85 Comments

1. Robin Datta on April 14, 2018 at 2:09

   Great book review, thank you!

   With an entirely plant food diet, the problem is the essential amino acids (per a old -1966- mnemonic, for humans L³T²PMV: lysine, leucine,isoleucine, tyrosine, threonine, phenylalanine, methionine and valine: differs with different animal species) are not all found in adequate quantities in any one plant species. A careful assortment of plants can ameliorate this problem.

   One’s tastes for foods are established very early in life, centered upon the food one is fed in those early years. Both smell and taste are closely associated with the limbic system, the “lizard/reptilian brain” which is very difficult to override, and they become hard-wired by adulthood.

   • Alex Tolley on April 14, 2018 at 9:59

     Indeed. If you haven’t eaten Marmite or Vegemite as a child, you will find it disgusting as an adult. Each nation seems to have its own example of a food that a local will eat, simply because they have always eaten it, at least on occasion, but a foreigner will not.

     • Ioannis Kokkinidis on April 24, 2018 at 18:09

       Sorry to be replying a bit late to this. I agree, an all plant diet is undesirable and dangerous even. I wrote an article in the past here, https://centauri-dreams.org/2016/03/11/agriculture-on-other-worlds/ I am sure that at first we will be seeing meat come from Earth, in the same way that Polynesians import their Spam today. The easier things to grow would be fish and insects. Beyond that, how animals would work in low gravity, is something that needs to be explored more. In The Expanse meat is not available in the Belt, only Earth and Mars

2. J. Jason Wentworth on April 14, 2018 at 3:17

   “White…green…white…green. I hate this f#$@&*g place! I hate this f#$@&*g place!” These were the words of a self-exiled man at Thule Air Force Base in Greenland in the late 1960s, who had taken a job there to avoid being killed due to a mafia vendetta against him (as my late friend Gary Moore, who worked there as a civilian contractor, related to me; the man–who was normal when he arrived months before–wandered listlessly from room to room, endlessly repeating those words as he watched the base’s control tower beacon light change colors), and:

   Compared to the Moon–and even to other locales on Earth–that isolated, near-polar outpost is overflowing with natural beauty and life, as Gary’s many pictures (and books and films I have seen) showed. I have no doubt that physically comfortable habitation on the Moon can be established, and that that world has many advantages for science and industry (as Neil P. Ruzic’s books “The Case for Going to the Moon” and “Where the Winds Sleep: Man’s Future on the Moon–A Projected History” discuss in detail), but:

   Of all the reasons to live on the Moon, tourism is not only the least likely one, but it is–no pun intended–pure moonshine. Most people, I’d wager, wouldn’t want to go there at all; spending three to five days in a cramped spaceship to get there (microgravity isn’t so fun when eating and excreting are necessary; the wonder would soon wear off) would be no cruise ship–or even jetliner–passage. Then, for those who would go:

   While our natural satellite does have “a stark beauty all its own,” as Neil Armstrong commented, and moving in the one-sixth (of Earth’s) gravity would be fun for a while, life there would be, by necessity, an indoor existence. All outdoor vistas would always be seen through a window (of a building or a pressurized vehicle) or through the visor of a spacesuit helmet, and suiting-up and checking suits before leaving an airlock will be time-consuming, because of the risks (even in Thule, outdoor nature walks during the warm months–and in the winter, with proper clothing–were enjoyable outdoor activities). Even using sinks and toilets would be an adventure on the Moon, because water splashes much farther in the low gravity. In addition:

   A lunar visit would be interesting for a few days at most, but after that the hardships, the safety-enforced, time-consuming routines, the stark surroundings, the lack of color–in short, all of the things that we take for granted here on Earth–would become increasingly conspicuous by their absence. Many people would get “cabin fever,” as that man in Thule had (it’s a phenomenon we Alaskans are familiar with–it has led to heavy drinking and even murder, for the slightest of motives). After a while, living there would become a psychological endurance contest, and sooner or later, most would want to go home to Earth (some might–as have some Antarctic base personnel who have “cracked” in a different way–tell their families [including their spouses and children] at home, “Sell all of my stuff, because I’m never coming back! I want to stay here forever!”). No, I don’t think the Moon will become a tourist attraction, although as a place to do scientific and industrial work–with rotating personnel rosters–I think it has a future.

   • Alex Tolley on April 14, 2018 at 10:14

     I lived in Bermuda for 2 years. Friends who visited all were bored by the place within a week. Artemis would need to be like a cruise ship, or bubble resort like Disneyland, rather than a destination.

     For some tourists, travel hardship isn’t an issue. Ecotours, National wildlife/safari parks are all a bit primitive. That starts to wear off as one gets older. For the sort of “developed” tourism of Artemis, my sense is that the ships bringing the passengers need to be large, confortable, liners. Artificial gravity a must, with all modern conveniences. Plenty of recycled water for bathing. Micro-g just for a temporary experience, not to live in for 7 days. Imagine being spacesick for part of the journey. Cruise ships have technology that all but eliminates seasickness for the passengers. I would expect tourist spacecraft to be designed similarly.

     I do think lunar tourism is a distinct possibility, but it will need to cater for a wide variety of needs – from indoor pleasures, to excursions to “see the sights”. It just requires imagination and good marketing. After all, people do visit places on Earth that appear quite unattractive to others.

     • J. Jason Wentworth on April 14, 2018 at 13:32

       I think the engineering for such tourist-friendly spaceship and lunar settlement amenities isn’t impossible, but–although I wish it were otherwise–I have strong doubts about whether they could be, or could become, affordable for anyone besides billionaires. The tourist flights to the ISS were only possible because the station was taxpayer-funded (from all of the partner nations) and because Russia, a major partner, needed the money and insisted on them (Dennis Tito was first blocked from entering the Johnson Space Center for training). A privately-funded tourist station would never have gotten off the ground. I would–if I had the money–ride Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle, but anything beyond such a suborbital jaunt wouldn’t attract me.

       • Randy Chung on April 14, 2018 at 19:22

         I am not sure if climbing Mt. Everest counts as tourism, but many people aspire to it. Here’s some info from a Mt. Everest climbing blog: “In 2018, … a fully custom climb will run over $115,000. Guided climbs on Everest is like any competitive marketplace, it’s driven by supply and demand and the demand is huge! …
         Bottom line: Look for Everest to become more crowded, more expensive over the next five years, regardless of which side you climb, and six to eight people to lose their life each year”
         Lunar tourism may be more expensive than climbing Everest, but it almost certainly will be safer. And you’ll be able to brag to friends “I played golf on the Moon!”

       • Ioannis Kokkinidis on April 14, 2018 at 22:11

         When I last visited Ayia Napa I remember there was an announcement outside the City Hall at Paralimni: these are the 48 hours a week that there will be water on the tap per municipal district. Every place had water 3 days a week in 16 hour intervals, EXCEPT Ayia Napa / Protaras tourist zone which had tap water 24/7. Since the farmers of the potato villages behind Ayia Napa / Protaras are also hotel owners at the tourist zone, and their workers were also waiters in the zone, no one was complaining. In the end catering to tourist has a higher economic return on water than growing potatoes in the summer. I am pretty sure that if tourism takes off on the moon and if the place lives off tourists, they will optimize the place for them

     • Patient Observer on April 14, 2018 at 21:00

       The book review was brilliant – far more thoughtful and reality-based than most.

       A visit to Artemis could be a trophy vacation – done to impress friends and relatives; like climbing Mr. Everest but not nearly as much hardship. That one (1) week travel did seem inexplicably long. Also the cost was colossally improbable; barring propulsion breakthroughs (which was apparently not an assumption in the book) costs will be many multiples of fuel costs relatively to air travel I believe.

       Old sci-fi (e.g. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress) speculated that flying with one’s own muscle power by flapping strap-on wings would be a big tourist draw. Of course, the story assumed a vast natural cavern pressurized and kept at a pleasant temperature.

       Off topic slightly and as a fan of Russian tech (as well as US/SpaceX tech to be sure), I found Weir’s omission of anything Russian (and the same in The Martian) indicative of something. We have Kenya, Saudi Arabia and other countries prominently featured in Artemis but no mention of Russia.

       Perhaps I am being overly sensitive or missed references (read The Martian and seen the movie but have only read the above review regarding Artemis). It is apparently the case that certain books are written with movie potential in mind thus settings and characters are skewed toward audience demographics and Russia would definitely not be a factor in that equation.

       • Ioannis Kokkinidis on April 15, 2018 at 15:03

         Russia is not mentioned in Artemis at all. In the Martian all that is mentioned is that Soyuz are death traps, which was true at the time of ASTP but not today. I do not think that it is so much a purposeful omission of the USSR/Russian Federation out of spite, its just that they only reason your typical American will mention Russia today is the whole Donald Trump affair. Unlike the Cold War, Russia has completely dropped out of American every day life, as opposed to China where everything is made in. Then again if you start making a conversation with kind of NewSpace fanboys you will run into too often, Russia is also not on their mind either. I am old enough to remember Mir getting launched and crews to Mir being the only manned activity in space while the shuttle was grounded after Challenger. Alas for those even 5 years younger than me, the Russian space program is but an afterthought

   • Charley on April 15, 2018 at 17:06

     “A lunar visit would be interesting for a few days at most, but after that the hardships, the safety-enforced, time-consuming routines, the stark surroundings, the lack of color–in short, all of the things that we take for granted here on Earth–would become increasingly conspicuous by their absence. Many people would get “cabin fever,” as that man in Thule had (it’s a phenomenon we Alaskans are familiar with–it has led to heavy drinking and even murder, for the slightest of motives). After a while, living there would become a psychological endurance contest, and sooner or later, most would want to go home to Earth …”
     if you think that way about the moon , what about mars ?

     • J. Jason Wentworth on April 16, 2018 at 5:46

       That’s a good question. Assuming I could afford it, I wouldn’t mind visiting the *Moon* for a week or two, if the trips there and back were reasonably quick and comfortable (comparable in speed and comfort to a jetliner trip). With a surprisingly small increment of velocity over the minimum-energy Hohmann transfer (“Hohmann Transfer”–like “Suspicious Concrete Slab”–would make an intriguing rock band name, by the way… :-) ), transit times of nine to ten hours are possible; Robert Forward described a hypersonic jet/Earth-orbiting “rotovator” tether/Lunar-orbiting, surface “walking” rotovator for such rapid Earth/Moon tourist jaunts, and:

       A somewhat longer trip (three to five days, the latter being the lowest-energy Hohmann transfer possible) would be okay, ^if^ the vehicle (perhaps a “swing station” in a meta-stable Aldrin Lunar Cycler orbit, which smaller “feederliner” spacecraft would transfer passengers from/to at either end of the trip) was large, comfortable, and had rotational artificial gravity (one-quarter to one-third g should be sufficient), viewing windows (or de-spun camera/”window TV screens,” if the rotating stars caused dizziness), a “zero g” recreational room at the hub, and other hotel comforts & conveniences. Also:

       If a Mars trip could be made as quickly (Robert Forward believed that FedEx Earth-Mars *overnight trip* antimatter rockets–with a peak velocity at turnaround of 1% of c, the speed of light!–were possible), spending a couple of weeks on Mars would interest me. But if the passage each way took weeks or months (assuming the radiation problem was solved by sufficient physical and/or electromagnetic shielding), I don’t care how big such a vehicle was, even if it provided 1 g artificial gravity; I couldn’t stand being cooped up in what was essentially a building for that long. As well:

       All of these things–even Forward’s 0.01 c overnight Mars antimatter rockets–are, in principle, possible. But I would be amazed if they (or other proposed solutions, such as the lunatron Moon-to-Earth electromagnetic launcher) ever became economically self-supporting, or cheap enough to support lunar tourism, although I would love to be wrong about this.

3. Tom Mazanec on April 14, 2018 at 9:47

   It is very well known in Europe that Americans only get two weeks of paid vacation per month

   per year

   • J. Jason Wentworth on April 14, 2018 at 13:50

     This may sound strange, but I have long been puzzled over why so many people feel the *need* to take vacations. I have never taken one, nor felt any particular desire to do so. I’ve engaged in experiences that interested me–horseback wagon train excursions in the Blue Ridge Mountains, flying in a sailplane–but none of them took longer than a weekend, and that was quite enough for me, and:

     I’ve always been happy in myself, wherever I am, although I prefer living in some places more than others. Maybe the desire for vacations stems, in part, from urban living? I’m a native of Miami, but I preferred our second home in the Blue Ridge Mountains of northern Georgia (where I spent my teenage years) and Alaska, where I moved after my mother died 20+ years ago. Living in those places I loved/love, I never felt any desire or need to “get away” from them.

     • Patient Observer on April 14, 2018 at 21:05

       I understand and agree with what you say. The desire for long vacations, unless there is a specific personal objective, seems more of an escape from an undesirable situation than anything else.

     • Ioannis Kokkinidis on April 14, 2018 at 22:13

       Why we want vacation? I think this video clip describes it perfectly:
       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bek1y2uiQGA

       If you REALLY REALLY love your job, you’ll never need vacation. Alas, this is not the case for everyone

       • J. Jason Wentworth on April 16, 2018 at 7:22

         Well, Ioannis (and this is on-topic, Paul, as I’ll get to), while that video was entertaining, it was also very sad (I’m glad that for the people in the video, it was just a staged production), because many people have those frustrations and urges. I personally know people who chase after such pleasures, and seek things that, in many cases, they are led to believe that they want, or *should* want (money, fancy possessions, purely physical sex, etc.). None of those I know are happy, but their pursuit never ends. King Solomon was right when–even surrounded by his fabulous wealth and exotic wives–he said that “All is vanity” and “There is nothing new under the Sun.” There’s nothing bad or wrong about having money and nice things (poverty is no fun, as my Depression-era parents, aunts, and uncles made abundantly clear to us kids), but making them the most important things in life–often just to “keep up with the Joneses”–misses the point; they are a means to an end (achieving comfort, happiness, and fulfillment), not ends in themselves. Also:

         Growing up, on television I often saw camera views of people like those in the video, all streaming into and out of office buildings at the same times each day. Seeing human beings engaging in that beehive-like activity repelled me viscerally, and I silently resolved–at about the age of seven–that I would *never* live that way, and I never have. Some of the “pursuers” I know have called me unambitious because I deliberately chose jobs which–even though they paid less–were interesting to me, weren’t regimented, and/or weren’t performed during normal business hours, which enabled me to live a quiet, peaceful, contemplative life, with much time to myself.

