🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <james.726039574@menaik> james@cs.UAlberta.CA (James Borynec; AGT Researcher) writes:
>I disagree.  I submit that a functioning moon colony will be 
>able to dominate Earth orbit.

How?  Earth-based antisatellite weapons are simple and cheap; anything
in Earth orbit can easily be destroyed from Earth.  Unless you assume
a major technology difference -- again, stacking the deck to make the
plot work -- *Earth* dominates Earth orbit, beyond all doubt.

>The depth of the gravity well is just too
>big of an advantage...

Why?  Please explain, in detail.  Remember that a large-scale moon colony
is most unlikely to come into existence without fairly cheap transport
from Earth to low orbit.  Not as cheap as from the Moon, true... but it's
not *that* big a difference if we're talking about military control.

There is a big difference between being the preferred supplier of goods
and services and being the military power in the area.  Delivering a
kiloton of explosive power is a *whole lot* easier, nowadays, than
delivering a kiloton of freight.

>It would form the orbiting equivalent of the
>fabled "unsinkable aircraft carrier"

Remember the numbers.  The "unsinkable aircraft carrier" was a few hours
from the area of operations; the Moon is *days* away from Earth, the
equivalent of North America, not England.

And if you're going to draw WW2 analogies, do bear in mind that the
"unsinkable aircraft carrier" was in grave danger of being invaded
and conquered throughout the summer of 1940.  In particular, if the
Germans had mounted a maximum-effort crash-priority offensive starting
immediately after Dunkirk, it would probably have succeeded (in the
opinion of, among others, the British general staff at the time).
Even with the way they dilly-dallied until midsummer in reality,
they'd have had a good chance if they'd had better intelligence and
target planning:  a few days of determined raids on radar stations
and crucial aircraft plants could easily have changed Britain's
air-defence situation from bad to impossible.
-- 
"God willing... we shall return."       | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
       -Gene Cernan, the Moon, Dec 1972 |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry