using its own common word for "the sun." This is what is called a "role name" much like "father" (as opposed to Mr. so and so), "mother" and so on. 

Should we give our sun a proper name? We name many other prominent stars in our nighttime skies, and surely if there is one star that is extra special, at least to us, it is our own star, "the sun." We don't even bother to capitalize it. 

"Copernica" is a suggestion. Nikolas Copernicus was the first person to demonstrate that the Sun, not Earth, was the center of our solar system. It would be appropriate to name our home star after him. There are other suggestions, of course. This choice is meant to co-ordinate proposal to give a proper name for "our earth" after the first person to lead an expedition to circumnavigate it, Ferdinand Magellan, i.e. "Magellana."

For other Sun names, see Aaditya, Apollo, Helios, Ra

Co-promise -  The original, and universally forgotten etymological meaning of "compromise" which now means reaching the lowest common denominator rather than the highest joint multiple. This affects both "Design by Committee" and Decision by Committee, and the reason we make so little progress in every area of endeavor. By Co-promise design and decision-making, we can open the space frontier. By Compromise, we will get nowhere.

Co-epochal Space - see  Colloquipause

Craters and Walled Plains - Craters of a certain size, larger than 9 km in diameter, tend to have flat floors; those smaller than that tend to have bowl shape floors. This is commonly not known or overlooked in proposals to use "nearby" small craters for warehousing or other industrial purposes, including nuclear power plants.

Crooknecks - [Giving different areas of the Moon's Nearside Hemisphere different names according to how well Earth is visible.] In the central part of the Nearside hemisphere, Earth is either directly overhead or at a very uncomfortably high angle above the horizon. Settlers might aptly nickname these central regions “the Crooknecks”. Included is most of Mare Imbrium, Mare Nectaris, Mare Serenitatis, Mare Tranquilitatis, Mare Nectaris, Mare Vaporum, etc.

Some settlers, if they have a choice, may prefer to settle in areas in which Earth always appears at a comfortable angle above the horizon, that is, in the "Postcardlands"

See "Postcardlands" - "Peek-a-boos" - "Obliviside"

 Cue Colors - special colors applied in rainbow sequence to the different directions in an artificial gravity environment which colors will cue athletes as to the type of "English" to put on a ball, or on their own muscles to get the desired effect.  See "East"

 Cunicular - a Latin derived term here used for a pressurized walkway tube

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 Dark Side - Old myths and commonplaces die hard. One still hears the phrase "the dark side of the Moon". While our companion world does have a "hidden side" forever averted from the Earth, locked in that position by tidal forces, that hemisphere enjoys the same slow Sunrise-Sunset rhythm as the familiar near side.

PHASES OF THE MOON: (1) "New Moon" - the Moon is between Earth and the Sun and the Nearside is in darkness while all of Farside is sunlit, full. (2) First Quarter or First Half Moon - the East half of Nearside and West half of Farside is sunlit. (3) "Full Moon" - all of Nearside is sunlit, all of Farside is in darkness. (4) Third Quarter or Second Half Moon - the West half of Nearside and the East half of Farside is sunlit.

Yet there are differences. At (1) the "darkness" of Nearside is considerably less than total. For it is bathed in the brilliant blue-white glow of the "Full Earth" shining with 60 times the brilliance we enjoy from the smaller, dimmer, "Full Moon". But at (3) the "darkness" of Farside is intense beyond all human experience. Earth is never above the horizon. And there are no clouds or atmosphere to scatter glows, nor any artificial light to gray the sky's ink. There are only the stars, incredible numbers of them, and the full glory of the Milky Way such as anyone has yet to witness.

In that sense, the Farside is the Darkside, for when it is dark, it is "Dark" with a capital D. Farside is the Darkside in another sense as well. It is radio-dark. Yes surely there are the ever present radio whispers of the distant stars and interstellar clouds, of exploding novas, even of the turbulent atmospheres of the gas giant planets like Jupiter. But the blare, the constant "ringing in the ears" of radio noise from Earth's radio and television transmitters, even from our microwave ovens, is gone, quenched, blocked by the 2,000 mile thick rock solid bulk of the Moon's body. While such a radio darkness is imperceptible to humans, it means real static-free operation for prospective radio telescopes, teleoperated by relay at first, that may some-day be placed on Farside to further mankind's insatiable quest into the still mysterious Universe at large all around us.

Hubble, and the orbiting infrared and gamma ray and other great telescopes put in orbit by NASA, will reveal much. But while being above the atmosphere uncloaks many of the electromagnetic frequencies to which we cannot otherwise tune in, for radio astronomers this high ground is not high enough! We have to get not just above the atmosphere, but above (behind) the shielding bulk of the Moon.

If there are other intelligent species somewhere out there, and if they choose to go through the expense of sending out "hi there, brothers over here" signals, these might well be in wavelengths that do not penetrate atmospheres. That, for one, would prevent them from being picked up by adolescent "puppy" civilizations like ours. Someday, on Farside . -- PK - See F.A.R.A.F. -- See Relayside 

Day job chauvinism - see Trivale

Dayspan - Nightspan - what about the terms "day" and "night" themselves as they apply to timekeeping on the Moon?

Within the pressurized light-controlled living areas, settlers will want to maintain the 24 hour standard sequence, and to use the terms "day" and "night" accordingly. 

To avoid confusion, they will either need to qualify those given terms or find other ones when referring to the sunshine-darkness periods on the surface, fourteen plus times as long, or sluggish. After playing with a lot of possible expressions and new coinages, we published a suggestion several years ago to use the terms "dayspan" and "nightspan" for these longer periods. These terms are being borrowed by a number of other writers.

During the dayspan, intense solar energy is available full time. Some of it will be stored by various methods for use during nightspan when the sun is "down." Even if we have nuclear power stations, this situation will still exist as nuclear plus solar will still provide more energy than nuclear without solar.

The dayspan-nightspan sequence will dominate any local calendar on the Moon. As a full cycle is nearly 29.5+ days, a pair of "sunths" would contain one sunth 30 days long, the other 29 days long. For more on this, see See "Adopting a Lunar Calendar".

Because these two periods will so strongly determine operations of all kinds, the terms "so much per day" and "so much per night" will become meaningless and be replaced by "so much [of an energy-intensive production operation] per dayspan" and "so much [of an energy-light and perhaps more labor intensive operation] per nightspan" will dominate economic analysis and planning.

Dead man's drag - A "space debris prevention" proposal that any orbiting satellite upon "going dead" automatically trigger and "unfolding" operation that would result in it experiencing increased drag and quicker deorbiting. Such a measure would be most effective for satellites in lower orbits where drag from very thin atmosphere is more effective. 

Deep Farside - The somewhat less than one third of farside that would retain the radio silence needed for radio astronomy and S.E.T.I. (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), in the probable event that communications satellites are deployed at the Earth-Moon L4 and L5 Lagrange points, orbiting in formation with the Moon, 60 ° ahead and 60 ° behind the Moon respectively, signals from which would reach 60° beyond each limb. See illustration at Relayside. 

Dessicatorium - One unusual idea for a cost-defraying enterprise that could be run our of a Little Mars base in an Antarctic dry valley (perhaps accessible Taylor) is a “Dessicatorium”, a place where people could be laid to rest in the open dry frigid air facing the brilliant winter starscapes above and naturally mummify. Faces and other exposed skin would need to be sun-shielded by UV-opaque glass least the flesh blacken from UV exposure. Screening to ward off scavenger skua birds would have to cover all exposures to the open air. If people are willing in enough numbers to have their cremated remains placed in an orbital mausoleum-satellite, they would go for this too. 

Something similar could be done on the Moon and Mars (say in the caldera of Olympus Mons!)

Diluvium - Latin for "flood" - a term suggested to signify irregular lava flooded valleys often found on th periphery of some maria. This term was part of a proposed by the editor for the Expansion of the System of Lunar Nomenclature.

Diurne - a proposed term for the 14.75 day long lunar daylight period. This term was soon replaced with Dayspan (Similarly, the proposed term Nocturne was replaced with Nightspan.)

Docklocks - see Matchports

Doctor moons - Phobos and Deimos, frequently lumped together with Mars as "Mars PhD"

Donut hybrid modules - see Hybrid Rigid Inflatables

Downshipments - see Upports

Downports - see Upports and Econosphere

Dunnage -  loose materials used to support and protect cargo in a ship's hold ; also : padding in a shipping container. 

These materials will get free passage to the Moon by being charged to the items they protect. This provides an opportunity to make such packaging materials out of something that can easily be recycled into goods for the settlement, particularly, materials largely composed of elements that are relatively rare on the Moon:

• volatiles like hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen;
• metals found on the Moon only in trace amounts: copper, zinc, lead, gold, silver, platinum, etc.; and
• agricultural nutrients and fertilizer stuffs not found in regolith.

See "Stowaway Imports"

Dustlining - On the Moon, with no atmosphere, there is no incentive for "streamlining" to cut air drag. However, there may be vehicle body design features that minimize the accumulation of moondust. If so, we might dub this "dustlining"

Dynequator - a proposal to girdle the Moon with a superconducting cable which would feed settlements and installations along its path and by junction line, to either side.

See Marequtor

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Earth, names for - see  Anthropa, Ga, Magellana, Tellus, Terra, Terrestra

Earth Flags - This entry is under construction

"Earth-like planets", "M-Class Planets" - We've all heard these phrases but no one seems to have tried to get at the essence of what they mean. For our attempt at a precise, get-to-the-essence definition, see Hydo-tectonic Worlds

Earthpatch ("Patch of Old Earth" - a proposed central garden space in lunar homesteads where homeowners could grow ornamental plants or vegetables, herbs, spices, berries, and aromatic plant for their own enjoyment or as a basis for a Cottage Industry, which, as the settlement and its market population grows could supply neighborhood markets and one day move out of the homestead to become a full-time enterprise. Many enterprises on the Moon will start as part-time homestead Cottage Industries.

East - East can be defined as the direction of rotation with the north to one's left. For some reason, those talking about orientation withing an artificial gravity environment where gravitational "down" is outward, not inward, have adopted new words: spinward and anti-spinword. But check it out, and East and West remain valid inside space settlements for spinward and anti-spinward There is no reason to coin new words.

Except for the strong influence of Coriolis forces. Azimuth direction of motion will mater a lot in such environments. It will be a big help to color code walls and fences and other horizonal markers to designate the compass direction so as to determine what "English" you have to put on your own body or on a ball to get it to go where you want most efficiently. Here is one suggestion.

Ecliptic - the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun. By an act of unexamined terrestrial chauvinism, astronomers use this plane to characterize the orbits of all other bodies in the solar system.

There is good reason to abandon the ecliptic for this purpose, as handy and easy as it may be. But nothing will be done until there are people living elsewhere who demand a change.

In fact, as 75 % of the total angular momentum of the Solar System, of the Sun's own mass included, lies in the orbital plane of Jupiter. That plane, not Earth's should be the basis of any neutral and more scientifically grounded coordinate system.

Econosphere - the envelope within which, and to the limits of which, the human global economy extends. As of 2007, $139 Billion dollars of economic activity was accounted for by satellite data sales (communications, GIS services, satellite-to-home TV principally) in Geosynchronous Earth Orbit and Low Earth Orbits. GEO is 54,000 miles in diameter and 170,000 miles in circumference.

We an expect the Econosphere to expand to include resource-development and industrialization on the Moon, and eventually to include the asteroids and Mars, and beyond.

Ultimately, the Human Econosphere will be co-extensive with the Solar System or "Consolarcy" as our civilization continues its transition from continental (Africa) to intercontinental (global) to interplanetary. See traderoutes - See "Upports"

Electra - 3rd day of the Pleiad -  See "Pleiad"

Encyclobin - a proposed hyper-organized or multi-dimensional matrix type data base in which the settlement can keep track of every gram of reject and byproduct and waste in every category of material from all its industries and enterprises. Any enterprise would be able to access this resource bank and find out which of its needs is available, where, and for how much. Any discarded material has already had work done on it - if only the sorting, and putting that expended work to profitable use, instead of losing it in a default waste regime, will enhance by that much the net productivity of the community.

Ennium - A word coined from mill-ennium. A short year-like period of 12 lunar months or 354 days. Lunar months shift in dates year after year repeating every 19 years (See Metonic Period below)

• The Islamic lunar year is the "Ennium" - twelve lunar months, no makeup days
• The Judaic lunar year adds a thirteenth lunar month when needed to keep its year count in line.
• There is no neat way to mesh "Enniums" with Years. All attempts to do so end in frustration

See "Adopting a Lunar Calendar"

Epic of Humankind told in Footprints 

Europids or Oceanids - Europa-like moons . with ample water oceans kept liquid by tidally-induced heating under vacuum-packed ice crust seals.

Such moons, circling gas giant planets or brown dwarfs whether these "primaries" orbit suns, as does Jupiter, or are interstellar rogues could be by far the most common type of environment for emergent life in the universe. "Europids" could outnumber "Earth-type" planets a thousand to one. 

See "Oceanids" in MMM Classic #4 pp.  47-49.

Exhaust Barriers for Lunar Spaceports - see Spaceport Exhaust Barriers

 

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F.A.R.A.F. - Farside Advanced Radio Astronomy Facility

With the expectation of lunar relay satellites in the Lagrange L4 and L5 points 60° ahead of and behind the Moon in its orbit, only the central 60° orange slice of the Moon's Farside will enjoy deep radio silence from which to listen to the whispers of the stars without static from Earth. - See illustration at "relayside"

Farm Village - settlements beyond Earth will almost certainly have to be basically large farms, each supporting a relatively small village. Vegetation must host people, not people vegetation! The idea that we can survive with just a few houseplants and telephone-booth size vegetable growing trays under LED lights is absurd. That may work in a minimal environment such as an outpost habitat, for a time, but certainly does not support sustainability. In previous eras, the village was surrounded by the farms which sustained us. Today there is a total disconnect, and people lose sight of the fact that cities and farms are inseparable.

Fetus-in-the-Moon - Man-in-the-Moon my foot! Looks to me more like a fetus in the Moon, the fetus of the human civilization that could arise and flourish there, given the development and utilization of our present capacities and lots of dedicated non-mercenary hard work. Otherwise,
the fetus-in-the-Moon will surely be stillborn, or worse, aborted. And then we will have the Ghost-in-the-Moon!