         Not all of the jobs were fun (I am now retired/disabled), but even those enabled me to–like Einstein’s job at the Swiss Patent Office, which gave him much time to ruminate (he once said that he would have liked to be a lighthouse keeper for the same reason–I can relate! :-) )–have a lot of quiet time at work; I have never lived or worked on a harried schedule. As regards space tourism:

         If it became affordable to enough people (more than a few multi-millionaires) to make it self-supporting (the suborbital variety might, in time), I could see myself saving up to do it as a once-in-a-lifetime experience (not an effort to get away from anything, like the woman “office drone” in the video). Orbital tourism (of a self-sustaining sort–the ISS tourism flights involved all-government-funded equipment and the Russian space agency) seems unlikely, but besides the breathtaking view and the fun of “zero g” (a rotating station with artificial gravity, and a zero g rec room [perhaps including a cylindrical swimming pool] at its hub, would be “the best of both worlds”), I’m sure that joining the “Three Dolphin Club” (the space equivalent of the “Mile High Club”) would be an attraction for couples… :-) Whichever form(s) of space tourism might prove economically viable (and I hope I’m wrong, and that they will flower), I hope they are advertised as opportunities to see and touch wonders that Hipparchus, Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler dreamed of, rather than yet more ways to “get away from it all.”

         • Ioannis Kokkinidis on April 16, 2018 at 12:09

           That video clip was indeed too depressive, here is another one, slightly older, that I also danced in a dancefloor. The office employee is not freaking out, just missing her vacation time with her friend abroad:

           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxohJX9ElpE

           The usual metaphor for vacation is “recharge your batteries”, just as kids need summer vacation so that they can go to school the other 9 months a year, adults need their month of vacation so that they can be productive the other 11 months. CEOs also go on vacation, if the Financial Times supplement “How to spend it” ever falls into your hands, you will see it proposing to their readers the sort of vacation where for £10-15,000 they can feel special during their two weeks: A trip to Munich where they only review the 5* hotels. A trip to Rome where they stay as the guest of some Italian blue blood in their palazzo for a 4 figure price per night. I think these will be the sort of people who will at first travel to the moon before the trip is democratized. When Zorba’s friend in the movie visited Greece, it was something truly exotic. Today, it is quite ordinary.

           Vacations is the biggest transfer of resources from North to South Europe, far more than the Common Agricultural Policy or the Cohesion and Convergence packages. It is what keeps the European Union united: In the end trade is very impersonal, that a good goes across the border means nothing to those that build it. If they go across the border, then they understand the cultural similarities and differences. For that matter tourism is known to facilitate trade, when the tourist areas export their goods such as wine and olive oil, their first clients tend to be those that already tasted it when vacationing there. Back in 2005 Greek minister of Tourism Avramopoulos (currently the EU commissioner for immigration) visited China and told them, we are willing to accept free trade with China, so long you send sufficient tourists to Greece. When the Chinese asked how many, Avramopouolos answered 4 million and the Chinese replied sure, we can do that. Living in the American countryside, in Blacksburg VA, I was surprised how with the exception of us international students, it really did not have foreign tourists visiting it. Foreigner meant either immigrant worker, refugee (Southwest VA is a resettlement zone) or international student, not some tourist looking to find “the Real America”. Then again entering the US is a real hassle, we Europeans find the treatment we get at the US border upon entering outrageous. Wait in line, have our passport scanned and our fingerprints taken? We can live with that. But why do we need to give a full scale interview and get asked after a 10 hour trip who was our father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin former room mate? (Spaceballs reference)

           Living 8 years in the US I have realized that there is a real cultural difference between the two sides of the Atlantic. Andy Weir makes the mistake in thinking that the rest of the world goes on vacation the American Way. It does not, and since Artemis is open to tourists of all nationalities, you are more likely to see people vacationing the European rather than the American way there, since they will outnumber them, unless of course the US undergoes European style social democrat transformation in the future. I am not seeing anyone clamoring it. The 5th week of vacation was added in Europe in the 1990s, around the same time France and Italy adopted the 35 hour week. Americans did not even ask for something similar at the time.

           • JaneB on April 20, 2018 at 14:07

             I love vacations because I get to not go to work – I often don’t go anywhere, I just spend more time in the house I’m paying a mortgage on (so I should enjoy it and look after it, not just sleep in it!), I do longer projects around the house, crafts, read books that aren’t about work, watch shows, maybe visit local places and take walks at the time of day when I want to walk and the weather is nice (so lunchtime in winter and very early morning or dusk in summer) rather than when my work allows me to. All the things I do in the spare hour or two a day that is not taken up by all the complexity of work, with its surrounding plethora of commuting and preparing food and cleaning up and meeting grooming standards and laundry and all those things. I just like doing the things I want to do for whole days at a time. Exploring talents and using skills and trying stuff out which just doesn’t fit with my work persona or skillset.

             Vacation just means time not working for money, it doesn’t have to mean travel or extra excitement, it can mean just being in your own rhythm. I don’t know how US friends manage to know what their own rhythm even IS, with so little time to spend with it, but I’m a Brit so they probably don’t understand why I care about the weather so much…

             • Ioannis Kokkinidis on April 24, 2018 at 17:20

               I went on a mini vacation in Portland Oregon the last few days. I was eating dinner with Greeks and one of them commented that it was impossible to work for 12 straight months, vacation is necessary. It boils in the end down to mentality, when you are sued to not going to school three months a year and not going to college two months a year, you are adopted to spending part of the year not working, preferably away from home. In the end farming is a seasonal occupation, and if the transfer from farm to office went fast so did the expectation of seasonality

           • J. Jason Wentworth on April 23, 2018 at 2:53

             I keep trying to imagine those people–especially the young women–in that video doing the same things on the Moon (and having as much fun), and I can’t see it happening that way in real life. :-) (I remember a U.S. tourism campaign of the early 1970s [“Get Away to the USA!”] that was aimed at Americans, because so many were vacationing in Canada, Mexico, and Europe.)

             Another class of tourist that a lunar facility would, almost by definition, not see would be claustrophobic people. Many such people do travel, even on jetliners, thanks to anti-anxiety medications, but a lunar lava tube- or surface dome-based tourist habitat (as well as the spaceships for traveling there and back) would require long-term use of such medications, which isn’t good or enjoyable. (I encountered such people at the Miami planetarium; even that 19-meter dome was too small for them to not have panic attacks.)

             Strangely, here in Fairbanks, Alaska, we have–unlike Blacksburg, Virginia–large numbers of foreign tourists (mostly Japanese in the winter, to see the Aurora Borealis and go dog-sledding, and mostly Europeans in the summer, to see our town [which puzzles me, because there’s little to see here–our buildings and mountains and forests aren’t remarkable–maybe this is an inexpensive location to visit?]).

             Considering what happened in New York City and Pennsylvania in 2011 (and some years later, at the Boston Marathon), I’m glad to know that entrants are asked questions (Israel does the same, for similar reasons). When my father and I visited Australia in the early 1970s, he was also asked a lot of questions (I was just six at the time), and he was glad to see that they were so thorough (ironically, it’s easier to move here as an illegal alien than to visit as a tourist). Also:

             There is a long-standing British cultural trait (which has remained in the U.S.) called the Protestant work ethic, in which waking time spent not working, or not educating oneself, is considered idleness. It isn’t as strong as it once was, but it still leads to occurrences like this:

             Many if not most office workers work through their lunch hour, even eating at their desks. (I once read an account by a British immigrant, whose co-workers were stunned to see him actually leave the office building to have lunch at a nearby café.) I can relate, having always done that myself. :-) Because of this expectation of having high productivity, many Americans choose, wherever possible, to have jobs that they like, knowing that they will be expected to devote much time to them (some even fear taking too much time off, because Brett Bellmore’s employer’s motto [“If we could do without you that long, we could do without you!”] is quite commonly-held here). But:

             The university academic sabbatical can be–and, I’d wager, often is–used as a type of long-term, “working vacation,” where academicians, while they are engaged in study, are doing so at places that they have wanted to visit. *That* sort of “vacation” would interest me (in Greece, for example, visiting and studying the ancient sites at leisure, rather than as part of a brief “whirlwind packaged tour”), and I would enjoy engaging in rather similar selenological activities on the Moon (visiting the Straight Wall, Mount Pico, Alphonsus, etc.).

