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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 Maas 

    Date: 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.)