[PK]

Fiberglass Glass Matrix Composites - see Glass-Glass Composites

Fireplaces on the Moon? - What is quintessentially more human than gathering around a campfire? The campfire has been domesticated into the fireplace thousands of years ago. But on the Moon, in pressurized environments where you can't open a window to let in fresh air, much let allow air, smoke-filled or otherwise, to escape to the vacuum outside up a chimney? Even the canned gel type fireplace-wannabes would pollute a contained environment to an unacceptable level! Time for brainstorming!

Firmament - In prescientific times, the sky and the heavens were imagined to be the inside of a hollow sphere that contained the world and all reality. This sphere was a "firm" shield.

In the future, this term may have a ressurected validity. Space Settlements are "contained worldlets" to which this description may apply. It could apply to domed cities also. but except in cases in which pressures inside and outside the dome were fairly equal, large domes will be an engineering impossibility. On Europa, the global ocean is contained by a firmament-like global ice crust.

Floating Hub - a proposal that allows the hub of rotating structure such as a torus to float between two constraining bars in order to remain at the center of gravity, which in an occupied structure, would allows be shifting by small amounts as people and objects moved along the outer torus wheel.

See "The Frontier Builder: An Earth-Moon Hotel Cruise Ship"

Foresakers - a term for pioneers going to frontiers beyond Earth intending to stay "for good"

Fretum - Latin for "strait" - a term suggested for a proposed by the editor for the Expansion of the System of Lunar Nomenclature.

Frog - See Amphibious Vehicle

 

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Ga - Greek name for "Earth" - see Anthropa, Magellana, Tellus, Terra, Terrestra

Gaia, Gaian - Gaia was the Greek goddess of the Earth. The word now commonly refers to Earth Life as a complex interdependent whole and as capable of adapting to slowly changing geological and climatological environments/

Galilean Moons - Jupiter has 60-some natural satellites. By this term is meant the four large moons, two-Moon-sized (Io and Europa) and two Mercury-sized (Ganymede and Callisto) discovered in 1610 by Galileo.

Gateway Grand Central - Mercury could someday become the "Grand Central Station" of the Solar system. Its quick orbit around the Sun gives it shorter times between launch windows to anywhere than via any other transfer point. Yes, this is a far future possibility.

See "Gateway Grand Central" MMM Classics #8, pp.38-39

Geoscopy - Dedicated scanning of the Earth’s surface, is an area in which lunar surface installations may in some instances be less expensive to deploy, cheaper to maintain, and less constrained by size and mass restrictions than those incorporated into Earth orbiting satellites. Interferometric remote sensing in the full range of the visual spectrum as well as in other ranges of electromagnetic radiation could become a modest money earner.

Glass Glass Composites - A composite material consisting of glass fibers made from a material with a relatively high melting point, such as lunar highland regolith, embedded in a matrix made of material with a relatively low melting point, such as lunar mare regolith doped with (option 1) lead imported from Earth, or more economically with (option 2) lunar sodium and potassium.

Glass-glass-composites have been suggested as a lunar building material that could be used to construct many elements of a Solar Power Satellite. The material could conceivably have many applications on the Moon itself for fabricating habitat modules, vehicle bodies, "case goods" furniture (tables, chairs, dressers, etc.)

A proposed "spin-up" business plan for pre-developing Glass-Glass Composites for profitable terrestrial applications. 

Glass, Raw - see Raw Glass

Glax™ - MMM's proposed trade name for Glass-Glass-Composites made as suggested just above, in the second option, just above.

Gravitrak - a concept for a a Mag-lev “train” on an appropriately banked circular track on the surface, or in a tunnel for shielding, that would provide a variable level of artificial gravity in access of that provided on the body it is placed (the Moon or on Ceres or in Phobos' Stickney Crater as examples.) The purpose would be to allow personnel to maintain a higher level of muscular and cardiovascular health, and readiness to return to Earth's relatively deep and high-G gravity well.

An alternate design would be to use a "maypole" system as opposed to a fixed track.

Gray-water Systems - Perhaps the biggest challenge to creating a working mini-biosphere system is the handling of human wastes. The Wolverton system, created by a retired NASA environmental engineer decades ago, has a unique system that does extra duty. It not only cleans the water - the effluent leaving the system is 95% pre-treated, it fills the home where it is installed with greenery, fresh sweet air, and ambiance. And yes, his wife is happy. 

This kind of system, installed in every habitat or activity module where there is toilet, would greatly contribute to a modular biospheric system which would grow apace with the physical complex of the settlements. Total reliance on centralized systems disallows growth.

Great Home - the “Great Home” Concept: considering that lunar shelter must be overburdened with 2-4 meters of radiation-absorbing soil, and that vacuum surrounds the home, expansion at a later date will be considerably more expensive and difficult than routine
expansion of terrestrial homes. Better to start with “all the house a family might ever need”, and grow into it slowly, than to start with initial needs and then add on repeatedly. Extra rooms can, of course, be blocked off so as not to be a dark empty presence. But they can also be rented out to individuals and others not yet ready for their own home, or waiting for one to be built.

Green  - (paint color) see regolith impressionism (We used Chromium Oxide - and made pastel tints by adding titanium dioxide white and/or pale yellow sulfur)

For Stained Glass, out are chromium-beryllium, lead chromate, copper, and copper-vanadium preparations now in use. A blend of yellowing vanadium and bluing zircon in the presence of sodium fluoride (if fluorine can be produced, a difficult but
high industrial priority) is an option. Praseodymium (from KREEP deposits) phosphate with a calcium fluoride additive is another. The deep emerald green of chromium oxide may be
the standby. This could be blended with available yellows and blues to produce neighboring tints.

 

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Habule - Habitat Module

Harenobraking  - [from "hareno-"or "areno-" Latin for sand] Famed rocket scientist, Krafft A. Ehricke, in his paper “Lunar Industrialization and Development – Birth of Polyglobal Civilization," included in Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century, W. W. Mendell, Editor, Lunar & Planetary Institute, Houston, © 1985, pp. 828-55, wrote (pp. 848-850) about his concept of a Lunar Slide Lander. 

Most of the velocity an incoming craft needs to shed is horizontal velocity relative to the lunar surface. Ehricke proposed an 80 km (50 mile) landing strip. The surface would be raked free of boulders and stone to a depth of 20-50 cm (8-20 inches) leaving just compacted moondust. The Slide Lander could touch down at velocities as high as 5500 km/hr (3,400 mi/hr) gradually transferring its momentum to the landing strip over the
80 kilometer stretch. The slide or skids would have to bear up under considerable heat from friction. But Ehricke thinks this is a doable engineering challenge. 

Subsequently, Doug Armstrong (LRS, NSS-Milwaukee) and the editor tried to brainstorm this idea further. We added a louvered dust-spray control device that would slow the lander beyond what mere friction might do.

Harpoon braking - A vehicle or probe on a mission to land on a a small asteroid (Gaspra), instead of using rocket fuel to reduce its flyby velocity, could use a tethered penetrator to “harpoon” the asteroid with an anchoring device on a high-tensile-strength line and convert its velocity to a tethered orbital form. Some members were concerned that 1) the moment of impact would strain the “saddle horn”, i.e. bring on too-sudden a g-force jerk and/or 2) the tether would wrap around Gaspra and bring the vehicle to final contact at the surface with excessive velocity. 

The benefit of this method is reduced travel time, with braking concentrated at the end of the trip. The concept needs considerable development as to anchor mechanism and reliability, and the specifications for the tether and its tie to the vehicle.

This exercise in brainstorming was the fruit of Breakout Group 2 (of 3) at the Asteroid Workshop conducted at ISDC 1993 in Huntsville, Alabama, by Peter Kokh and Mark Kaehny of the Lunar Reclamation Society (NSS Milwaukee) and Bill Higgins of the NSS Chicago chapter.  For the full report, see. MMM Classic #8 pp. 2-4. Participants in Group 2 were: Bill Higgins, (moderator) Lucien Faust (Author of the report that follows), Clarice Lolich , David Kalman, Welburne D. Johnson II, M.D., and Jay Robinson.

Helium-3 - There is precious little of the rare isotope of Helium, called Helium-3, on the Moon. In fact only one atom in four thousand of Helium (the normal form is Helium-4 consisting of two protons and two neutrons) is Helium-3 with only one neutron.

Helium is present on the Moon at all is due to the lunar surface having been buffeted by the Solar winds for billions of years. The particles in the solar wind adsorb to the fine particles in the upper layer of moondust.

What's so special about this resource is that if we ever successfully engineer sustainable nuclear fusion (our current "nukes" are all fission plants) an upgrade, burning at an even higher temperature with Helium-3 as its fuel, would produce no radioactive particles, but just electrically charged particles that can be turned into electricity directly. One could live inside a He-3 reactor and absorb less radioactivity than most of us do from the soil beneath our homes.

On Earth, we have only a few tons of He-3 as a byproduct of nuclear weapons manufacturing. On the Moon, there is enough if we harvested it all, "to bring the whole world up to the US standard of living and keep it there for a thousand years" and when that's gone, there is much much more in the atmosphere of Uranus. Of course, the catch is we have to catch the rabbit to make rabbit stew. We don't have fusion yet.

The Helium-3 / Deuterium Reaction below

See also Primage and accompanying illustration for He-3 mining by-products

Hermes Bounce - Mercury could someday become the "Grand Central Station" of the Solar system. Its quick orbit around the Sun gives it shorter times between launch windows to anywhere than via any other transfer point. Yes, this is a far future possibility.

See "Gateway Grand Central" MMM Classics #8, pp.38-39

Hewn Basalt - In addition to Cast Basalt (Tiles), solid basalt is hewn or carved into blocks for various uses. In lunar settlements along Highland/Mare coasts or in a Maria, road cuts through a slope might expose layers of solid basalt below the regolith blanket (2-5 meters/yards thick). This basalt is unlikely to be free of fractures, but could be hewn into blocks or bricks of various handy sizes. 

Blocks of solid basalt too small or irregular to be hewn into standard sizes of blocks or bricks, could be made available to artists for carving. Carved basalt has been a special art form from ancient Egyptian times down. See the carved Scarab, below.

Hood - An alternative to individually sheltered modular homes opening onto a residential street, might be a very large cylinder with the street at bottom center, and apartment homes in terraces up the lower walls. The editor, a long time resident of a challenged neighborhood commonly referred to at "the hood" used this name to christen this concept.

THE RESIDENTIAL STREET (‘HOOD) AS THE MODULE: Cross-Section of cylindrical module 40m x ?00 m: [1] shield louvers that let in the sunlight; [2] a suspended sky-blue diffusing “sky” - air pressure would be the same on both sides; [3] terraced residential housing with rooftop gardens; [4] the thoroughfare running the length of the (neighbor)’hood; [5] light industry and shopping, possibly offices and schools; [6] conduits for utilities.

Hostel -  a term used in the paper "The Lunar Hostel: An Alternate Concept for First Beachhead and Secondary Outposts" for sheltered sleeping space available to traveling campers, here refers to a pressurized structure offering minimally and inexpensively furnished “Big Dumb Volume” space for the private and communal use of visiting staff. The concept co-signifies a visiting vehicle to be close-coupled to the hostel for the duration, to provide a complementary “Small Smart Cranny” component. Such a partnership promises to allow hostel and vehicle to function conjointly as an integral, reasonably complete outpost in support of exploration, scientific research, prospecting, and processing experiments, allowing longer, more comfortable stays at minimum expense. In some later time of expanding presence, roadside hostels would facilitate safer, more regular travel between fully equipped distant outposts or settlements across the globe. By not duplicating equipment and facilities that are standard equipment aboard the visiting spacecraft, both the total amount of cargo landed on the Moon and the number of crew EVA hours necessary for establishing a given level of capability, are minimized. Thus the hostel approach has the potential to keep the economic threshold for an initial operational beachhead significantly lower than in other mission paradigms.

Hub, floating - see Floating Hub

Humanoid - What type of intelligent species deserves the categorization as "Humanoid?" an eyes-in-head viviparous (belly button) mammalian (teats) dexterous (arms, hands) biped living on the land of an ocean-shored planet with at least occasional clear nighttime glimpses of star-filled skies. Such a sentient would have enough in common with us in both structure and environment to merit the name “humanoid."  Now that definition is not an attempt to constrain the range of possibilities of an intelligent species! It is just meant to identify what "pretty much just like us" might include.

For the whole article see "What is a Humanoid?" in MMM Classic #7, pp. 3-4, and while you are at, for a fuller context, take in pages 2-8

Hybrid rigid-inflatables 50-6 - a term used in the paper "The Lunar Hostel: An Alternate Concept for First Beachhead and Secondary Outposts" for structures that have an inflatable component attached to and/or expanding out of a rigid component structure.

In the above-mentioned paper, four types were proposed

(a) a flat footprint "sandwich" model with a prefab floor section with pop-up built-ins and utilities, paired with a prefab ceiling section with built-in lighting and pull-down features, the two slab units connected by a peripheral inflatable wall.

(b) the "slinky", features rigid feature-packed cylindrical end caps connected by a cylindrical inflatable mid-section.

(c) a novel wide-floored lunar "quonset" with a stable footprint and favorable width to height ratio

(d) the "donut" or "moonbagel", with the donut-hole wall replaced with a compact payload-bay sized hexagonal "works" module loaded with pull-out built-in features including top mounted central solar, visual, and EVA access, side-wall vehicle docking port, decking erected from parts brought up in the core module's "basement"

(e) the "trilobite" - In the "trilobite", the core works cylinder lays on its side suspended between two larger inflatable cylinders.

Hydroshield  - Water, if used as shielding between two geodesic domes, would let in soft bluish sunlight. The plumbing & Engineering challenges are considerable. This is a complex concept to engineer and to "plumb." One has to insure that the water does not boil during intense dayspan heat, and that it does not freeze during deep nightspan cold. Engineering the glass domes is another issue. Using convex panes (glass is stronger under compression) may help. 

Note that Marshall Savage proposed building such a two layer water-filled dome over the Crater Copernicus to create an Earth-like environment below. With a proposed height of 38 km at top center, the water pressure at the base would exceed that in the Marianas Trench on Earth. So this concept is a wild fantasy. If we do use water as shielding, it will be on a much smaller scale.