             • Michael on April 23, 2018 at 14:08

               “but a lunar lava tube- or surface dome-based tourist habitat (as well as the spaceships for traveling there and back) would require long-term use of such medications, which isn’t good or enjoyable. (I encountered such people at the Miami planetarium; even that 19-meter dome was too small for them to not have panic attacks.)”

               Moon lavatubes can be theoretically up to a mile across and they can go for hundreds of kilometres.

               https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2015/pdf/2174.pdf

             • Ioannis Kokkinidis on April 24, 2018 at 17:50

               The video clip in that song describes a Mediterranean type vacation for British, Groove Armada are British after all. When I was an IAESTE student in Syria I was in a forest there with an Egyptian and he was super excited about a being in a forest, Egypt doesn’t have forests. As a Greek, it was not really exciting for me, we have many of those. Do not be surprise about Japanese being excited by Alaska, they live in a densely populated country, for them the emptiness is exciting. Same feeling with Germans at Frangokastello in Crete, for us Greeks the quasi desert conditions are not exciting, for them they are exotic. I do not expect claustrophobic people to get to the Moon.

               American security for us Europeans feels super annoying and unnecessary: terrorist attacks in Europe and Boston and Philadelphia that you mentioned (I actually had to look it up, I missed it in the news) was caused by homegrown terrorists, not visiting tourists. The jihadis of Europe are mostly second generation immigrants, people born in the country, raised in the educational system who went to school, had criminal records for petty crime and few academic qualifications that chose the path of jihad because in the end with their CVs they had few real avenues for a gainful life anyway. If you look back in the 1970s we did have real terrorism in Europe having similar characteristics, the difference being that it was not in the name of Islam but in the name of Socialism. RAF, Action Directe, Brigatta Rossi, ETA, November 17, true, they did not target the masses as much as the elite but were a very real terrorist threat. Much as these terrorists organizations were often led by disaffected rich kids who did not like that their super busy parents neglect them while running their company, their core was working class youth seeking a better future in Socialism. Their fall is associated not just by police actions but also with the rise to power of Social Democrat governments (Mitterand, Papandreou, Gonzalez) that showed that their romantic dreams of revolution were unrealistic. Also they overplayed their hand, the German Autumn led to Kohl, not The Revolution. Since Artemis is not a democracy and is not a police state it is very likely to experience terrorism: Jazz smuggles, but what about other disaffected youth? How will they get a good life in the regime, and why should they not try to overturn it through revolution, whether socialist or islamic or whatever is in fashion at the time of the novel?

               The Protestant work ethic is well known in Europe, yet somehow countries with equally strong Protestant work ethic such as The Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, give 5 weeks of paid vacation to their workers plus something like 10 holidays during the year. Also they have a robust welfare state that includes social tourism, meaning there is a government agency that helps the underprivileged experience time off away from their home. I have been in a resort in Greece that receives social tourists from France: all of them are working class people that have a job, social tourism is what you get for working. The management has a contract with the agency of France, the tourists pay part of the package, the French agency also pays part of the package (it is funded through a tax in labor) and the underprivileged get to spend a week in a beach resort in Greece. European Protestant countries have similar agencies to make sure that the working people (not the unemployed) who do not earn much also get to experience vacation

     • Brett Bellmore on April 15, 2018 at 14:37

       I used to live in a rural area, and occasionally took vacations of up to a week, but seldom longer. (My employer’s motto: “If we could do without you that long, we could do without you!”)

       Usually the destination was Worldcon, or some technical conference. The only longer vacation I took was to the Philippines, where I met my wife. It would have been silly to spend only a few days at a destination that took more than 24 hours each way just to reach.

       On a similar principle, if the trip to the Moon takes 7 days each way, people are not going to spend a short time there. Not unless the trip itself is sufficiently pleasant to constitute a vacation in itself, in the way cruise ships are supposed to.

       By the way, what are they DOING on a 7 day trip to the Moon? A low energy transfer is only 3 days. Ground to LEO is under an hour. The only way I see this working is if the LEO station is itself a vacation destination.

       • J. Jason Wentworth on April 16, 2018 at 9:09

         Your boss was dangerously wise! :-) I agree; the minimum-energy Hohmann transfer from low Earth orbit to the Moon takes only 5 days (having a LEO departure velocity of about 22,000 mph), so taking any longer–unless some fancy “loop-around from another direction” low-energy transfer is involved–implies a continuously-driven, low-thrust vehicle. Also:

         A comfortable “swing station” (similar to the Sky Hotel [if I remember its name correctly] in Arthur C. Clarke’s “Holiday” magazine story, “Vacation in Vacuum”) with centrifugal artificial gravity for normal dining, bathing, and Earth-watching, and a “zero g” swimming pool and games in its de-spun hub, would offer a pleasant ‘cruise ship-plus’ experience for multi-day lunar transfers and returns, and:

         Another type of space tourism excursion, which I would undertake if it were affordable (and it might become so, in time–SpaceX already flies space hardware that could do this), is a *suborbital interplanetary flight*, which would occur as follows:

         As Arthur C. Clarke pointed out in his 1957 & 1958 book, “The Making of a Moon: The Story of the Earth Satellite Program,” space probes (vehicles that rise higher than 1 Earth radius [about 4,000 miles] due to being projected upward at more than circular orbital velocity) could–if launched at velocities close to escape velocity–attain altitudes of millions of miles before falling back to Earth (such probes could return aerogel-collected comet dust and meteor shower samples, conduct flybys of passing near-Earth comets and asteroids, etc.). For space tourists, several experiences would be available on such flights:

         In addition to weightlessness, a suborbital interplanetary flight could involve a close lunar flyby during ascent or descent (or possibly both, depending on the trajectory shape and the flight duration), seeing the Earth dwindle to a small disc or crescent (or gibbous phase) as it turns on its axis, and seeing the Earth, Moon, Sun, and the other planets (those not too near–or behind–the Sun in the sky) all around. Depending on when such flights were made, the Earth, Moon, and Sun could be clustered together in the sky (such a grouping would also make somewhat more distant flights possible than at other times, because they would all be gravitationally “tugging” on the spacecraft from roughly the same direction in the sky. The landing site on Earth could also–by timing the re-entry suitably–be arranged to be near the launch site, making the logistics much easier and localized. (Even the discarded trunk of a Dragon spacecraft need not be targeted to fall far offshore, due to the essentially vertical re-entry path [and the roomy–two-level interior–“crew Dragon” capsule’s heat shield is rated for Mars return velocity re-entries, so it could fly such suborbital interplanetary missions “as-is”].)

         • Patient Observer on April 16, 2018 at 21:08

           Shooting the moon vacations.

           • J. Jason Wentworth on April 23, 2018 at 3:06

             “And hoping to miss, but not by too much,” in the case of suborbital interplanetary tourist flights. :-) Also:

             Depending on their interest, such flights–with a lunar flyby during the departure or return leg (or maybe even both) could be scheduled to occur when the half of the Moon that was illuminated would be either the near side (at Full Moon), the far side (at New Moon), half of each side (at First Quarter or Last Quarter), or some other combined percentage (at various degrees of the waxing or waning Gibbous phases).

     • Alex Tolley on April 16, 2018 at 2:03

       For those of us who seek travel and to enjoy the places and people we see, a longer vacation is necessary. 3 and 5 day mini-breaks don’t cut it. It takes time to acclimate and experience a place. Otherwise, one is trapped in the “If it’s Tuesday, we must be in Belgium” mentality.

