What in the world could we do with a broadcast station on the moon? First, a little backstory...
A friend of mine sent me a link to something amazing from the mind of Elon Musk, billionaire entrepreneur responsible for PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla Motors. The project I am referring to is the HyperLoop - a genius and economical 5 billion dollar transportation system that costs the end user $20 per one-way ticket and a 30 minute ride between San Francisco and Los Angeles. This is an alternate proposal to Californias CalTrans 70 billion dollar bullet train and cost the end user $250+ per one-way ticket and a 3 hour ride between the two cities sometime in the next 20 years.
As I was contemplating the benefits of including existing airports as terminals to the HyperLoop tube transport system, another idea came to mind - that Elon Musk is a very smart guy. While reading Wikipedia of Musks accomplishments, and coping with the fact that I am between jobs at the moment, I realize that I really never applied myself beyond my own short-sighted goals.
Today, that will change.
There is something to be said about the simplicity of an 8-bit computer. With its limited resources and simple expansion system, it has accomplished so much in the home computing revolution. It has afforded the common person a hands-on approach to not only understanding how computers work, but the opportunity to venture out into uncharted territory and change the way the entire world operates. Where else in history has such a definitive short-term project brought us closer together as a people?
There is ONE other discovery that enabled rapid change to the world - the crystal radio. With nothing more than a diode (or equivalent), some wire, and a piezoelectric headphone (or equivalent) one can listen to an AM frequency that corresponds to the length of wire - no power required! Primitive spark-gap transmitters allowed people to communicate all over the world by bouncing radio frequencies off of the ionosphere, and shortwave radio was born.
*** The GOOD STUFF ***
I propose a simple project to not only enable EVERYONE on earth a means to receive education, but also a way to preserve the collective information of humanity. I want to place a solid-state information repository and broadcast station on the moon. Why the moon?
* The moon is tidally locked to the earth, so something placed on the lunar surface facing earth will likely remain pointing at earth for the foreseeable future.
* The moon is the most noticeable object in the night sky.
* The moon can be seen from anywhere on earth.
* The moon is not easily accessible or manipulated by mankind.
The ionosphere has a spectrum of frequency called the radio window which allows radio waves from about one centimeter to 10 meters to pass through to the earth. A set of frequencies utilizing ISM bands could provide voice, video, and data to be transmitted to the earth. The primary goal of this project is to provide anyone with a tuned crystal radio a basic language and technical education. The radio station would use a method similar to how newborn children learn a language, incorporating music and speech to promote pattern recognition. This education could enable people to improve their ability to communicate and quality of life. This system would also be capable of teaching construction of complex equipment to interface with the moon station, and would enable mankind to recover from a global catastrophe quickly. Also, this would currently allow less fortunate areas access to information that would normally be unavailable. If executed properly, a durable MOSFET crystal radio could be mass produced and provided to many.
As far as power for the lunar station, I suppose some type of efficient thermoelectric device would convert radiation from the sun into usable power, and that solid-state capacitors could be used to hold power. There is also the issue of coronal mass ejections radiating the lunar site, so the lunar station would have to be resistant to these types of mass-radiation bursts from the sun.
For delivery of the station to the moon, perhaps Elon wouldnt mind loaning a SpaceX vehicle to launch a private rocket for a lunar mission...
I have put quite a bit of grandiose thought into this project far beyond what is listed here, but I am intentionally leaving out details in hopes to see some great ideas shine through on this open source type project. Let me know what you think!
A friend of mine sent me a link to something amazing from the mind of Elon Musk, billionaire entrepreneur responsible for PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla Motors. The project I am referring to is the HyperLoop - a genius and economical 5 billion dollar transportation system that costs the end user $20 per one-way ticket and a 30 minute ride between San Francisco and Los Angeles. This is an alternate proposal to Californias CalTrans 70 billion dollar bullet train and cost the end user $250+ per one-way ticket and a 3 hour ride between the two cities sometime in the next 20 years.
As I was contemplating the benefits of including existing airports as terminals to the HyperLoop tube transport system, another idea came to mind - that Elon Musk is a very smart guy. While reading Wikipedia of Musks accomplishments, and coping with the fact that I am between jobs at the moment, I realize that I really never applied myself beyond my own short-sighted goals.
Today, that will change.
There is something to be said about the simplicity of an 8-bit computer. With its limited resources and simple expansion system, it has accomplished so much in the home computing revolution. It has afforded the common person a hands-on approach to not only understanding how computers work, but the opportunity to venture out into uncharted territory and change the way the entire world operates. Where else in history has such a definitive short-term project brought us closer together as a people?
There is ONE other discovery that enabled rapid change to the world - the crystal radio. With nothing more than a diode (or equivalent), some wire, and a piezoelectric headphone (or equivalent) one can listen to an AM frequency that corresponds to the length of wire - no power required! Primitive spark-gap transmitters allowed people to communicate all over the world by bouncing radio frequencies off of the ionosphere, and shortwave radio was born.
*** The GOOD STUFF ***
I propose a simple project to not only enable EVERYONE on earth a means to receive education, but also a way to preserve the collective information of humanity. I want to place a solid-state information repository and broadcast station on the moon. Why the moon?
* The moon is tidally locked to the earth, so something placed on the lunar surface facing earth will likely remain pointing at earth for the foreseeable future.
* The moon is the most noticeable object in the night sky.
* The moon can be seen from anywhere on earth.
* The moon is not easily accessible or manipulated by mankind.
The ionosphere has a spectrum of frequency called the radio window which allows radio waves from about one centimeter to 10 meters to pass through to the earth. A set of frequencies utilizing ISM bands could provide voice, video, and data to be transmitted to the earth. The primary goal of this project is to provide anyone with a tuned crystal radio a basic language and technical education. The radio station would use a method similar to how newborn children learn a language, incorporating music and speech to promote pattern recognition. This education could enable people to improve their ability to communicate and quality of life. This system would also be capable of teaching construction of complex equipment to interface with the moon station, and would enable mankind to recover from a global catastrophe quickly. Also, this would currently allow less fortunate areas access to information that would normally be unavailable. If executed properly, a durable MOSFET crystal radio could be mass produced and provided to many.
As far as power for the lunar station, I suppose some type of efficient thermoelectric device would convert radiation from the sun into usable power, and that solid-state capacitors could be used to hold power. There is also the issue of coronal mass ejections radiating the lunar site, so the lunar station would have to be resistant to these types of mass-radiation bursts from the sun.
For delivery of the station to the moon, perhaps Elon wouldnt mind loaning a SpaceX vehicle to launch a private rocket for a lunar mission...
I have put quite a bit of grandiose thought into this project far beyond what is listed here, but I am intentionally leaving out details in hopes to see some great ideas shine through on this open source type project. Let me know what you think!