Hydroelectric closed-loop systems on the Moon -  You don't need a river running from mountain to sea to build a hydroelectric power plant. You just need a "head" - a difference in height, and a way to inexpensively pump the water back up the "hill" so it can flow down again. Absurd? Not if you have an inexhaustible supply of cheap energy during the long lunar dayspan to pump the water uphill - intense lunar level sunlight - and no natural source of power during the equally long lunar nightspan!

Crater rims and rille shoulders will provide the head. Even in the 1/6th standard gravity of the Moon, some crater rim and rille slopes are effectively higher than the head at Niagara Falls. And the difference in height from the lunar surface to the bottom of a lavatube might do as well.

Read "A Hydroelectric Storage System" MMM Classics #4 pp 8-9

Hydrotectonic Worlds  - "Earth-like planet", "M-Class Planet" - We've all heard these phrases but no one seems to have tried to get at the essence of what they mean. "Hydrotectonic" is our definition: active tectonic processes in the presence of water, i.e. continents and oceans. Mars does not even come close. Any tectonic activities on Mars ground to a halt long ago, probably due to insufficient water and too swift an internal cooling.

See "Hydrotectonic Worlds" MMM Classic #4 pp. 40-42

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Igloo Shielding - On the Moon, we talk of shielding habitation structures with a generous blanket of moon dust, the rock powder top layer dubbed "regolith." On Mars, our firs thought may be to do the same. But to the casual eye, the surface of Mars looks pretty hard and compacted. It might be quite difficult to just bulldoze the Martian equivalent of lunar regolith and dump it on top of waiting structures.  Another consideration is that we might not want to disturb the area around our Mars base that much.

That Mars, unlike the Moon, has a considerable thin (1% of Earth's atmospheric pressure) suggests a tantalizing option. Composed mostly of Carbon dioxide, and Nitrogen, and air-mining three elements alone, is there a compound we could produce which would be a solid powder through the full temperature range found on Mars? Yes, there is one, Dinotrogen Pentoxide N205. We were elated at this, thinking of outfitting our lander with saddlebags which could be filled with this stuff pulled right out of Mars air without disturbing the surface at all. Below is a Pat Rawlings illustration of a similar Saddle Bag moondust containment system designed to keep shielding neat and clean.

Illustration of a Moondust Shielding Containment System

One little problem. Moon Society Advisor Geoffrey A. Landis assures us that N2O5 is explosively unstable! We don't know what it takes to set it off, but perhaps we don't need to find out. Maybe there is another way?

Incubator settlement -  In searching for the right word or phrase to describe an outpost designed to expand into a settlement, this word combination suggests "an artificial environment that enables fragile beginnings to become hardy enough to thrive outside."

Interface beachhead - In searching for the right word or phrase to describe an outpost designed to expand into a settlement, this word combination suggests: 

(interface) "a common boundary [between two worlds i.e. the life coddling Earth, and the barren and sterile Moon]; something that enables separate and sometimes incompatible elements to communicate:" 

(beachhead) "the area that is the first objective of a party landing on an alien shore, which once secured and established, can serve as a base of expansion of the occupation."

Interlocks - See Matchport

Issue wares  - [adapted from "GI" i.e. General Issue equipment] - Standard issue cookware, utensils, furniture, etc. given to all incoming personnel and settlers. It is up to them to either "trade up" or "customize" and indeed, "customizability" should be a design goal of all issue equipment.

Read the articles "Cinderella Style," "Furniture for the Lunar Homestead," and "Upholstery Fabrics, MMM Classic # 8 pp 32-34.

Issue wears 29-5 - [adapted from "GI" i.e. General Issue clothing] - Standard issue clothing given to all incoming personnel and setters. If they want to do so, they can either "trade up" of customize" these items, by sewing on adornments, fabric dying and painting, and other crafts so as to personalize them.

Read the articles "Apparel" and "Threads" in MMM Classics #2, pp. 15-16 and pp. 25-26, respectively

Ixion 43-843-8 - in Mythology, King of the Centaurs. We proposed giving his name to Alpha Centauri A. Alpha Centauri is a twin sun binary system and close enough a neighbor to merit giving its two suns individual names. See Nephthele.

See Alpha Centauri, MMM Classics #5 pp 13-15

 

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Jovian Ecliptic - As 75 % of the total angular momentum of the Solar System, of the Sun's own mass included, lies in the orbital plane of Jupiter. That plane, not Earth's should be the basis of any neutral and more scientifically grounded coordinate system. The push to abandon the Earth-centric system in favor of Jovian ecliptic will begin as the Martian frontier is settled.

Jovian Moons - Jupiter has 60-some natural satellites. But by this term, (Galilean Moons is the more common term) is meant the four large moons, two-Moon-sized (Io and Europa) and two Mercury-sized (Ganymede and Callisto).

Julian Stardate - see Stardate

 

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KD Industrial design - A growing movement in furniture construction these days is called "Knock-Down" design. Much appreciated by apartment owners and other renters frequently on the move, this kind of furniture is easily disassembled for moving, and easily reassembled at the new location. On the expanding lunar frontier there are two other reasons to apply knock down industrial design across the board.

1- MUS/cle: Many things, let's take a clothes washer for example, are assembled from both relatively simple and relatively complex components: a chassis and a works package, in this case motors and pumps and controls. For the Moon, this will mean manufacturing the chassis on location and then fitting it with a works package shipped up from Earth, both components designed for easy one-step assembly. MUS = components that are Unitary i.e. massive, or small things we need many of, and yet which are structurally Simple can be made on the frontier. "cle" items that are complex, lightweight, and/or electronic can be shipped up from Earth. This simple two-part formula is the key to building lunar industrial "muscle" one step at a time, in a way that maximizes total tonnage of what can be manufactured on the Moon, and minimizes what must be manufactured on Earth and upported up the steep gravity well at high expense. Design for "MUS/cle" ensures easy disassembly and proper recycling once the assembled item outlives its usefulness.

2- Disassembly of items assembled from components that must be recycled separately. Currently, manufacturers are in love with bonding adhesives that seem to make a seamless whole out of elements that so assembled cross-contaminate each other in away that the item cannot be recycled at all. We laminate organic synthetics to wood. We bond plastics and meta to wood, etc. etc. This reyclability-be-dammed attitude is perhaps the lead cause for the accelerating growth of landfills. On the Moon, everything thrown away embodies spent energy thrown away. And if recyclable materials are contaminated in this way so as to condemn them to the trash pile, that reduced the overall industrial efficiency of the settlement, and thus the financial bottom line. If lunar settlements are to survive and thrive, they must use and reuse materials and energy efficiently.

We call for the establishment of an Institute of Lunar-Appropriate Industrial Design, which would find new design pathways for attractive and functional goods that will allow easy disassembly and recycling. And we'll bet that many processes and design innovations will result that will spread here on Earth as well, helping save the environment. This is but one of many ways that learning to live in harmony with nature on the Moon, because the settlers will have no choice, will pay off in terms of export technology licenses alone.

KGB drop-in cores 74 - Kitchen-Garden-Bathroom complex with shared plumbing core. Use of standard, but customizable "works cores" would help constrain the cost, assembly time, and assembly labor in constructing lunar homesteads.

See MMM Classics #8, pp. 20-21

KREEP -  [K = potassium. REE = rare earth elements. P = Phosphorus] KREEP deposits are found in the splashout from the gigantic impact which formed Mare Imbrium, the Sea of Rains.

And they are: [cerium, dysprosium, erbium, europium, gadolinium, holmium, lanthanum, lutetium, neodymium, praseodymium, samarium, terbium, thulium, ytterbium, yttrium, ferrocerium, monazite, bastnasite, mischmetal]

While potassium and phosphorus are much needed for life and other purposes, some of the rare earth elements have their uses too. So the KREEP splashout along the Mare Imbrium rim is an invaluable resource, found nowhere else on the Moon (nb. at neither pole.) 

That simple fact should give those on the bandwagon to set up shop at the lunar south pole some pause. Along Mare Imbrium rim, as this is a "coastal area" both highland and mare regolith types are available.  This maria is well connected to the other maria that make up the nearside "mareplex" and will be a major traffic corridor. Passes to Mare Frigoris, to the North include the Alpine Valley, and there is a convenient gap in the Apennine Mountains which form the eastern rim into Mare Serenitatis to the East. A good spot for "New Chicago!"

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Labule - A laboratory module providing laboratory functions and work stations. (after Habule, a Habitat Module 

(1) Lacuna, -ae - a Latin word for "hole" - proposed as a classification name for voids below the lunar surface in which various gases may have accumulated. Such gasses may include Radon, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and other products of outgassing from the lunar mantle. If such pockets are found, they could be industrially significant, depending on the chemical makeup of the contained gasses. 

The Marius Hills in the eastern Ocean of Storms, Oceanus Procellarum, a known volcanic area, may be a prime place to look. In general, the lunar regolith or rock powder surface blanket is devoid in volatile elements other than those adsorbed to the particle fines from the Solar Wind. 

While lava tubes known to be common in the basalt lava flood layers that fill the lunar maria or "seas" might come under this class name, we are thinking of voids made by outgassing products that get trapped below a layer through which they cannot percolate upwards.

(2) Lacuna, -ae - a hidden pool, applying to a lava-filled crater such as Plato.  A term suggested for a proposed by the editor for the Expansion of the System of Lunar Nomenclature.

Lagrangian Sargassos - The Lagrange points, especially L4 and L5 both in the Earth-Moon system and in the Earth-Sun system are gravitationally stable areas that will tend to collect dust and debris, much as does the so-called Sargasso Sea  area in the North Atlantic Ocean

Lampport / Lightport - a light outlet in a light pipe system. See Light Pipes, below

Lavatubes - This entry is under construction

Lee-vac - is distinguished from Out-vac environments exposed to the cosmic elements: cosmic rays, solar flares, micrometeorite rain, and large thermal variations. Lee-vac environments are also  unpressurized but shielded from the cosmic elements and their consequences.  "Lee" meaning away from or protected from the wind, "out-vac" might be thought of as windward vacuum.

Out-vac excursions require more protection, i.e. heavier and more cumbersome space suits, whereas lee-vacuum activities need only counterpressure skinsuits, lighter to ware, and providing greater freedom of motion, hence less fatigue.

Lee-vac environments are ideal for warehousing, storage, and sports activities

Lee-vac Sports Arena - Lunar pioneers might dream of trying sporting events out in the open exposed outdoors - the "out-vac." Some will do that. But for those concerned about overexposure to cosmic radiation levels, raw ultraviolet, solar flares, extreme heat and cold, and micrometeorites - let alone cumbersome heavy spacesuits - there is another option. An Unpressurized arena, with indirect solar lighting, creates a relatively benign environment in which lightweight counterpressure skinsuits can be worn. Inside, people could experiment with individual and team sports that play to the light gravity and traction (but unchanged momentum) with zero air drag. We predict that they will come up with some interesting events that might be televised for the ABC "Wide Worlds of Sports" seen by billions back on Earth.

Lifeline utility service - on the Moon or Mars or other world's where a life-sustaining biosphere does not pre-exist but must be maintained within individual settlements, the concept of "lifeline utility service" refers to an individual's right to basic life-sustaining utilities within a private or common residence or shelter within the settlement, whether or not he/she can afford to pay for them. On Earth, it is much easier to "fend for oneself" than it will be on less-forgiving worlds.

A minimum amount of electric power for lighting and running basic level appliances

A minimal comfort level for heating and cooling, allowed to range between, say 55°F and 85°F with power to heat or cool only when the internal temperature drifts beyond those limits.

A minimum amount of refreshed water and refreshed air

A minimum access to produce (farm market seconds) and other foodstuffs, etc.

This concept protects those who fall between the cracks in a free-enterprise economy in a situation where one cannot just "live of the land" or "forage" for food, or "find shelter in a cave" etc. Motivation is still maintained in this system for those, presumably most, who want a greater level of comfort and a higher standard of living, to earn their keep.

Light Pipes - a light delivery system not unlike “drip irrigation.” Proposed for lunar habitat interior lighting, their whole function is to deliver light wherever needed, in the amount needed. Use of light pipes greatly reduces bulb replacement labor. 

Light pipes can be fed by channeled sunlight during the lunar dayspan, and by very bright external and efficient sulfur lamps during the lunar nightspan, using the same light delivery system as that for sunlight.

Limelight - covering a lunar structure with a layer of calcium oxide (lime) to increase its brightness (albedo) so it will stand out in a view from space.

Liquid Airlocks - A continuous loop conveyor provided with the appropriate grip/release system with one end in the external vacuum, the other in the internal pressurized environment, will allow transit of small size objects, through a suitable liquid barometric barrier, on a production basis without the venting of air (nitrogen and/or oxygen) such as occurs in the conventional vestibule-type cycling airlock. The necessary height of the J-shaped liquid-holding tube depends on the interior air pressure level (e.g. 1 ATM standard or 0.5 ATM proposed) and the density of the chosen liquid, mercury (an element present on the Moon only in parts per billion) being the ideal, gallium being a second best, and water the least effective.

'Lith - a short version of "regolith"

'Lithscaping - landscaping the lunar regolith surface

'Lithwrights - one making something out of the Moon's regolith

Little Luna - a proposed Lunar Analog Facility in one of the Antarctic Dry Valleys

Little Mars - a proposed Mars Analog Facility in one of the Antarctic Dry Valleys

Littoral Vacuum - the near_surface vacuum surrounding the Moon and other airless bodies. On the Moon, this "shore" boundary layer of "space" is relatively dust-free except when the sunrise terminator passes through an area.- See "out-vac"

Living Walls - Modular vertical plant-filled systems which actively filter a building's air. Taking up wall space which might otherwise go unused, rather than precious floor space, such units can go anywhere from living rooms to hallways to offices to laboratories. The Living Wall concept has enormous potential to make a modular approach to biospherics work.

Lowellification - terraforming or rejuvenating Mars to the stage that Percival Lowell imagined Mars to be, having a thin atmosphere yet thick enough to still maintain life within strip oases bordering the canals he imagined he saw in his telescope criss-crossing Mars. It has long been known that these were artifacts of an imaginative connecting of borderline visible features on Mars.