       I would be quite happy to spend a month exploring the Moon, as long as the trip and lunar accommodations were comfortable. There are plenty of places to visit on the Moon, and indoor activities too. If there is enough dust on the hills, I could imagine dust skiing, and if dust accumulates in valleys, then a version of water skiing might be possible. The Moon is not as boring as a local rock quarry.

       Frankly, the tourist administrator in Artemis should be fired for offering so little to do outside the domes. Real entrepreneurs would find ways to offer tourists a lot more excitement than seem available in the book.

       While Mars would be better, it would take some serious time commitment to go on an extended vacation there. Being stuck in a space cruise liner for months would drive me stir crazy.

       • J. Jason Wentworth on April 23, 2018 at 3:17

         Seconded on that (going stir crazy aboard a space cruise liner on a long trip to Mars [and then back]!), but:

         *IF* large enough ships–which were like small towns, with centrifugal artificial gravity, plenty to do, and room to be alone at times–were available, I might do it, but I doubt very much if such huge vessels would be economically viable. Something like Dr. John S. Lewis’ proposed re-built asteroids, in Aldrin Cycler-type Earth-Mars orbits, would be about right, because they would be big and roomy enough to be a “home away from home” (they might even make good time-share condominium-type properties).

   • Paul Gilster on April 14, 2018 at 15:05

     Now fixed.

4. Alex Tolley on April 14, 2018 at 9:55

   I really enjoyed this post. I think you are doing more than nit-picking Weir’s worldbuilding, but rather showing how shallow it really is, or how hard it is to do right.

   Some observations on my 1970s/80s Greece as a tourist. Greece was far less a developed tourist destination for us foreigners back then. I can hardly recognize your descriptions. I have stayed a week in one location you mentioned – Agios Nikolaos – and it was a “quiet” destination back then. The local hospital was a shambles and the ER physician told me that the main traumas they dealt with were the young Greek lads crashing their scooters without helmets. A serious head trauma required a drive back to Iraklion, a flight (if available) to Athens for treatment. Makes Artemis almost civilized by comparison!

   I would characterize Artemis as more like a landbound cruise ship. The captain in control, with very limited security and policing, a ship’s doctor with very limited training and facilities. This state of affairs was demonstrated by a recent report of passenger violence on a cruise ship that required police to be brought on board to control.

   I suspect Andy Weir has very limited, if any, experience of vacations outside the US. Artemis as a tourist resort reminds me of resort-hotels.
   Some tourists are very happy to stay within the confines of a hotel and not seek wider trips. They may go to a beach hotel but only use the pool, never swim in the sea. Similarly, they may go on a cruise, but never even take a day excursion at a port of call. Many people are just incurious. While I would visit ancient monuments, and Greece is littered with them, others would not have the slightest interest. As Mark Twain indicated in his book about a trip to Europe – The Innocents Abroad – Greece cared little for its past in the 19th century. It was restoring historic sites by the time I was there and was asking the British Museum for some of its artifacts back. I’m sure that restoration has improved immensely since then. I hope this continues despite Greece’s current financial woes. (Almost ironic that is is imposed by Germany, a nation that was despised by Greeks with memories of WWII when I was there). Regarding policing, I recall that tourists were warned not to steal even the smallest item as this would result in a jail sentence. This made leaving luggage and backpacks unattended quite safe in those days.

   I suspect Weir has a libertarian streak regarding the polity of Artemis. It feels rather Heinleinian to me. One can imagine the shoving of a miscreant out of the airlock without a suit on Artemis. Some actions later in the novel are positively lawless and very Libertarian IMO. Of course, that could fit in with the need to create the same sort of universe as “The Expanse” as you indicate.

   Regarding food. I agree with the silliness of the Chlorella based food. Why not add other similar organisms – yeast, bacteria. Also larger organisms like mushrooms. Vertical farms would fit the bill for Artemis, and an entrepreneur would do well selling farm fresh produce to restaurants and well as locals, even if only as an expensive treat. Shipping food from Earth makes little sense unless transport costs are very low.

   Education would probably be mostly online, managed by Earth institutions. Practical experience would be limited. If food is so difficult, I’m guessing even physical supplies like paper and paint pigments would be out of the question. Lab work for science education – forget about it. Everything would be electronic.

   As a tourist destination, what we see is very limited. It would not appeal to me. I would expect trips to see sights on the Moon beyond Apollo 11. Even Clarke was more imaginative in “A Fall of Moondust” regarding lunar tourism.

   I’m not sure your criticism of the fincial side is justified however. Artemis could declare itself a tax haven, with shell companies and banks handling the wealth management, without much outward sign. The reality is that the investments would still be on Earth, rather than on the Moon, just as Luxembourg or Bermuda manage assets today. One might expect more domes being created, perhaps at other locations, but perhaps Jazz is not aware of them, as she lives in a bubble. Like many people, she may be incurious and unterested in anything outside of her home.

   Despite the problems with the worldbuilding of Artemis, it is a lot more fleshed out than Musk’s pretty graphics of a Mars colony. I suspect its proponents see it as a Libertarian haven, free of Earthly laws and restrictions. I suspect it would make living in Russia seem more attractive.

   • Ioannis Kokkinidis on April 14, 2018 at 22:33

     I was in Aghios Nikolaos from December 2008 to May 2009. Aghios Nikolaos in the middle of winter had 10 cafeterias/bars/clubs open (they were multipurpose facilities) playing different types of music. It also had two more classical night clubs. On a typical day only 3 of the cafeterias/bars had a crowd, though on Friday and Saturday night when the shepherds came down from the mountains, five places had a crowd. The other five, not so much. On Tsiknopempti though, the feast of eating meat in the middle of the Carnival, every place was full, even the run of the mill restaurants. Now, while there were quite a large number of hotels in Aghios Nikolaos, if you drove towards Elounda – Plaka, there were several mega-resorts along the way. In the winter there were few tourists, one of my colleagues was staying in a hotel and he would tell me, “see that cruise ship out there? Its tourists are staying ashore in my hotel. It is full of American teenagers, I am feeling old.” On Lazarus Saturday though tourists really first appeared en masse. On Good Friday I was in the Epitaphios procession and saw the wonderful custom of everybody running to their house to spray with perfume the procession and then returning to march again. It was mostly Greeks. 24 hours later, during Resurrection service, we all marched to the lake for the burning of the raft with Judas. I was surprised by people that were partaking in the ceremony even though they did not have colors typical of Greeks, they turned out to be Scottish tourists. I had only one more month left, but whenever I went to the beach there were tourists, mostly retirees. I did go to the hospital and gave blood three times for the vacation (if you give blood you get three days vacation if you work in the public sector), but thankfully I did not have any health incident. The hospital is large and modern, built with European Union money. It is nice to hear stories from people that have visited Greece in the past, when my dad went to Chania 20 years after his first time, he could not recognize half the places, especially around Platanias.

