Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!REM@MIT-MC From: REM%MIT-MC@sri-unix.UUCP Newsgroups: net.space Subject: Re: Terraforming vs. Space Stations --> moon vs. asteroids Message-ID: <16321@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Thu, 2-Feb-84 06:41:00 EST Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.16321 Posted: Thu Feb 2 06:41:00 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 8-Feb-84 08:45:16 EST Lines: 18 From: Robert Elton MaasDate: 30 Jan 84 15:10:52-PST (Mon) From: hplabs!hao!seismo!flinn @ Ucb-Vax What ever happened to Jim Arnold's hypothesis that the permanently shaded craters near the Moon's poles might contain water ice from cometary impacts? I've seen no interest from Ronald Reagan or Congress on this matter, and it would seem infeasible at this time for any private company to invest funds in exploring that potential resource. Thus we're in a helpless position, with this possibly being the critical path to fullscale habitat and/or manufaturing in space (water is needed for raising food and drinking, and hydrocarbons are needed in industrial processes). I wish there was some way to get our government to fund the investigation of this process. (Maybe after a private company finishes the ion rocket they're developing, it'll be feasible for somebody to use it to get into polar-lunar orbit without government funds.)