L.U.N.A. - An acronym name for a proposed (Moon Society - NSS) Lunar Analog Research Station with these proposed definitions:

Lunar Utilization & Necessities Analog (MMM #148)

Lunar Underground Network Accelerator (MMM #194)

Lunar Underground Nucleus Analog (MMM #2000

Luna Cotta - a take-off on "Terra Cotta", the matte light rust unglazed ceramic of common flower pots. Terra Luna, made of steam-rusted moondust which is then compressed into a mold and micro-wave sintered, could add a welcome bit of "anything but gray" color to lunar homesteads/ The color goes great with plants and could be used for statues and other artifacts as well.

Lunan, Lunans - What pioneers of the Moon or Luna should be called. The overwhelming paradigm for the inhabitants of places ending in -a: 

Roma - Romans, Alaska - Alaskans, Nigeria-Nigerians, Iowa - Iowans. 

Yes, there are "exceptions": China - Chinese, Panama - Panamanians. But the total number of exceptions is minor. There is absolutely no justification for "Lunatics" or "Lunarians" or other words often used from a lack of awareness of this basic paradigm. 

Lunar Prospector Team - In 1988 and 1989, a team of space activists, using ISDC 1988 in Denver and the Lunar Polar Orbiter Conference in Houston, working under the direction of Space Studies Institute (Gregg Maryniak) with support from Lockheed who agreed to pay for the loan and services of Dr. Alan Binder for one year, launched the Lunar Prospector effort. It was to be a long road, but eventually Binder's team secured a NASA Discovery Mission slot and Lunar Prospector was launched on a highly successful 18 month mission to search for indications of ice in permanently shaded polar craters, 1998-9. 

Lunar Prospector Team Mission Patch - History

Lunese - Characteristically Lunan words, phrases, and figures of speech

Lunox - Oxygen produced from lunar regolith, usually stored in tanks in liquid form 

 

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"M-Class Planets"- A familiar term used in the Star Trek TV series for "Earth-like planets."

For an attempt to identify a more accurate term, see Hydro-tectonic planets

Magellana - a proposed "proper name" for Earth - the idea being to name our planet after the first person to lead an expedition to circumnavigate it, Ferdinand Magellan.  

This choice is designed to coordinate with the proposal to name our Sun-star after the first person to realize that our home star was the center of our system, Nikolas Copernicus, i.e. Copernica, not Earth as in the Ptolemaic Cosmology.

Maia - 7th day of the Pleiad -  See "Pleiad"

Marequator 79-14 - Some writers have proposed lunar equator-following roads, railroads, and even superconducting cables. The path of least resistance suggests a route that rises to the north of the equator on the nearside and to the south of the equator on the nearside to take advantage of the more easily-traversed stretches across the available maria lava plains.

M.A.R.S. - see "Mars Antarctic Research Simulation" MMM Classics # 7 pp. 11-12

Marsdate - Many people have tried to craft a Mars Calendar. Some approach it as mathematicians, trying to come up with the most elegant way to divide a period of 668.5991 sols. But how you work leap years is less important than how well you reflect more experientially significant factors such as the seasons, as well as how well you accommodate to familiar human rhythms including feasts, festivals, and holidays. The calendar's primary function is to serve as a vehicle of human culture. It's service to astronomers and culturally disconnected mathematicians should be secondary.

A correlative issue is determining the anchor point for year one. Suggestions have been the landing date of Viking 1, the formation of the Mars Society, the date when Mars was first viewed through a telescope. These dates can serve as start dates, of as anchor dates from which Year 1 is figured as so many years prior. 

The Viking 1 date marked the first successful soft landing on Mars - a Soviet probe had crash-landed earlier. But the Viking 1 date marked the first time humans viewed the surface of Mars close up from an on-the-surface vantage point. That was certainly a watershed moment.

Ultimately the new Martians will decide all these issues. We can only offer suggestions.

The Editor's own "Mars Pulse" Calendar.

Marslegs - see Moonlegs

Matchport - To go from one Lunar city to another, or from the city to the space port or other outlying installations, or to transfer from one vehicle to another, all vehicles and city docks or marinas will be equipped with standardized matchports or interlocks. These will probably be of unisex design rather than male-female.

The idea is both to avoid having to don and doff spacesuits to go somewhere else on the Moon, and to minimize the loss of air (scarce nitrogen as well as abundant oxygen) to pollute the industrially and scientifically valuable lunar vacuum. 

Except for some prospecting work and for die-hard out-vac sportsmen, most people will don spacesuits only in decompression drills, like our fire drills.

Maypole - see Gravitrak

Merope - 2nd day of the Pleiad -  See "Pleiad"

Meta-Xity - This is a plan to cluster Space Settlements beyond mere twosomes, by attaching them in counter-rotating pairs to a common grid that would provide solar power, station-keeping, and spaceport services in a much larger metropolitan "polymer" pattern, supporting "nation-size" populations with greater economic and trading power as well as more educational and cultural activities and industrial and research concentrations.

Taking Space Settlements beyond O'Neill's dreams!

See "Meta-Xity" MMM Classics #6 pp. 35-36

M.E.T.E.  - Modular Element Testbed. Pre-engineering complex utility modules to be used in lunar construction.

See MMM Classics #8, pp. 21-22

Methanox engines - see "Oochie Engines"

Micro-G(ravity) - see "Zero-G(ravity)"

Middoors - On Earth we have been familiar with the distinction between indoors and outdoors for many thousands of years. In the last two decades or so, a new environment, the middoors, has become familiar to most of us in the form of the enclosed, climate-controlled streets and plazas of many a shopping mall. The "landscaped," sunlit central atrium in some new hotel and office buildings offers another kind of model.

On the Moon, the middoors will be that part of the settlement within its minibiosphere that is commonspace: parks, some agricultural areas, malls, even the maze of pressurized streets and passageways. Within the middoors temperatures might be allowed to fluctuate on daily and seasonal patterns according to the "climate" chosen by the settlement founders.

The middoors unites all pressurized spaces so that one can go anywhere in the settlement without a space suit, but possibly with seasonal outerwear.

The Middoors is to be distinguished not only from the fully exposed out-vac, but from the protected lee-vac reserved for warehousing and other activities including some kinds of sports activities.

Mini-G(ravity) - a gravity level significantly larger than the "micro-gravity" of within structures in free space  but smaller than that needed as an aid to bodily functions. 

If human physiological adaptation to Lunar 1/6th gravity or sixthweight turns out to be acceptable, that would mean we could also adapt to worlds with very similar gravities: Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Titan. 

One-sixth gravity is mathematically infinitely greater than zero gravity, and common prognostication based on experience of long duration stays in orbit that we can't adapt to lunar gravity is intellectually not deserving of respect. Physiological levels could deteriorate on the Moon as well, but then level off on a plateau significantly higher than we find for astronauts who stay a year or more in orbit. The only way to be sure is to take the plunge. Putting personnel on the Moon for stays of a year or more will tell. The betting odds are with the immense adaptability of life.

But adaptation to the much lower gravity of Ceres at barely 3% G or 1/6th Lunar gravity, might be less successful. And from there, among the asteroids, its all downhill.

Monotreme drain systems - see Tritreme drain systems

Moon, the Moon, the moon - two comments:

(1) Sometimes the dictionary can be dead wrong. For all the reasons "Moon" should be capitalized when referring to Luna, see "Capital "M" for Moon" MMM Classics # 4, page 2. The Editor will die rather than yield on this point.

(2) One now hears and reads "Earth" without the "The" before it. Usage is changing. It is probably only a matter of time before are commonly referring to Moon, rather than The Moon. Usage has always defined what is correct. It is only recently that self-appointed guardians of the language have attempted to petrify it in a state to their pedantic taste.

Moonbagel - see Hybrid Rigid Inflatables

Moondust Lawnmower- A device proposed by Dr. Lawrence Taylor, U-TN that capitalizes on the magnetic character of nanophase iron that is fairly uniformly distributed in the regolith powder fines that comprise 80% of moondust by weight. This is one of several new concepts that plays upon the mischevious characteristics of moondust to control it.

Moondust Vacuum Cleaner - A device proposed by Dr. Lawrence Taylor, U-TN that capitalizes on the magnetic character of nanophase iron that is fairly uniformly distributed in the regolith powder fines that comprise 80% of moondust by weight. Also described as a magnetic "elephant trunk" that sucks up lunar dust. This is one of several new concepts that plays upon the mischevious characteristics of moondust to control it.

Moon Flags - This entry is under construction

Moonlegs - We all saw how the astronauts loped around on the Moon. But they were there only for a short time, a few days at most. Will future Moon-stationed personnel, in larger pressurized habitats where they could try real "walking" without spacesuits (no room to try that in the cramped Lunar Modules!) learn to walk more naturally? Or will even those personnel stationed for years on the Moon, still fail to find their "moonlegs." 

Maybe we will have to see how native born Lunans grow up and handle "walking" and "running" and sports activities.  The Apollo lope might turn out to be something peculiar to newcomers.

Getting around on Mars will be an adjustment also, but a lesser one.

Moon roofs - At first it may seem a stretch of an analogy, but a mound of regolith over a habitat structure sheds micrometeorite rain and protects from other cosmic weather much like the roof of a terrestrial home. 

But unlike common homes on Earth, this "moon roof" will often be the only exposed evidence of the shelter below, and options to decorate and personalize this covering may be a welcome opportunity to some pioneers.

See "Moonroofs" - MMM Classics #6, page 23.

Moon surface area compared to Earth - Many people do not have a good grasp of how the Moon compares to Earth in size. It is much smaller, but yet of considerable size. 

As small as it looks, the Moon has a surface area of over 14 million square miles, about as much as:
• Africa and Australia combined (closest match) - it is a very common mistake to say "as large as Africa" which is more than 2 million square miles less extensive than the Moon.
•  Africa and Europe (less Russia) combined, or
• Canada, the USA, China and Brazil combined - picture Canada and the USA covering the nearside, China and Brazil covering the farside.
While Earth has 13.5 times as much surface area, the full Earth, as seen from the Moon is 60 times brighter than the full Moon seen from Earth. While the Moon's surface is fairly dark, Earth's clouds and snow and ice packs reflect a lot of light.

Moonwood - an as yet untried experiment to determine if fiberglass-sulfur composites would produce a useful building or craft material on the Moon. Ever since it became mandated to clean coal-burning exhaust of sulfur, sulfur has become so cheap on the market that many experiments have been performed including sulfur roofing shingles and sulfur building blocks.

This is a ventilated basement workshop project that has not been tried for lack of time. Stay tuned.

M.U.S./c.l.e. Strategy for Lunar Industrial Design - You will have noticed that our "muscle" was spelled as a two part acronym, "M.U.S. - c.l.e.". For our strategy calls for the M.U.S ( Massive, Unitary, Simple ) parts to be made by the settlement and the c.l.e. ( Complex, Lightweight, and Electronic ) components to be made on Earth for upport and mating on the Moon ( or early space colony ). Here then is the logical formula for giving industrial muscle to the early settlement still too small to diversify into a maze of subcontracting establishments. It is a path that has been trod before. It plays on the strengths of the lunar situation and relies on the early basic industries: lunacrete, iron-steel, ceramic, and glass-glass composites (Glax™).

See KD Industrial Design

 

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Necton Speed - How fast do we have to go to be meaningfully star-faring? Stars routinely drift through space on their various circum-galactic orbits at speeds relative to one another up to 30 km/sec.  That's 1/10,000th the speed of light. A space craft attempting to travel beyond the solar system at a speed of that rate or lower is in fact, only "drifting" between the stars. We have dubbed that "Plankton Speed" Plankton are multi-cellular creatures that drift in the ocean. Nekton are those that truly "swim." 

Whether we are talking of unmanned probes, or hypothetical interstellar Arks or seed ships, if we are not doing one thousandth of the speed of light, 300 km per second, "we ain't going nowhere!"

Negative Zero-G, Negative micro-gravity - these may seem absurd concepts but consider!

Vesta, the second or third largest asteroid after Ceres (the other is Pallas), is arguably the largest solid rock body with a cold interior, in a convenient orbit. (Pallas which might otherwise qualify, is inclined to the general solar system plane by 35°)

Drill/excavate a shaft to its gravitational center of masss. At that point anything will experience negative micro-gravity with equal pull from Vesta's own mass in all directions outward. Would there be advantages for placing the ultimate physics lab at this location?

Nephthele - in Mythology, Queen of the Centaurs. We proposed giving her name to Alpha Centauri B. Alpha Centauri is a twin sun binary system and close enough a neighbor to merit giving its two suns individual names. See Ixion.

See Alpha Centauri, MMM Classics #5 pp 13-15

Niagara Interglacial - in a friendly amendment to the BC (BCE) / AD (CE) dating system, we propose adding an even 10,000 years so that for most of datable human events, all dates are positive numbers. This system would much better reflect the age of human culture, and by keeping the current year 1 A.D. as 10,001 retain the "christocalibration of the current dating system for the many to whom this is important. In fact 10,001 seems more pregnant with significance than 1

But in this revision the era designations BC, AD, BCE (before common era), and CE (common era) are equally inapplicable. We proposed NI, Niagara Interglacial as a name for our current geological/climatological period. Welcome to the 121st Century! That does suggest a much richer human heritage, one much more deserving of protection and of carrying on and preserving, a goal that should motivate all of us, those who would stay on Earth and those that would carry Earth Life and Culture outward to seed the Solar System and beyond.

Nightspan - Dayspan - what about the terms "day" and "night" themselves as they apply to timekeeping on the Moon?

Within the pressurized light-controlled living areas, settlers will want to maintain the 24 hour standard sequence, and to use the terms "day" and "night" accordingly. 

To avoid confusion, they will either need to qualify those given terms or find other ones when referring to the sunshine-darkness periods on the surface, fourteen plus times as long, or sluggish. After playing with a lot of possible expressions and new coinages, we published a suggestion several years ago to use the terms "dayspan" and "nightspan" for these longer periods. These terms are being borrowed by a number of other writers.

Nimby ports - N.I.M.B.Y. - "Not In My Back Yard!" - toxic wastes unwelcome most anywhere on Earth could be shipped to isolated locations on the Moon, where the sterile landscape imposes quarantine and isolation. At such sites, they could be "mined" for valuable elements and compounds. This could conceivably become a significant sector for the lunar economy.