     I totally agree, Weir needs to go on vacation, and preferably not on an all inclusive resort, it is nothing but a tourist trap. Alas, I have not read the work you mentioned so that I can comment

5. James Stilwell on April 14, 2018 at 17:12

   Is there a cruise liner that hasn’t had to head back to port with a ship full of very sick people? Biosphere never got going with the fully enclosed habitat. It worked once because of the cheaters ignored the rules and lied about their behavior slipping outside every once in a while…Everyone sick to death with stomach cramps on the moon spells—doom? Biosphere first must work before leaving the realm of science fiction…

   • J. Jason Wentworth on April 16, 2018 at 7:49

     O’Neill cylinder-type and McKendree cylinder-type space colonies, as well as multi-generation starships, must have that problem solved first. It depends on the answers to two questions: [1] What is the minimum size for viable, self-supporting (with in-let sunlight, or [for a starship] artificial lighting) ecologies? [2] What microbe/insect/plant/animal combinations will work (multiple combinations might work, if the biosphere is large enough). A guess: McKendree cylinders (which, being made of carbon nanotubes rather than steel, could be truly gigantic compared even to the largest O’Neill cylinders) would be easier to design self-supporting ecologies for.

     • Ioannis Kokkinidis on April 16, 2018 at 12:19

       A tourist destination is by definition a semi-enclosed ecosystem. It is not self supporting, people come in and out all the time. Said people also want the comforts and luxuries of home. They want steaks and pineapples, even in areas that are not conductive to growing either of them. This is what I call the Paulaner effect. Paulaner is a German wheat beer, I don’t drink it (I am not a beer person) but one of my classmates did. Apparently in Athens it is hard to find, but when we were in Crete it was available in every cafeteria/bar because of all the German tourists. It does not matter how big is the artificial ecology, if a place get tourists then stuff from outside it will come in order to sever their needs

       • Alex Tolley on April 16, 2018 at 19:32

         Like trying to get retsina in California.

6. Michael on April 14, 2018 at 17:43

   I suppose a hologram of life on earth could be used on the surface of the domes to give more depth and ambience. As for energy needed for plants it can be reduced by a significant amount by using specific wavelength LED’s. And although I have not read the story I would be surprised that there were no lava tubes mentioned.

   • Ioannis Kokkinidis on April 14, 2018 at 22:33

     Lava tubes are not mentioned, it is a full scale surface colony on the 5 domes

     • J. Jason Wentworth on April 16, 2018 at 7:35

       That’s odd, because even my old 1950s books (more technical ones, as well as the Golden Library of Knowledge children’s book, “The Moon: Our Neighboring World”) mention a suspected lava tube that was seen even back then. (All of those books are packed up right now, but the site may have been in Sinus Roris, the Bay of Dew [Wernher von Braun recommended that the first lunar outpost be established in that bay].)

7. Michael Fidler on April 16, 2018 at 1:08

   Lava tubes could be a good place to look for ice. The problem is no atmosphere so cannot fly drone in to look around. Could land probe next to opening of tube and have it throw a tether with cameras and lights to hang inside above the bottom of tube to see terran inside. Anyone have a better idea? Good place for a city!

   • Michael on April 16, 2018 at 15:20

     Lava tubes are a natural wonder and would provide a huge base, some are hundreds of km’s long.

     https://amp-space-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.space.com/39404-lava-tube-skylights-discovered-moon-images.html?amp_js_v=0.1&usqp=mq331AQGCAEYASgB

     The only method I can think of is a rover linked via an optic fibre, they can go for km’s. Both power and communications can be transmitted down the fibre.

     • Michael Fidler on April 16, 2018 at 20:41

       Gregory Benford link below to Wikipedia article on Lunar lava tubes has a reference #3 to just such a project!

       Astrobotic Technology: Planetary Pits and Caves for Science and Exploration”, Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, abstract 3065 (PDF),

       • Michael on April 18, 2018 at 7:37

         Here is a slide show of a lava tube concept,

         https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/637136main_Whittaker_Presentation.pdf

         If we wanted to live in these tunnels re-enforcing the walls and ceiling would be a priority and this could be achieved by spraying liquid aluminium on the surfaces to a suitable thickness.

   • Brett Bellmore on April 17, 2018 at 6:40

     The gravity on the Moon is low enough that a rocket drone could have a decent hang time, maybe as long as a half hour. You’d need really small throttleable engines, but the software wouldn’t be much different from a quadracopter. I think it would be feasible. But a tethered rover would probably be more feasible at first.

     A lunar lava tube would probably have a quite treacherous floor at least near the skylight. It would be challenging to get to the smooth floor.

8. DougSpace on April 16, 2018 at 2:13

   I suspect that the funding for the development of a base –> settlement will go like this:
   1) Government funding via a public-private partnership,
   2) Selling transportation to countries for suborbital exploration using a refueled lander,
   3) Retirees wanting their place in history paying for transportation, accommodation, and activities with their savings.

   • Ioannis Kokkinidis on April 16, 2018 at 12:28

     If ISS tourism is a model, then we can be sure that there is demand for tourism from the very start. The problem is that the logistics pipeline of the ISS is not capable of supporting them in the post Shuttle era, especially since the US is rather hostile to space tourism. The important part is establishing regular transportation to the lunar destination. If say $100 million is all that is needed to get to the Moon, I am certain that there will be many takers. Nanoracks is putting a second cubesat cannon because of the demand, be sure that if enough paying people want to go to the moon more accommodation will appear. I am not sure if retirees are the sort of people that will go to the moon for their savings, as much as working people. Go to a tourist destination sometime in July and August, retirees are a minority. It is either single people or families with children

     • Michael on April 17, 2018 at 8:02

       If we can burn time instead of propellant we could use low energy transfers to enable a tourist route. I would like to see a earth-moon hotel moving in a figure of eight between them. If we could use earth or moon based lasers to improve the thrust of ion enginees to enable a good transfer delta v we could use the waste-to-propellant method as proposed by Alex and Brian.

       Some nice information on transfer orbits,

       https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20140003573.pdf

       • Ioannis Kokkinidis on April 17, 2018 at 14:17

         I cannot claim to have any idea about the economics of lunar transfer, either for the tourists or for the companies. I can tell you though that they boats from Piraeus to Crete leave 7-8 pm and arrive early in the morning so as to capture the dinner market. In the summer, when there is a bigger crowd, there is also a daily trip that leaves early in the morning and arrives in the afternoon and thus captures lunch. The shipping companies make as much from selling food in the restaurants as from the passenger tickets. Would a 7 day trip really be economical to the tourist if he had to also buy 21 meals before getting to the moon? Hotel makes more sense, though the ISS astronauts have a tendency to look at the earth in their spare time, as opposed to deep space. Also tourists, at least those visiting the places I have visited, will not sequester themselves in their hotel for the 7 days of their vacation, they are known to get out and see the scenery. Granted, I have never stayed in an all inclusive tourist trap intended to keep you and milk you for the duration of your stay.

         As mentioned in the article, nothing is mentioned about the ships of the line making the trip. If you saw The Martian though, the Hermes is a massive partially rotating ship with spin gravity. Granted, in the book it has spin gravity but it is described as small

         • Alex Tolley on April 17, 2018 at 21:00

           Think of 7-day cruise ship voyages/vacations. That is how a tourist Moon/deep spaceliner will operate.

           • Ioannis Kokkinidis on April 19, 2018 at 11:44

             I have taken a cruise to the Bahamas from Port Lauderdale. The most interesting part turned out to be that the captain was Greek. Beyond that it was just going to breakfast, lunch and dinner, they had a theatrical show, a pool to swim in part of the day and, not much else. If your idea of vacation was doing nothing, I am sure you would have liked it. We stayed in Nassau for half a day, and while nature is very beautiful in the Bahamas, Nassau has a lot of poverty and poorly built structures. All the beaches turned out to be inside hotels and required a fee to visit. It was nice getting out of the ship, but honestly Nassau makes people realize what Third World poverty means. Then again the only tropical destination that I have visited and I did not see poverty is Hawaii. The other cruise I have taken has been on a day trip to the Sporades islands to see Mediterranean seals.