See Port N.I.M.B.Y. - MMM Classics # 4, pp 15-17

Nocturne - see Diurne

North - the direction to the left of spinward (East). In artificial gravity envrionments, it makes a difference! See East

Nuclear Fuels Industry on the Moon?- Orbital probes have identified areas of the Moon that are rich in Thorium, an element that can be turned into fissionable Uranium-233 in a breeder reactor. Should, at some time in the future, transport not of nuclear engines, but of nuclear fuel through Earths atmosphere be forbidden by treaty, Lunar Thorium could fuel fleets of fast nuclear powered rockets that would better be able to open the Mars Frontier. Of all things a Moon settlement could do to support the penning of Mars, this might come at the top.

 

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Obliviside - a more appropriate "nickname" for the lunar farside. Pioneers who settle here will  be quicker to evolve their culture into something less reminiscent of Earth, which being always "out of sight" will the sooner become "out of mind." Of course, those who visit nearside often will be proportionately slower to feel this effect.

See Peek-a-boos, Postcardlands, Crooknecks

Oceanids or Europids - Europa-like moons . with ample water oceans kept liquid by tidally-induced heating under vacuum-packed ice crust seals.

Such moons, circling gas giant planets or brown dwarfs whether these "primaries" orbit suns, as does Jupiter, or are interstellar rogues could be by far the most common type of environment for emergent life in the universe. "Europids" could outnumber "Earth-type" planets a thousand to one. 

See "Oceanids" in MMM Classic #4 pp.  47-49.

Oochie engines - engines that burn bottled oxygen (O2, or OO) with bottled methane (CH4)

Natural gas which is mostly Methane, fuels many vehicles today. However the motors burn it with the oxygen in air which is 4/5th nitrogen. Methane power is also common in farm-run machinery, as this gas is a derivative of compost manure decay;

If we experimented with engines that burn pure methane and pure oxygen, we could debug and accelerate the development of mature technology engines that would power vehicles and generators on Mars. Why wait until we get there? This could be a University level engineering challenge competition with annual potential.

Oort Foam - the Oort cloud of icy comet-like bodies is imagined to extend outward from the sun for a light year or more. If this type of outer solar system population is common, then the fringes of separate Oort clouds must frequently commingle. 

Occasionally on scales of tens of millions of years, we experience a comet rain with potential consequences for interrupting the peaceful progress of evolution on Earth.

Why chalk this up to a passing star interfering with our own Oort cloud. Is it not more obvious that these events occur as our solar system passes through the Oort cloud of another star as we pass one another in our separate routes around the galaxy core?

See "Oort Foam" MMM Classic #4, pp. 62-63

"Open" Space Frontier - "A future in which people of all walks of life have access to, and live, work, and play in various settings off Earth."

The NSS Mission Statement reads: "to promote change in social, technical, economic, and political conditions to advance the day when people will live and work in space, through public education, political and local chapter activism, and the publication of the bi-monthly Ad Astra Magazine."

The NSS "Mission-centered goal: by 2010: human settlement in space with 25 people, launch costs under $50/lb to orbit, and space-generated revenues of $60 billion."

This reflects crucial influence of former L5 Society members who chose to stay on board at the time of the L5 - National Space Institute merger in 1987 which created NSS.

As NSS seems overtly preoccupied with reacting to one crisis after another in which political pressures would erode the current socialized space program (in the direction of no program at all) it might seem to the unfamiliar outside observer that NSS' sole purpose is to promote the continuance of the government's "closed" frontier policy ("astronauts only, government outposts only, scientific activities only") in effect since the dawn of the Space Age with Sputnik in 1957. The NSS Board, however, is firmly on record in support of an "open" frontier. Given its preoccupation, however, it is clear that the rest of us must work that much harder at strategies that Open the Frontier; outside NSS, if need be.

Openvac - a vehicle or other activity platform that does not have a pressurized compartment for the driver or operator, but is open to the surrounding vacuum on the Moon or similar bodies. On Mars something similar might be dubbed "open-marsair"

Ora, Orae - a term meaning "Coast" or "Coastal Land"-  a term suggested for a proposed by the editor for the Expansion of the System of Lunar Nomenclature.

Orange - (paint color) see regolith impressionism - Unsupportable lunar options are Uranium-cadmium and chromium-iron-zinc. Glazers may have to blend available reds and yellows such as ferric oxide and sulfur.

For Stained Glass, unsupportable lunar options are Uranium-cadmium and chromium-iron-zinc. Glazers may have to blend available reds and yellows.

Orbitel - an orbiting hotel (parallel to motel from motor hotel)

Oregon Moonbase - During the late 1980s and 1990s, the Oregon L5 Society NSS chapter conducted moonbase exercises in this lavatube outside of Bend, Oregon, involving students. They put together a PVC framework and covered it with tarps to simulate the base. The volcanic ash (from the eruption of Mount Mazama - - now, minus the mountain top, Crater Lake -- 7,000 years earlier) that had washed into the cave over the years, serves as a good analog of moon dust. The chapter won a NASA SBIR grant to explore future Oregon Moonbase development options. The site was subsequently abandoned.

Out-vac - (modeled on the Australian term Outback, meaning the big backyard of the continent behind the coastal cities) - The out-vac signifies the vacuum-washed surface of the Moon outside of pressurized vehicle, outpost, and settlement environments.

Out-vac is distinguished from Lee-vac environments which are unpressurized but shielded from the cosmic elements: cosmic rays, solar flares, micrometeorite rain, and large thermal variations. Out-vac might be thought of as windward vacuum, "lee" meaning away from or protected from the wind.

Out-vac excursions require more protection, i.e. heavier and more cumbersome space suits, whereas lee-vacuum activities need only counterpressure skinsuits, lighter to ware, and providing greater freedom of motion, hence less fatigue.

Lee-vac environments are ideal for warehousing, storage, and sports activities.

 

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Parkway - In creating a minibiosphere, each module whether it be a habitat or activity area or a public corridor/walkway (cunnicular) or a pressurized street or road, should be making a contribution to the total mass of the biosphere and to the functions of water and air recycling and refreshing. 

Cunnicular pedestrian tubes should have living walls throughout their length. And similarly all pressurized vehicle tubes should use available lower slopes and or medians for vegetation. This vegetation can be ornamental, or consist of harvested species: fruit, fiber, herb, dyestuff, spice producing plants.

See "Farm Village" and "Parkway" in MMM Classics #1 page 25

Peek-a-boos [Giving different areas of the Moon's Nearside Hemisphere different names according to how well Earth is visible.] Adjacent to the "postcardlands", straddling the “limb” of the lunar globe which forever keeps the same side turned towards Earth are “the Peek-a-boos”.
Because the Moon’s axis is not perpendicular to its orbit around the Earth and because that orbit is somewhat eccentric and the Moon travels faster when nearer Earth and slower when further away, all the while rotating at a fixed rate, about 7° to either side of the 90° East and 90° West lines are alternately turned towards Earth and away from Earth.

Some settlers may prefer to locate in the "peek-a-boos" as they get to experience the glory of darker, "Earthless Skies" with the full beauty of the Milky Way, alternately with Earth rising, just above the horizon, and setting, in a cycle repeated every lunar month or "sunth"

See "Crooknecks" - "Postcardlands" - "Obliviside"

Pentroof - inspired by the tiered roofs of the oriental pagoda, a pentroof is a way of shielding individual stories of a lunar "skyscraper" such as an office tower or hotel. See illustrations below.

Permeclipse - An area of a body from which another body is always hidden. From the Moon's farside, exclusive of the limb areas, the Earth is always in eclipse. 

As most planetary satellites or moons are likewise rotationally locked, they all have farsides from which the primary (Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) is always hidden.

As Pluto is also gravitationally locked with Charon, like Charon, Pluto itself has a farside from which Charon is never visible. 

Permashade - Permanently shaded area in a polar or circumpolar crater, presumably a place that cometary volatiles could have been preserved

Pig-squeal mining - see Tailings and Throughput

Picture Window Clichés - On Earth we often see a Lamp in the middle of a Picture Window. Lunar pioneers may switch to a different cliché. They will be less concerned with how their homestead looks from the outside than with how barren and desolate and lifeless the moonscape looks from the inside. Instead of a lamp, house plants may serve to psychologically buffer the view.

Pink  - (paint color) see regolith impressionism (we got fair results mixing titanium dioxide white with ferric oxide rust) 

For Stained Glass, Lead chromate and chrome tin pinks are out - little or no lead or tin. Chromium-zirconium is a possible substitute. A manganese-alumina pink and a chromium-alumina pinkish red are other choices. Eventually, cobalt-magnesium combinations might produce a pink to lilac range .

Planetization - The state of a civilization that has become global, enveloping its whole home world economically, with intercontinental travel commonplace.

Plankton speed - see Nekton Speed

Pleiad - In MMM's first lunar calendar proposal, which called for pairs of sunths (lunar day-night cycle) of 59 days, in which there would be eight weeks or pleiads, of which 5 would have the traditional 7 days, and three would have an 8th day, incorporated into a 3-day weekend. This proposal derives from the fact that the Pleiades, a prominent northern star cluster in Earth's skys, is on the Moon's celestial equator and visible from anywhere on the Moon except very near to either pole. The Pleiades are known as the "Seven Sisters" but there are an 8th and 9th named star in the group, which is convenient to this naming system.

The stars of the Pleiades which can be seen from almost anywhere on the Moon:

• Alcyone | Merope | Electra | Celaeno | Taygeta | Asterope | Maia (and 8th, Pleione and/or Atlas, 3 weeks out of 8. They were the parents of the famous seven sisters).

• Note: "Pleiades" was the name chosen by Artemis Society International, for its original short-lived newsletter.

Pleione-8A -  taking turns with Atlas as the 8th day of long Pleiads with 3-day weekends - See "Pleiad"

Plugstrip - In the interior walls of locally constructed habitat modules, an embedded electrical service strip into which appliance cord plugs could be inserted at frequent intervals, e.g. every meter (40") or half meter (20") 

Plyxanth - a term suggested for a hypothetical building material built up of cross plies of fiberglass impregnated sulfur. That such a material can be made is not in question. Whether or not it could be useful (much less take the place of our familiar "plywood") can only be decided through experimentation. "Xanth" is a Greek-derived term meaning "yellow," i.e. the color of sulfur.

Podokinetic(s), devices - Literally "foot-powered" as with a device connected to a bicycle stand that generates DC electric power to run various devices. Widespread use of such devices by those living and working in lower gravity environments, would allow them to maintain physiological health while engaging in recreational pursuits that otherwise would be rather passive.

Polder - a structure for restraining the sea from lowlands, as in the Netherlands. A metaphor for a pressurized hull, especially for the continuous hull of a modular outpost or settlement containing a mini-biosphere. See Reclamation and Xity

Polodona - Equator" in the Barsoomian Language (Barsoom was the fictional Mars in the John Carter on Mars Novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. This is one of many "Barsoomian" words that may find its place on the Mars Frontier as settlers forge their own unique culture.

See "To Inject a Unique Flavor into Martian Settlement Culture, add the Romantic Touch of Old BARSOOM" in MMM Classics #5 pp. 4-5

Pons, Pontes - Latin for Bridge, a term proposed for uninterrupted sections of a generally collapsed lava tube, such as are found along stretches of Hyginus Rille. a term suggested for a proposed by the editor for the Expansion of the System of Lunar Nomenclature. 

Postcardlands [Giving different areas of the Moon's Nearside Hemisphere different names according to how well Earth is visible.] “The Postcardlands” are the peripheral portions of
nearside, regions in which the Earth hovers perpetually a comfortable 5-40° above the horizon.

See Crooknecks, Peek-a-boos, Obliviside

Pressurization engineer - Perhaps the single most important engineering trade on the lunar frontier, even above Biosphere Systems Engineer. What does it matter if you have fresh air that leaks?

Primage, Primaging - The upper rock powder layer of the Moon's surface, called the regolith blanket, is rich in "volatile" elements (hydrogen, helium, carbon, nitrogen, the noble gasses, etc.). This is not a resource native to the Moon, but one that has accumulated by billions of years during which the Moon's surface has been buffeted by the Solar Wind blowing outward from the Sun's Corona. These volatile atoms become ad-sorbed to the fine dust particles in the regolith. Experiments with returned moondust samples show that these gasses can be released by heating the soil sample to 600 °C.

If, every time we used a work-vehicle (plow, grader, bull-dozer) to move lunar soil whether for the road building, site-preparation, transformation into agricultural soil, sorting for beneficiation as a preparation for production of building materials, etc., we religiously extracted these volatiles and stored them in tanks, we would go a long way towards lessening dependence for these elements on expensive upports from Earth or shipments from Phobos, Deimos, and various asteroid and comet sources. We have dubbed this process as "primage" as it is an operation that must always come first if we are "to survive and thrive."

This means that all such soil-moving and soil-handling equipment must have a mobile heater-gas extractor complex in tandem. The extra burden of operating in this fashion pales in significance in comparison with the enormous benefits of doing so.

To date, the only other proposal for gas extraction of this kind has been as a byproduct of helium-3 mining. 

Purple - paint colors - a shade of purple can be made by mixing cobaltous aluminate (blue) and ferric oxide (rust) -see regolith impressionism

For Stained Glass, try combining blues and reds in different ratios

 

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Quarantine, natural - No matter how many lunar settlements there are someday, the vacuum and the lifeless rock powder terrain between them enforces a natural quarantine superior to any on Earth.

However travel an travelers can carry unwanted viruses, bacteria, and parasites. That almost all travel will not involve spacesuits, thanks to vehicle-habitat docking at both ends of any journey through the out-vac, will tend to compromise this isolation. However, one a disease or blight is identified at one location, it will be far easier to prevent air-borne or water-borne spread than it is here on Earth.

Lunar level quarantine can be simulated on Earth with pressurized habitats surrounded by water.

See "Quarantine" MMM Classics # 6, pp. 29-30

Quicksilver Fleet - Mercury could someday become the "Grand Central Station" of the Solar system. Its quick orbit around the Sun gives it shorter times between launch windows to anywhere than via any other transfer point. Yes, this is a far future possibility.

See "Gateway Grand Central" MMM Classics #8, pp.38-39

Quonset hybrids 50-6 - see Hybrid Rigid Inflatables (c)

 

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Ra - see Apollo, Copernica, Helios - Ra was the Egyptian God of the Sun

Railroads on the Moon?- At first the idea of introducing a nineteenth century technology to the Lunar frontier may seem absurd or comical. But consider: with no atmosphere, aviation is out! With the Moon currently empty, obtaining right-of-ways is not a problem. Railroads would not just be helpful once there were a lot of people on the Moon, but from the very outset, expanding the settled lunar frontier, as they did in the American West, in Western Canada, and in Australia.

Selection of a much wider track guage might be to allow wider cars and provide a lower center of gravity to help keep cars on the track. There are certainly a lot of engineering challenges to meet. 

Read "Railroading on the Moon" and visit our Google Group: Railroads on Moon and Mars

Ramada a Spanish word for a sun-shelter. "Ramadas" are common at road side rest stops on highways in the desert southwest of the United States. The word is very appropriate for shelters from the sun and cosmic elements, used for warehousing and other activities. Personnel working under a Ramada can spend more time without accumulating radiation exposure. Lightweight skinsuit pressure suits that are less tiresome to wear as they allow greater freedom of movement will mean safer operations. 

A variation of the Ramada will be the Flare Shed, found at intervals along highways, to allow travelers to find protection from Solar Flares for which there is currently no early warning system. That could change as a result of findings from the current STEREO mission with two sun-watching satellites at the Earth-Sun L4 and L5 Lagrange points, 60° ahead and behind Earth in its orbit about the Sun.

See "Ramadas" MMM Classics # 4, pp 42-43
See "Flare Sheds" MMM Classics #4, pp. 44-45

Raw Glass - Long before we can control the composition of moondust mixes well enough to make optical quality glass, we will be able to make raw glass that will tend to be a variegated mix of light to dark graytones. But this crude product will have is uses.

"Reclamation" - A number of people assume that the use of the word "reclamation" denotes the act of "reclaiming" and although this is true, jump to the conclusion that we are calling for the US or Humanity to "reclaim" the Moon, or the to "reclaim" the heritage of the Apollo Manned Lunar Exploration Program. This is quite wide of the mark. We chose the word "reclamation" not for historical reasons, but because no other word better describes our mission on the Moon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reclamation

Reclamation is the process of reclaiming something from loss or from a less useful condition. It is generally used of water reclamation, which, a century ago meant damming streams (thus the US Bureau of Reclamation owning dams), and now has come to be used to describe wastewater reclamation.

Better example: Reclamation as practiced by the Dutch

The Dutch have, over centuries, reclaimed a considerable amount of low-lying land from the encroaching ocean and seas, particularly in the Zuider Zee. Land lost to the ocean is drained and kept water free and now supports settlements and agriculture.

Following this paradigm, we draw these parallels: on the Moon we need to reclaim land washed by vacuum and the vagaries of cosmic weather. The pressure hulls of lunar settlement structures that will contain breathable atmosphere and become home to humans, plants, and some animals, are like the Dutch Polder Dikes that hold back the sea. Land once considered "wasteland" is reclaimed from the domination of raw exposure to space and becomes part of a modular biosphere complex supporting life.

A similar definition:  The transformation of waste, desert, marshy or other barren land for agricultural or other life-supporting use.

COMMENT: Self-supporting communities of people - as part of fresh oases of Earth-life in closed-cycling mini-biospheres - can be established on the Moon, extending the “world” of human horizons to Earth’s natural bound satellite.

“Reclamation” is a "definitive, charter function" for a settlement that must create and maintain its own mini-biosphere in an other words life-hostile environment, i.e., for a "xity."

This is the sense of the word as used in the name of the National Space Society chapter in Milwaukee: The Lunar Reclamation Society. Correlatively, explaining and illustrating "Lunar Reclamation" can be seen as the mission of Moon Miners' Manifesto.

Recycling  

see 4th R & kid's duties

see color-coded plastics 

see KD Industrial Design

Red - We have yet to identify a lunar-sourceable pigment compound that would produce a true red color when used in a sodium silicate or potassium silicate medium.

For Stained Glass, familiar agents that can’t be produced on the Moon include: lead chromate, cadmium sulfide, cadmium sulfo-selenide, and manganese copper. Lunar chemical engineers will be able to produce the chrome, the sulfur, and the manganese, but will not too soon nor too easily come up with the lead, cadmium, selenium or copper. Fortunately, aluminum oxide mixed 4:1 with ferric oxide Fe2O3 produces an attractive red. This is a combination we did not get around to experimenting with.) While lunar iron is mostly ferrous, yielding FeO, the ferric oxide can be prepared by controlled rusting of native iron fines from the regolith. A spinel, FeO. Fe2O3, produces a darker red. A tomato red can be prepared from Uranium oxide which can likely be found with known Thorium deposits.

To enjoy the color red, Lunan pioneers are more likely to resort to flowers, Stained Glass, and neon-type lighting.

See Regolith-impressionism

Redhouse, Redhousing 93-5 - Breeding “Mars Hardy” plants in Compressed Mars Air

Plants and crops can be grown on Mars in greenhouses pressurized with warmed Martian atmosphere, simply compressed tenfold - nothing else added, besides water, of course. That we could gradually lower temperature and pressure to meet the improving Mars climate halfway with bioengineered species that could be planted outdoors either to be tended and cultivated or left to grow wild is the general idea.

We call this redhousing, rather than greenhousing. We are using the air of the red planet Mars and an improved but still Martian climate - not the air of Earth and an idealized terrestrial climate.

See "Redhousing" - MMM Classics #10 pp. 25-27

Regolith - reg' o lith: The loose surface material composed of rock fragments and soil, which everywhere overlies the consolidated, fractured, bedrock of the lunar crust to a usual depth of 2 to 5 meters. This blanket of "moondust" has been created by eons of bombardment of the surface by meteorites, a process which slowly pulverizes, and turns over or gardens, the surface deposits. Regolith contains considerable amounts of pure unoxidized iron fines and of glass spherules created by the heat of micrometeorite strikes. Regolith contains no organic matter, nor does it have any hydrated minerals such as clays. The particles, while comprised largely of the same elements abundant in Earth's crust, are relatively "immature" minerals "unweathered" by exposure to air or water.

On the other hand, heating the soil releases surprising amounts of gas: hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and helium and the other noble gasses. This is an endowment present only in the upper meter or so and therefore seems to be a non-native resource contributed by eons of buffeting of the surface by the tenuous but swift Solar Wind continuously blowing off the surface of the Sun. These gases trapped by adhesion to fine regolith particles and sometimes trapped in glassy hollows, may serve as the principal lunar-indigenous source of the afore-mentioned elements. "Gas Scavenging", practiced as a part of all construction, mining, and grading operations involving regolith-moving would provide a considerable harvest.

Potentially the most valuable such resource, even more so than the hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen needed for life, agriculture, and chemical processing, is the one part in 2300-2800 of the trapped helium that is one neutron shy. So-called helium-3 (vs. 4), if it could be harvested, would be the most desirable, most efficient, and cleanest burning "fusion" fuel, should we ever master the engineering obstacles to the construction of fusion power plants. Lunar Helium-3 is several hundreds of times more abundant than the amount to be found on Earth, and much more easily harvested. Estimates are that there is enough of this rare isotope lightly trapped in the lunar "topsoil" to power the entire Earth at U.S. consumption levels for thousands of years, all with the most benign of environ-mental impacts in comparison with alternative energy sources.

Regolith, since it is representative of the host crust from which it is derived, represents a "pre-mined" source of supply for metal and non-metal processing. Thus there will be no reason to either strip mine or tunnel mine on the Moon and mining operations are likely to make no noticeable changes in the lunar surface except from very close up - small craterlets of a few feet in diameter or smaller will be raked smooth.

Lunar regolith is of four general types. Most abundant are highland soils richer in aluminum, magnesium, and calcium. Mare-type soils, covering 17% of the Moon (the dark, relatively flat and lower lying areas) are richer in iron and titanium. All soils count oxygen and silicon as the number one and two most abundant elements. There are splashes of KREEP soils, rich in Potassium (and sodium), the Rare Earth Elements and Phosphorus. Finally, there should be regolith in crater central peak areas derived from matter upthrust from deeper mantle layers underlying the crust. -- PK

Regolith Impressionism

A term used by Peter Kokh to describe the art style he had achieved (1994-5) using painting media derived solely from materials that might someday be economically extracted from the regolith moondust by lunar settlers - metal oxide pigments in a suspension of sodium silicate, the only known inorganic adhesive. See Lunar Painting Experiment.

Sodium Silicate is not easy to work with. You have to mix small less than teaspoonful amounts of the adhesive and metal pigment powder at a time and use it quickly, as it sets up fairly fast. I had to plan the painting carefully, so that, if practical, everything to be painted in a given color was done at the same time. Because the medium is so viscous, fine controlled detail is not possible. The painting that results will have much fine detail, but it will be largely serendipitous. Painting on the reverse side of the glass pane, as I had chosen to do, meant having to plan carefully - items in the foreground of the picture had to painted first, those in the background last. If there were void spot or streak "skips" in the "paint" as it dried on the glass (in moments) a second cover coat in another color or highlighting shade would produce welcome veining and texture visible from the front. The effect is somewhat impressionistic and indeed, slavish realism and accuracy are out of the question. As the pigments and medium and glass 'canvas' are all producible from the elements common in the pulverized powdery regolith soils of the Moon, I came to call my painting (at first dubbed "waterglazing") as "Regolith Impressionism", a fitting description. - PK

Moon Garden #1 - first piece created in this medium
September 1994, by Peter Kokh

Colored metal oxide pigments used: A Pioneer Palette of "Moontones"

*    The light to very dark gray lunar regolith powder soils are, of course, already available as is. While I do have a pinch of lunar simulant, my grays are mixes of manganese dioxide black and titanium dioxide white. Calcium oxide (lime) would provide a substitute white.
*    Iron oxide gives a rust, and when added cautiously to a preparation of white, produces the pinkish to rust colors in the painting.
*    The pale yellow is sulfur. With cautious amounts of iron oxide mixed in, orange hues are produced.
*    For green, I used chromium oxide as is for veining, and pasteled with titanium dioxide and/or sulfur for leaves and grass.
*    At first I found no lunar-producible blue. There seemed to be a couple theoretical possibilities such as cobalt aluminate, but I had not yet found a source. Accordingly, I decided to use a turquoise for the Earth in the background, upper left, made with nickel sulfate (copper is present on the Moon only in parts per billion traces, so far as we know). Unfortunately, the the nickel sulfate reacted chemically with both the waterglass and the neighboring oxides, messing up my "Earth".
*    Eventually, I found an extremely pricey ($121/28 grams) cobaltous aluminate that provided a stunning bright blue.]

Rejuvenescence - a counter proposal to "terraforming Mars." Our goal should be to restore Mars to the wetter, warmer state of its youth, not to make it Earth-like, and then "meet Mars halfway", so to speak, by adapting ourselves to that "rejuvenated truly Mars" condition. Those who propose to "terraform" Mars seem to ignore that our only experience along these lines is "de-terraforming" Earth.

Relayside - The 5/6th's of the Moon's surface that enjoys either direct line-of-sight communication with Earth, of indirect via permanently-stationed relays in the Earth-Moon L4 and L5 Lagrange points that keep formation with the Moon around its orbit, alternately leading an following the Moon by 60° The image below highlights the "deep farside" area excluded from "relayside" as the zone of radio silence, the ideal area within which to place a radio-telescope dedicated to the search for signals that might indicate intelligent life elsewhere, S.E.T.I. - See F.A.R.A.F.

Rigid Inflatables - see Hybrid Rigid Inflatables

Rille - This entry is under construction

Rille Settlements - This entry is under construction

Rhadamanthic (Ocean) - Rhadamanthus, in Mythology, was the son of Europa by Zeus (the Greek equivalent of Jupiter). We propose naming the deep global ocean beneath Europa's ice crust after him

Rust  - (paint color) see regolith impressionism (we used ferric oxide)

For Stained Glass, try combining reds and blacks

 

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Saeculum - a century-like duration composed of 5 Metonic Cycles of 19 years each, or 95 years. The pattern of Moon phases repeat in this 6940-day cycle of 235 lunar months.

Sandwich hybrid modules 50-6 - see Hybrid Rigid Inflatables

Saxum, Saxa - a Latin term for "reef" which we propose in an Expansion of the System of Lunar Nomenclature, to designate the visible partial portions of a partially lava-flood buried crater rim. An example would be the partial crater rim named Prinz.

Sculpsheet -  We use copper or brass sheet stock to create embossed art works. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. As both metals are to be found on the Moon only in small traces, we will need another metal for this purpose. Perhaps an alloy of aluminum.

Settlement Incubator -  In searching for the right word or phrase to describe an outpost designed to expand into a settlement, this word combination suggests "an artificial environment that enables fragile beginnings to become hardy enough to thrive outside."

Sixthweight - one sixth gravity level of the Moon. Note that the gravity levels of Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, and Titan despite their different sizes, but taking into account their different densities are all within a percentage point of two of lunar gravity. 

If human physiologies can get accustomed to sixthweight or lunar gravity, this may become the standard for space pioneers. Of worlds we can land on, only Mercury and Mars have greater gravity levels, both approximately 3/8ths Earth normal.

If instead of insisting on Earth-normal gravity for space settlements, O'Neill style, we settled for sixthweight, the construction threshold for these structures would be enormously reduced to the inverse cube, 1/36th the needed mass. "1-G Chauvinism" looms as the greatest stumbling block to the realization of moving a large percentage of the future total human population into space.

See "Reinventing Space Oases."

Slinky hybrid modules - see Hybrid Rigid Inflatables

Solar and Visual Access - see Visual and Solar Access

South  - the direction to the right of spinward (East). In artificial gravity environments, it makes a difference! See East

Space Activist - "Anyone who uses his or her talents to the best of his or her ability to promote and hasten the realization of an open space frontier."

There are far more menu options than those amongst us concerned only with political action would have us believe. We are more than letter and check writers, more than phone dialers. We are the people who would move off planet out onto the space frontier. We do it best by each doing our own thing as well as we can, not by doing solely what someone else would have us do to pursue some smaller vision. (If your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like nails.

Spaceport Exhaust Barriers - The exhaust of a spacecraft landing on the Moon or lifting off will spread horizontally along the surface in all directions, carrying with it abrasive moondust and even small rocks at high velocity. We have seen the damage that was done to the side of Surveyor-3 facing the direction in which the Apollo 12 lander set down a few hundred yards away. We can mitigate the problem by landing behind a ridge or hill or within a small crater. But perhaps the simplest thing will be, in the process of grading a site for a new outpost, to bulldoze excess moondust into a protective berm, with openings for access to the landing area.