         • Michael on April 18, 2018 at 7:42

           Although it would be less than ideal there is still plenty to see and do, perhaps a large telescope, perhaps a very large ball habitat where games are played.

9. ljk on April 16, 2018 at 9:31

   The more I read about unaltered (baseline as they called in Orion’s Arm) humans in deep space (or in remote bases on Earth) for long periods of time, the more I question if humanity can ever explore and colonize the galaxy (or even the Sol system) in person. So many issues to overcome.

   Human explorers and colonizers will have to be so altered in so many ways in order to survive and thrive on another world or in space itself that the resulting “astronaut” required for such missions cannot be the type of human that exists now. This new generation may not have an issue with such radical changes, but the baselines who stay on Earth should be aware of this. I think too many space fans have little real idea what it takes to actually live in space for more than a few orbits.

   As the veteran of now two cruises in my life so far, I can also see where future deep space explorers (both interplanetary and interstellar) may prefer to stay aboard their ships and only visit an alien world for resupply and/or curiosity. Maybe this is yet another reason why ETI have not attempted to colonize Earth or our Sol system. A giant multigenerational WorldShip designed like their home world in relative miniature may be far more preferable than have to adjust and adapt to an alien moon or planet and any of their natives.

   • Alex Tolley on April 16, 2018 at 12:19

     I tend to agree, but I am not as negative as you are on baseline humans.

     The main dangers of space travel are lack of gravity and radiation. We know we can fix the former with carousels. radiation can be fixed with magnetic fields and mass. As cancers are one of the clearer problems of radiation damage, the new anti-cancer therapies will mitigate that, as well as somatic genetic enhancement to improve DNA repair and removal of cancerous cells.

     Therefore I can see it will be quite possible for humans to travel to planetary bodies and manufacture suitable Earth-like living environments. Having said that, space cities/colonies as envisaged by O’Neill seem to be the best solution. Automated manufacturing with asteroidal material should make these relatively easy to make. Even if they turn out to be less like Edens and more like dense urban housing and malls, this seems to me to be the best way to move forward. Then short-term visits to planets either physically or via machine proxies will provide the desired “planetary experience”.

     If these are the logical approach, then we should be able to detect ETI if they are out there. Whether such an approach will allow interstellar travel via generation ships, I am not so sanguine. I’m not hopeful that we will see mature meat bodies travel to the stars with the technologies we foresee as being available with today’s physics.

     • ljk on April 17, 2018 at 9:45

       I am thinking more of the psychological aspects of long duration space missions that will be the roadblock. Traditional macho attitudes of endurance have a tendency to fall apart in spectacularly dramatic and fatal fashion once such bravado can no longer maintain the person using this attitude for survival.

       You don’t need an entire crew to fall apart for a mission to fail, as with most things in life, just a few bad apples in key areas of the operation can ruin the whole enterprise.

       Over half a century after Yuri Gagarin made a single orbit of Earth in 1961, the space agencies with manned flights still act as if their space explorers are military men confined to small spacecraft for a few days to weeks. Other than those few who went to the Moon going on fifty years ago, all astronauts and cosmonauts knew and know they are but a rather quick jaunt back to Earth should the need arise.

       Let us see what happens when baseline humans are truly out there in the Final Frontier with no easy and quick way to be saved, with the added ever-present knowledge that just a few missteps mean instant death. Wintering over in Antarctica is going to seem like a tropical paradise vacation in comparison.

       • Alex Tolley on April 17, 2018 at 10:30

         Haven’t baseline humans been doing that for 1000s of years? Were humans during the Age of Exploration non-baseline?

         • ljk on April 17, 2018 at 14:27

           I think humans in deep space or on a distant alien world are going to have some significantly different reactions to being out there than on this planet no matter how remote one might be on Earth. Even those “macho” astronauts admit to an Overview Effect.

           Humans evolved to be on Earth. Our cultural psychology is wrapped around living on this planet. For most on a gut level, the stars might as well be as our ancestors viewed them, as lights shining through a dome from Heaven.

           I know we can go round and round whether baseline humans can survive and thrive in space regardless, but I think they will need significant changes to their minds and bodies if we want to truly succeed in the Final Frontier. Unless we send everyone out on giant WorldShips where they can barely tell they are no longer on Earth, then what may be the point in one respect?

         • ljk on April 17, 2018 at 14:30

           And yeah, I think there are some big differences between our ancestors and modern society humans.

           For one thing, I think most humans even 150 years ago could have survived if society went south in terms of self sufficiency. Modern humans have become quite “cushioned” by our technology and its conveniences. The ones that would be able to survive our civilization’s collapse I am not certain I would want to see carrying on our species.

           • J. Jason Wentworth on April 23, 2018 at 1:42

             While there are exceptions to just about everything, I know quite a few people–including whole families, mostly mountain folk–who could survive the collapse of our civilization, if need be, and I would have no qualms (relating to their character, or anything else) about them carrying humanity onward, because they are the sort of people who built this country. They know how to grow, hunt, and preserve their own food (and I don’t mean only via commercial canning jars, but making pemmican, salted meat, and dried vegetables). People of their ilk were also the first to break the sound barrier and (in the U.S., although I think Gagarin’s family is of similar self-reliant origins) travel in space.

           • Ioannis Kokkinidis on April 24, 2018 at 17:55

             Civilization has gone down quite a number of times, see for example Fall of Rome or Fall of the Soviet Union. People regressed, but eventually something else emerged and advanced. Do not be as dismissive for modern people, some will come out on top anyway no matter how depended on technology people are

     • J. Jason Wentworth on April 17, 2018 at 21:48

       Such O’Neill colony/ships (they could move in Aldrin Cycler orbits, between the Earth and the destination worlds) can now be 3D printed, because the Chinese have developed large 3D printers which can print a 4-bedroom house for about $4,000. The McKendree cylinder-type colonies are designed to be made of carbon composite material, which–besides being stronger than steel–lends itself to this production method, and the carbon is better than metal from a radiation standpoint.

   • J. Jason Wentworth on April 16, 2018 at 12:45

     I don’t dispute that, but I suspect that most people wouldn’t consider in-person interstellar travel important enough to want to change themselves (if they could), or to create a human subspecies that’s optimized for such living. Doing something akin to repeating the homo sapiens-Neanderthal situation wouldn’t, I think, be conducive to an improved social situation here on Earth; we would, in a sense, be creating aliens, who might want–and be able to–out-compete us. Even if they didn’t want to, if they had traits that made them better so that they were more desired as employees, that would be a high price for us to pay so that we could send “humans” to the stars. I am glad that I will be safely dead before such schemes are tried.

     • ljk on April 17, 2018 at 9:29

       But people want to change themselves all the time: Look younger, build up muscle, lose weight, get facelifts, etc. Even tatooing is a primitive yet highly visible form of body modification that seems to be on the upswing these days.

       I suspect if humans are offered a chance to really change themselves on multiple levels that many would jump at the chance. It will become a megamoney making industry and I am not even talking about modifying or creating humans that can survive in multiple space environments.

       • Charley on April 17, 2018 at 15:11

         @ljk
         “But people want to change themselves all the time: Look younger, build up muscle, lose weight, get facelifts, etc. Even tatooing is a primitive yet highly visible form of body modification that seems to be on the upswing these days.”

         that’s a far cry from messing with your DNA …

         • ljk on April 18, 2018 at 9:01

           I am willing to bet there are plenty of people who would want to have their DNA modified in order to improve on whatever roll of the dice nature gave them.

           There is a reason that superhero fiction is so popular these days and not just for the entertainment factor.