As the outpost grows, the pad could be compacted and sintered with microwaves, or even paved with cast basalt slabs.

Spider - a proposed lunar vehicle (inspired by the Daddy Long-legs Spider or Harvestman.

Spin-up - In the usual "spin-off" paradigm, NASA embarks on a crash research program at exorbitant cost and then turns over the resultant technology at no cost to commercial enterprises with the taxpayer footing the bill. 

In "spin-up" a private enterprise, motivated by profit, examines a technology needed on the space frontier and endeavors to identify potentially profitable terrestrial applications. He then develops the technology, specifically for those terrestrial applications, with the consumer paying the bill. As a result, when the technology is needed on the space frontier, it is already "on-the-shelf", at least in an analogous form in need of relatively inexpensive adaptation only. Taxpayers and consumers are materially the same people, but unwilling in the first instance, an willing in the second. 

NASA's current "fusion" program is similar. In this case NASA looks for current commercial technologies that could be developed for space frontier needs.

In "Spin-up", the entrepreneur looks for space frontier needs that could be developed for down-to-earth needs. "Fusion" is the inverse of "Spin-up." The same technologies are involved in either case. The direction of the initiative is the opposite.

Stained Glass - see blue, black, brown, green, pink, red, rust, white, yellow

Complications: Making everything harder is the fact that the choice of flux affects the color outcome. Lead fluxes will be unavailable. While there has been considerable success in preparing lead free glazes and fluxes on Earth, many of the substitute preparations rely on other elements hard to come by on the Moon such as zinc. Glazes based on feldspar (aluminosilicates of potassium, sodium, and calcium), alkalis (Na2O, K2O), alkaline earths (calcium and magnesium) with borax (hydrated sodium borate) will work. The trick is to find the boron. It seems absent in the crust but should be in the mantle. Central peaks of large craters may include upthrusts of mantle material and will be worth prospecting for this and other elements. Boron is a frequent major addition to many glass formulas as
well. Lead and boron make the best fluxes and if neither is available we may need to experiment with sodium, potassium, or NaK (sodium-potassium) compounds.

Stardate - (Julian Stardate) Can we come up with a planet-neutral dating system? Or will settlers throughout the Solar System forever be tied to the dating conventions of Old Earth?

One option, borrowing on a system already long in place and used by astronomers world wide, especially those studying variable stars, is the Julian Date system. This system ignores years and months, but does use standard 24-hour days, counting continuously upwards from an admittedly arbitrary day 1.0 since since noon, Universal (London) Time, January 1, 4713 B.C.

The Julian date for CE  2001 January  1 00:00:00.0 UT is JD 2451910.50000

An online converter from BCE and CE dates to JD dates

As these dates are inconveniently long, we proposed a "Stardate" system that would lop off the 2 million and then the above date would be SD (Stardate 451,910

Given the great variation in year lengths between Earth (1.0) and Mars (1.88) and the Galilean moons (11.9) and Titan (29.5) the day is likely the largest time period to be in common use a century from now, if not indeed the second!

Stowaway imports - Many things and materials can be shipped to the Moon free of charge as shipping containers and packaging materials, or as ship components that can be cannibalized. See the article "Stowaway Imports" in MMM Classic # 7, pp. 36-38

See also "Dunnage"

"Suborbs" - Low Earth Orbit and Geosynchronous Earth Orbit with their growing population satellites and space stations of various kinds.

While the human population of these exosphere areas remains low, concentrated on the inner hubworld, that will grow along with its economic significance. See "Econosphere."

Sunth, sunthtime - The 28.53 day long Sunrise to Sunrise Cycle on the Moon will affect everything from Agriculture to Production Schedules to the Culture of the Lunan Pioneers

We call the 28.53 cycle from one Full Moon to the next a [lunar] "month", and that makes sense - from our perspective. But what about for someone living on the Moon?

Might they instead not measure the same time period from Full Earth to Full Earth? But recall that the Moon always keeps the same face turned toward the Earth, so that calling this period an "earth" wouldn't make much sense for someone settling or working on the "Farside" where Earth is never visible above the horizon. There is a word astronomers use, the "lunation", but again, that is a geocentric term. So actually, there is no existing term that would suit future Lunan pioneer needs; one needs to be invented. And the choice is logical. From their future viewpoint, we are talking about the Sunrise to Sunrise period, or the Sunset to Sunset period. So why not call it simply the "sunth" to rhyme with "month"?

Whether future Lunan settlers, as an expression of cultural autonomy, would ever want to invent their own sunth-based Calendar is something we can only speculate about. The challenge here is that 12 "sunths" is only 354 days, eleven and a quarter shy of one standard year. The "lunar" calendar of Islam has 12 "sunths" invariably, and its year count "laps" Earth standard year reckoning by 1 every 32-3 years. In the Judaic system, a thirteenth "intercalary" month is added every 2-3 years to 'jerk' the running year count back in line.

Now as it happens, there are almost exactly 235 lunar months every 19 years or 228 calendar months. Based on this "Metonic period", Lunans could "drift" with eighteen 12-sunth years, followed by a 19-sunth 19th year, the additional 7-sunth add-on to serve as a once-per-generation "Renaissance" period of cultural, social, and institutional review and renewal!

In any such calendar, 28 and 29 day sunths would alternate. If a leap hour were inserted every 40 standard days, the local pattern of sunrise and sunset would repeat exactly every two months, during which there will be three long weekends. For example (good for one particular longitude range only)

As to weeks, all previous attempts to move off the 7-day count have failed. It is a touchy subject. Earth's days are a purely local time cycle, and what day we call what is totally arbitrary. Yet reason uninvoked, many peoples and cultures treat this cadence as a cosmic, universe-wide given worth living and dying for. If the future settlers did opt to keep the first of the month lined up with the first day of the week, they could add an eighth day once every other sunth. If inserted in mid-weekend, with all holidays so set, it might work well for both workers and businesses. To avoid confusion with the sequence of days on Earth, Lunans could pick an all new set of seven (plus one) names. The names of the stars of the Pleiades Cluster (Pleione for the 8th), or of the stars of the Big Dipper (Alcor for the 8th) are just two of their limitless clean-slate options.

But what about the terms "day" and "night" themselves? Within the pressurized light-controlled living areas, settlers will want to maintain the 24 hr. standard sequence, and to use the terms day and night accordingly. To avoid confusion, they will either need to qualify those given terms or find other ones when referring to the sunshine-darkness periods on the surface, fourteen plus times as long, or sluggish. After playing with a lot of possible expressions and new coinages, we published a suggestion several years ago to use the terms "dayspan" and "nightspan" for these longer periods.

This slow day-night cycle would greatly affect lunar agriculture. After feasting on ducted sunshine or equivalent light produced by electricity generated in solar power stations for the 14 day plus dayspan, the plants may have to be put on a 14 day plus nightspan light diet.   For it will be much more expensive to produce electric lighting after sundown, either relying on fuel cells which store surplus solar power generated during dayspan - or upon "those nukes". However, recent advances in LED lighting could moderate the problem. This quandary gave rise to LUNAX' first experiment (for which we still need lots and lots of data from lots and lots of experiments, for each of the plant varieties we might want to grow: the "Nightspan Dark Hardiness Experiment".

But energy-intensive materials processing and manufacturing operations will also have to be cut back drastically during nightspan for the same reasons. Settlers may want to rethink operations processes and sequences on an industry by industry basis, and schedule as many as possible of the energy-intensive, manpower-light operations for dayspan, and of the energy-light, manpower-intensive operations (set-up changeouts and maintenance, inventory, packaging and shipping, etc.) for nightspan. That's an ideal goal, and approaching it will prove easier in some industries than others. Some industries may need to simply shutdown, or cut back on personnel during nightspan, with workers shifted to labor-intensive tasks in other fields. Either way, the biweekly change of pace should be a welcome and cherished perk for many lunar workers.

Within the soil-shielded habitat areas, you will be able to tell when the sun is up "out-vac". Sunlight will flood in through mirrored ducts or fiber optic pathways to provide both general and spot lighting, at reading level illumination or at brilliant full sunshine levels. Most such sun-ports will be shutterable "at night" to maintain an artificial 24-hr lighting pattern. During dayspan, interiors will be flooded with sunlight and the various surfaces will take on their full glory.

During nightspan, efficient high energy lamps could use these same access channels. Or a separate set of electric lights and lamps could be used. Given the availability of the noble gases deposited in the lunar 'topsoil' by the solar wind), "neon" lighting may be a practical option. Whatever the means of illumination, living and working areas will take on a quite different look and feel during nightspan, another kind of charm.

So even if Lunans align their living and working "days" and "nights" with those of Earth, the slow crawl of the Sun over the surface, the long wait between Sunset and the next Sunrise, will still be very much felt in the subsurface settlement areas, transfiguring everything from work to play. This sequence of dayspan + nightspan = sunth will imbue settler culture with its own marks and distinctiveness. On a world where much has to be given up and foregone, the Moon's Sun-driven rhythms could be a blessing in disguise. -- PK

Sussuri 10 - Latin for whispers - a proposed name for an outpost servicing a farside radio telescope listening for whispers from the Stars, signals that might indicate Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.

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Tailings - what is left after the elements sought in a mining operation are removed. Actually, all other elements remaining are somewhat "enriched" in abundance by that removal. In a mining cascade, the tailings would continue to be further enriched in the elements not yet extracted. 

When if becomes impractical to mine tailings further, casting them into building materials would productively embody all the energy already spent, and minimize the amount returned to nature, the "throughput." The less the "throughput" of a operation or of an industrial settlement as a whole, the more efficient that operation or settlement can be said to be, and the more minimal its environmental impact or footprint.

Tailingbrick, tailingcrete - suggested building products to be produced from tailings.

Tarn - an isolated mountain lake as a model of a self-contained "rural" "boondocks" micro-settlement or commune far from larger settlements with more complex self-sufficiency systems.

"Tarns" could be agricultural, growing specialty crops, mining and prospecting operations, scientific posts servicing remote telescopes, or even retreat house operations.

Tarn Folk - people who want to do one or few family outposts whether as deliberate "intentional communities" or to tackle chores and make contributions that cannot be made in a larger settlement. 

Tarntecture - distinctive types of architecture that might serve the operations intended to provide the economic and social support intended for a particular tarn. 

See MMM Classic #9 pp. 15-17

Taygeta - 5th day of the Pleiad -  See "Pleiad"

Telescopic rigid and hybrid modules 

(1) rigid telescoping modules are composed of telescoping sleeves with the inner/end-most units capped, and with pressuriztion both serving as a telescoping agent and as a seal-enforcer by pressure applied to gasket seals.

(2) telescoping  hybrid-rigid modules see hybrid inflatables (a)

Teletouring 80-8 - various methods of virtual reality touring of remote places such as the surface of the Moon, of Mars, or even environmentally forbidding Titan.

See "Teletouring: A Near Term “Terrace” on the road to a space based economy MMM Classics #8 page 50

Telergosphere - Greek: tele from afar + ergos work] see Telurgosphere just below

Telurgosphere - (Sphere of "live" remote "work" control operations from Earth) 

Over how far a distance is it "practical" to teleoperate? With a little practice, most people can master teleoperation with the two plus second time delay between Earth and Moon. Teleoperating rovers on Mars from Earth involves time delays of 6 to 40 minutes, a whole new ballgame.

We proposed an experiment in which teleopertors were given increasingly longer time delays to operate equipment of varying degrees of complex operations. At what point would the average person get frustrated.

As a double check, in a second experiment, those used to sending instructions to Mars Rovers, would be given increasingly shorter time delays. At what point would most feel the need to stay in constant touch instead of taking a coffee break between control commands?

Tellus - see Terrestra, below

Terra - see Terrestra, immediately below

Terrestra - a proposed Proper Name substitute for the common name "Earth" which simply means land or soil. (Actually, this word is the name given to a proposed "Earth Flag" rather than to our planet itself.) Other Proper Names, should we decide that our home planet deserves at least equal billing with the other planets with proper names, are:

Ga derived from Gaia, the Greek word for Earth, but now commonly used to refer to Earth-Life as a living complex

Tellus, the Roman goddess of the Earth. In contrast, "Terra" - frequently used as a name for Earth in science fiction - is but the Latin common name for "earth" or land. Further, the term has been usurped by planetary scientists for "land" or "continent-like" features such as Ishtar Terra and Aphrodite Terra on Venus. 

Another idea would be to name our planet after the first person to lead an expedition to circumnavigate it, Magellan, e.g. Magellana, but a shorter name is definitely preferable.

Terre-Lune - French for Earth-Moon, both in two syllables., A likely name choice for a number of companies involved in Earth -Moon businesses

Tilework - See Trimwork just below

Titanian - adjective referring to Saturn's major moon Titan

Thermoplastics - Thermoplastics, being easy to reform and remold, would make an ideal material for children's toys. They could be produced in a suite of "Crayola" colors, which would make recycling them a simple process. While the embodied elements may be rare on the Moon, a simple expedient would provide free passage to the Moon: use thermoplastics For shipping containers and packaging dividers. Harvested, they could be cast into toys and playthings by a factory on the Moon. Additional incoming thermoplastics would feed the growing market as the number of children in lunar settlements grows.

Throughput and the GST “Gross Settlement Throughput” Index

If there were a tax or price paid by manufacturers and processors on all use of virgin regolith, but no, or a significantly lower fee or price for using tailings and other stored byproducts and any beneficiated materials or wastes, the total “throughput” or gross natural material consumption index of the settlement would be lower.The lower the ratio of virgin raw materials used to new products produced, the more efficient a civilization is in minimizing its impact on its host world.

See Tailings - see Recycling

TLP - Transient Lunar Phenomena - observers through the years have noticed temporary changes of color and glows and other fleeting changes in the Moon's appearance that soon returns to normal.

Perhaps the most common explanation for fleeting glows is emission of gas escaping from the interior. The most common prediction is that this gas is radon, a natural product of radioactive decay.

But the chance that some of these events might represent a burping of volcanic or other gasses which could be of greater industrial significance than radon, cannot be ignored. Confirmation of any such gasses could greatly strengthen the prospects for lunar industrialization.

Recently, some lunar orbiters have had detectors capable of sniffing these fleeting emissions. But we really need to have ground-truth detection equipment in those locations which are most often involved: the craters Aristarchus and Alphonsus.

Toad - a Space/surface that on arrival on the Moon is permanently adapted into a  surface transport service. See  Amphibious Vehicle

Trade Routes: Earth-LEO-Geo-Moon-Mars - if lunar settlement is going to become economically viable, it must produce exports with which to pay for its imports. Ultimately, not only will LEO and GEO be markets for Lunar Exports but the Moon must seek new import sources as everything coming up Earth's steep gravity well must pay a heavy price in fuel. Mars ad it two mini moons, as well as some asteroids will come into play. Below is a schematic of what we think will flow from where to where. See Econosphere

Transitel - a cycling cruise ship, e.g. between low Earth orbit and low Lunar Orbit or perhaps L1

See The "Frontier Builder": an Earth-Moon Hotel Cruise Ship: Definition & Design Exercise 

Trees on the Moon? - The first trees on the Moon may be the familiar miniature Bonsai Trees.  Many species of trees, especially evergreens, have successfully been miniaturized by the Bonsai process. Cultivating them may become a popular hobby among pioneers who miss trees in general, if not forests as well.

Trilobite hybrid module 50-6 - See Hybrid Rigid Inflatables (d)

Trimwork - in lunar homesteads, the inorganic equivalent of "woodwork" - possibly ceramic or metal tiles, etc.

Triple Helix - a variant of the torus or banded torus space settlement design in which three interwoven helical toroidal valleys, each of which is on its own time cycle staggered 8-hours apart. 

According to ivory tower geometricians, there are only three possible generic space habitat architectures: the barbell/torus (i.e. the torus is a fully rotated barbell), the cylinder, and the sphere are the only possible three dimensional balanced forms allowed by rotation of the appropriate subset of Cassini curves. 

Balderdash! That ignores rotation combined with motion along the axis. Do that with a sphere and you get a cylinder, with a torus you get a double walled dewar cylinder, with a cylinder you get a longer cylinder. But far more interestingly, do that with a barbell, and you get a double helix, a trick learned by nature eons ago and without which none of us would be here. So much for the ivory tower guys. We just extend the idea to a triple helix.

 

The advantages are twofold

(1) Twenty-four hour equipment and facilities are manned around the clock with residents of valleys A, B, and C taking turns, each on it own "day shift/"

(2) This design is capable of indefinite growth. In contrast all other space settlement designs are at firs too big i.e. sparsely populated, briefly populated "just right", and forever after having to send extra population elsewhere. There are, to be sure, engineering challenges. The design complicates direct channeling sunshine to the interior of each valley. Using sunlight to generate power for artificial daylight might be a solution.

Tritreme drain systems, plumbing - our current urban plumbing design, invented in Mohenjo Daro in the lower Indus Valley about 200 miles NNE of modern Karachi, in the north part of Sind province, in what today we know as Pakistan, some 4,000-4,500 years ago. It can be described as the MIx-First-and-Separate-LAter (MIFSLA) approach, which has deserved condemnation ever since it was invented. 

If we are unable or unwilling to reinvent waste water systems here on Earth, we have the unique opportunity to start off on the right foot in lunar and other off-Earth settlements. We have called the old system "Monotreme" meaning one-hole, a word used for some primitive mammals like the Duke-Billed Platypus with a colon that doubles as ureter. 

Tritreme plumbing would use differently color-coded pipe components for shower and bath waste water, toilet waste water, agricultural and garden run-off etc. And if we find we need a 4th and a 5th parallel line, let's do it. This upfront expenditure enormously eases the process of total water recycling.

See "Tritreme Plumbing" - MMM Classics #4 pp. 66

Trivale design - Perhaps the vast majority of influential space enthusiasts and proponents work daytime hours. The result is an unexamined "day shift chauvinism" that results in inefficient designs for settlements, whose production facilities and service facilities are most efficiently in service around the clock. 

In settlements whether in space or on the Moon where a familiar day/night cycle does not exist,  by the simple expedient of dividing the settlement into a trio of neighborhoods, each on its own clock and own artificial midnight to midnight lighting cycle, everyone gets to work his her daytime hours. The industries, schools, offices, etc. are in a 24 hour zone where it is always daytime. Residents of the three neighborhoods with individual cycles staggered eight hours apart, take turns manning 24-hour facilities and operations. 

No one works his evening or night shift. The uppity chauvinism that day workers often unthinkingly display to those who work other shifts would disappear.

The O'Neill space settlements for example are each "all-one-valley" preserving the dayshift chauvinism and pecking order. This is quite unnecessary.

See "Reinventing Space Settlements"

"Turtle-back" Spacesuit Airlock - Airlocks, as presently conceived will lose a lot of oxygen and precious nitrogen to the vacuum outside during the cycling process. A more efficient way might be to engineer a space suit with a standard size turtle-shell (or clamshell) hinged back that covers both head and torso along with a co-engineered matching shape and size airlock.

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Upshipments - see Upports just below

Upports - The first time we used the word "upport" for shipping things from Earth to the Moon, we were chastised for our ignorance of the "fact" that there is no "up or down" in space. But that is a half truth. For anything coasting in space in space, that may be true. Everything is in free fall together.

 But when you are talking of sending something "up" a steep gravity well, "up" is definitely appropriate for "all directions away from the center of mass, the heart of the gravity well. 

In contrast, the gravity wells of Mars and the Moon are much shallower.

So "upports" is appropriate for anything shipped from Earth to  the Moon.

Likewise, "downports" is appropriate for anything shipped from the Moon to GEO or LEO, Geosynchronous or Low Earth Orbit, respectively.

There is an enormous energy expenditure for upporting, much less for downporting. True, to lift off the Moon you have to go up to the "ridge" between its smaller gravity well and the Earth's much deeper one, but then it's all downhill from there.

This is very significant for the economics of space trade. It will be far cheaper to upport factories to the Moon and then downport their product to LEO and GEO than it would be to upport those products to LEO and GEO from Earth's surface.

That is why it makes total economic sense to build Solar Power Satellites (and space factories and resort complexes) from Lunar materials. 

The increased up front expenditures are insignificant in comparison to the long term payback.

See "Econosphere"

Similarly, shipping anything from the Earth-Moon system to Mars and destinations beyond involves going up the side of the Sun's own much larger and deeper gravity well, in which Earth's gravity well, and those of all the other planets, even of Jupiter, are only dimples in comparison.

Urban Tropics - the bulk of Earth's current population growth is in the burgeoning metropolitan areas in the tropic and subtropic regions of the planet. This is a problem because the greater part of increased demand for electric power generation comes from these areas, generally rich in fossil fuels.  It is not surprising that these areas are experienced unheard of levels of air-pollution. Solar Power Satellites are an ideal solution.

 

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Vac, Vacusphere - "Vacuum," specifically the area just above the lunar surface, and within any subsurface voids such as lava tubes

Vadum - "Shallows" or "Shoals" -  a term suggested for a proposed by the editor for the Expansion of the System of Lunar Nomenclature.

Vantagesphere - LEO and GEO: orbital positions from which the Earth can be studies at an advantage

Veneran - Proposed adjective for Venus, "Venereal" already in use in quite different connotation. NASA, in fear of the latter, uses Cytherean. There is no need to be so obtuse. The Soviets/Russians have already used the word Venera to name its Venus probes, and Veneran is thus a natural.

Versary - the orbital "year" period for worlds whose periods is shorter or longer than one Earth year, used to avoid confusion with Earth standard years. 

Visual and Solar Access - Heinlein, in "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" saw lunar pioneers living like moles, in tunnels underground. We may need to tuck ourselves under a moondust blanket for protection from the cosmic elements (radiation, solar flares, meteorites) and extreme thermal swings  (dayspan heat and nightspan cold) but perhaps we can take (pipe) the sunshine and the views down with us.

Read "'M' is for Moles" - the first article of the first issue of MMM, for the story of the seminal eureka inspiration moment that started it all. MMM Classic #1

 

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Waterglass Paints - see regolith impressionism

Waterglazing - see regolith impressionism

West  - (antispinward) the direction opposite of spinward (East). In artificial gravity environments, it makes a difference! See East

White  - (paint color) see regolith impressionism (We used Titanium Dioxide. Calcium Oxide "Lime" might do)

For Stained Glass, commonly used tin and antimony oxides will likely be unavailable. Instead, titanium dioxide, zirconium dioxide, and zirconium silicate seem the way to go.

Whitewash - applying a "wash" of calcium oxide (lime) or Titanium dioxide in a medium of potassium silicate on a hard surface

On "soft" surfaces such as regolith, a sifting of either of the above will "whiten" the surface to which it was applied.

Works cartridge - in the MUS/cle industrial design system, the works cartridge is a "cle" assembly manufactured on Earth and shipped to the Moon to be placed in a MUS chassis.

See KD Industrial Design

See MUS/cle, MMM Classics # 2 pp. 35-36

See MUS/cle Strategy for Lunar Industrial Diversification

World - We have used the word with three specific connotations;

(1) The concept of world is a complex one, but one of the quintessential elements of that concept is that it is an integral flow of horizons, not all of which can be seen at once. When applied to proposed Space Settlement designs, this disqualifies Island 1 (unless you consider the separate agricultural torus bands) and especially Island 3. The Island 2 Torus does qualify, but the forgotten option, the helix and especially the Triple Helix, meets this qualification eminently.

(2) planets and moons with hard surfaces that could become theaters for human exploration and settlement from “a truly human point of view”, most of us are interested in places that can be imagined as “worlds, theaters for human life”, even if the living conditions are much, much less comfortable than we are used to, even if we are talking about spartan, and possibly very temporary outposts or one time exploratory visits. Even if, we may add, we are talking about proxy human visits through the eyes of robot rovers, robot aircraft, robot balloons, etc., that can transport us to these alien landscapes, as opposed to distant views from orbit. The Solar System may have 8 planets but it has 28 "worlds" and counting. 

1 Mercury, 2 Venus, 3-4 Earth, Luna, 5 Mars. 6-8 Ceres, Pallas, Vesta, 9-12 Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, 13-19 Mimas, Enceladys, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titan, Iapetus, 20-24 Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon
25 Triton, 26-27 Pluto, Charon, 28 Xena and other “Plutonians”

The biggest planets, the four "gas giants" are not "worlds" in this sense. Sweet revenge for Pluto

(3) Psychologically, "world" is the set of continuous horizons of human activity.  Long ago, the "world" was just Africa. With the Apollo missions, the "world" in this sense, expanded to include the Moon. The world, to future generations, will not mean “Earth”. It will mean the inhabited part of the Solar System. See Essay "The Epic of Human Expansion" MMM 211, December 2007.

See also "Hydro-tectonic Worlds" and "Europids" 

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Xeroprocessing - [from Greek xero- "dry"] As the Moon is deficient in hydrogen and/or water except for possible polar comet-derived ice deposits and Solar Wind protons adsorbed to the regolith fines, industries used to lavish amounts of water will have to learn to do without altogether, or at least to operate on closed loop cycles in which as close to 100% of all used water is recovered for reuse. Necessity if the Mother of Invention. We can do it.

For example, we now have waterless laundry washing machines.

 Xiticell - off-Earth minibiospheres should be built in modular fashion, with each habitat and activity module with a toilet contributing primary gray water recycling, and all modules including corridors, hallways, and pressurized streets contributing to the vegetation mass that keeps the air fresh.

A "xitycell" would be a neighborhood defined as a complete complementary mix of agricultural, industrial, commercial, and residential areas needed to balance the biosphere. Each neighborhood could have its own backup final air and water treatment systems.

By building a settlement with growth potential one viable neighborhood at a time, lessons learned could be incorporated in upgraded system designs for each new neighborhood.

Xititech - The technologies needed to maintain the limited biosphere systems of their settlement ("xity" with their limited "sinks." See "Reclamation."

Xitizen - an inhabitant of a Xity. Xitizens will have to be guardians of their Xity's fragile biosphere. Living perpetually "downwind and downstream of themselves" they will be scrupulous in taking care not to pollute their confined environment. Young xitizens will need to learn how their xities biosphere systems, especially water and air recycling systems work. For the very young, Recycling know how will be a 4th "R."  Xitizens have duties and responsibilities beyond those of Citizens of terrestrial cities.

Xity - Xities - [Pronounced KSIH-tees’not EX-i-tees]

Beyond-the-cradle off-Earth settlements (“Xities”) will be fundamentally different from the familiar Biosphere- “I”-coddled “cities” that have arisen over the ages to thrive within the given generous maternal biosphere that we have largely taken for granted. Elsewhere within our solar system, each xity must provide, nourish, and maintain a biosphere of its own . Together with their mutual physical isolation by surrounding vacuum or unbreathable planetary atmospheres, this central fact has radical ramifications that must immediately transform space frontier xities into something cities never were. See "Reclamation."

 

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Yellow  - (paint color) see regolith impressionism - (We used sulfur powder,  a pale yellow)

For Stained Glass, the list of closed options is long: lead chromate, lead nitrate, zinc oxide, antimony oxide, red lead, potassium antimoniate, vanadium-tin. Instead colorizers, who want something more intense than the pale yellow of sulfur, will have to play with vanadium-zirconium and titanium-iron oxide preparations.

Yellow-White Stars - Yellow-white star-rich clusters

Yolk Sack Caches - We can build and maintain a lunar outpost or settlement on the end of an "umbilical cord" if need be. If necessary, shipments from Earth could depart at almost any time, arriving three days later.

On Mars it is a different story. Launch windows open every 25.5 months. If you break or lose a critical part and do not have or cannot fabricate a spare, it could mean a catastrophic end to this fragile pocket of humanity. 

Instead of the umbilical cord, we must build and maintain operations on Mars with a "yolk sac" approach, in which everything needed for the next two years plus, and more,  including replacement parts as well as consumables, must be placed on Mars at the outset.  

Read "Yolk-Sac Logistics" in MMM Classic # 12 pp. 19-21

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Zero-G(ravity) the once commonly used term for the weightlessness of space.

With our experiences aboard Skylab, Salyut, Mir, and the International Space Station, the more technically accurate term "micro-gravity" has been introduced. For within these environments, while the gravity of Earth may not be felt, objects exert a tiny attraction on one another. Eventually, floating objects migrate to the walls and other surfaces. See Micro-G(ravity)

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