           We are just starting to see what can be done with humanity. So it is only natural that our current species is both suspicious and frightened of the possibilities, just as so many fear both ETI and AI even though both are probably just what we need to get out of our biological evolutionary rut.

           • Charley on April 18, 2018 at 17:53

             “I am willing to bet there are plenty of people who would want to have their DNA modified in order to improve on whatever roll of the dice nature gave them.
             There is a reason that superhero fiction is so popular these days and not just for the entertainment factor. ”

             superhero or super human, is the road to pride and sorrow

             • J. Jason Wentworth on April 19, 2018 at 9:19

               Yes, Charley, I am in full accord with you, although I’m sadly certain that a lot of people would go in for that if it became available. But just because humanity *can* do something doesn’t mean that they ^should^. In this connection:

               Some years ago, there was fear–which, fortunately, turned out to not be justified–that the then-latest generation of colliding-beam particle accelerators could possibly rip a hole in the fabric of space-time, creating a bubble of annihilation that would spread outward at the speed of light, annihilating the Earth and perhaps expanding until the entire universe ceased to exist. (Likewise, before the Trinity Test, the Manhattan Project personnel weren’t 100% certain that the atomic bomb’s runaway fission reaction *wouldn’t* trigger fission of the oxygen atoms in our atmosphere [Robert Oppenheimer joked, “If that happens, the war will be over”], but they proceeded anyway.) Also:

               If it one day became possible to build a particle accelerator or other such device that certainly–or even “just” probably–^could^ rip the fabric of space-time with such an effect (this could be the case someday), we would be crazy to allow such a device to be built, and even crazier to allow it to be used, just because it had become possible, and:

               I am reminded of a brief exchange between two characters in one of Bruce Coville’s “The Unicorn Chronicles” series of novels. Cara Diana Hunter, a tomboyish young lady from our modern world, was amused to watch Finder–a large but quiet unicorn who was so named because of his skills as a tracker in Luster, his people’s adopted world–scrutinizing her using her hands with a thoughtful look. When he spoke, he expressed his admiration of humans’ manual dexterity and the things that their hands made possible, and commented that he sometimes wondered if he might have preferred having hands instead of hooves. “On the other hoof,” he added after a moment’s reflection, “your peoples’ hands often get you into all sorts of trouble.” I agree; human beings’ cleverness with their hands seems to, in the main, exceed their wisdom.

             • ljk on April 20, 2018 at 13:44

               Yes, we could return to the trees and spend our days foraging for food and hoping not to get eaten by roaming predators. All 7.6 billion of us.

               • J. Jason Wentworth on April 23, 2018 at 3:35

                 Digital computers are–and have to be–binary, but we don’t have to be. Refraining from developing things whose destructive potential is great doesn’t mean, or even suggest, that we should abandon all technology. Rather, like detouring around dangerous locations on a journey, it’s a matter of moving in a desired direction, while avoiding creating things (which we’ve thrived perfectly well without) whose risks if misused make their positive attributes less attractive.

           • J. Jason Wentworth on April 19, 2018 at 8:16

             I agree, although not happily; I’m sure that some people would like to become the equivalent of superheroes, if the technology (which could also do much good by curing genetic diseases) became available, and:

             Being the equivalent of a superhero would be taking a step toward demi-godhood or godhood, which would require equally superhuman morals and ethics in order to handle such an elevated status properly. Such people could–even inadvertently, even if they had the best intentions–cause untold mayhem, harm, and death (the famous line in Spiderman, “With great power comes great responsibility,” while it has become trite, is absolutely true). Also:

             This isn’t even considering those who would–if they could–happily become the equivalent of super-villains, and ruthlessly use their new abilities with no regard for the consequences (or even deliberately generate dire consequences). Fortunately, this particular Pandora’s box will not be gifted to Man in the time I have left. In addition:

             I anticipate the eventual development of such technologies, assuming they are workable (the “apotheosis-type” ones might not be) with more sadness than fear. There is probably no technology that doesn’t have a down side, and the greater a technology’s ability to remedy problems is, the greater is its potential to wreak havoc. Technologies that could change human beings themselves would have even greater potential to do irreparable harm:

             Human weaknesses, as well as human strengths, make people what they are, which in turn has made human societies, cultures, philosophies, and arts what they are. If all of the human weaknesses and vulnerabilities could be done away with, and all of the human strengths could be amplified in like measure, would the resulting beings (I don’t mean their physical appearance, although that too might be alterable), their societies, and their cultures still be recognizably human? As well:

             Would they still have empathy or imagination or curiosity (including that which spurs desire for interstellar exploration), or feel awe, or enjoy poetry (to give but a few examples)? Or would they become more like their machines, more independent of their environment, less vulnerable to and dependent on the rhythms vicissitudes of nature, but less appreciative of its–and life’s–beauties and simple pleasures that we now enjoy? Also:

             If Man, through improving himself, becomes less human, it would appear that he will have lost more than he will have gained. Worst of all, such improvement–if such it be–would force natural humans who want to stay that way to either undergo the change themselves, or become impoverished underclass people. It sounds like a recipe for despair, frustration, anger, hatred, and violence on a scale we can scarcely imagine, which makes me even more thankful and relieved that I won’t be around to possibly see or experience it. If that lies ahead, a soul-stirring anthem for those who will fight against having to alter themselves (and I hope they win the struggle) already exists: “I’ve Gotta Be Me.”

             • ljk on April 20, 2018 at 13:49

               And this is why I have my doubts that the intelligent beings from Earth who ultimately do go on into the Cosmos will not be humans:

               https://www.singularityweblog.com/hugo-de-garis-gods-or-terminators/

             • Charley on April 21, 2018 at 13:43

               You make extremely good points, and there’s no doubt about what you’re saying is true. But I would like to say this, that any modifications you make to anybody to become adaptable to spaceflight will probably in the long run result in a human being, not actually a human being anymore as we understand it. To whit, people who have undergone spaceflight showed definitive loss of bone mass, redistribution of fluids within their body structure, the shape of the eyeballs changes, and probably other effects in which we have not yet been able to discern.

               I remember reading recently in discover magazine that they had determined that lot of microorganisms went from being simply nuisance organisms to actually becoming dangerously pathogenic. You couple that with humans in flight whether to planets or distant stars and you are already beginning to see that this biological system (s) are unimaginably complex and will probably require very, very careful study.

               It seems unavoidable that people can not remain human for long-duration spaceflight; they will probably have to be especially adapted and bread for such missions, and in the process of doing so they will no longer be what we broadly would term to be a human being (biologically speaking). Now it is possible that they may be a so-called ‘superior’ human in terms of their physiological responses, but I’m not sure that they would in any fashion be a quintessential ideal of what a human being would be. To be a better version of what a human is, is understandable, we would probably all of us like to be as healthy as possible and as smart as possible, etc. etc.
               but that being said, when you make a transition into some kind of super human being, then the regular rules begin to break down and that is where my fears are will create difficulties in the future.

               Don’t forget the episode of the original Star Trek series, which I believe was called ‘Space Seed’ in which a series of genetically modified people were rescued by the enterprise, but it turned out that they were supremely arrogant as well and tried to take over the ship. Therein lies the lesson.

               • J. Jason Wentworth on April 23, 2018 at 4:50

                 Charley, your posting above also suggests something fundamental, which is also connected with interstellar exploration:

                 Scientists (including Freeman Dyson), science fiction writers (including Larry Niven), technologists, sociologists, philosophers, and theologians (C.S. Lewis was particularly interested in this) have written about how one reason for the apparent lack of interstellar civilizations (at least on radio) may be that after a certain point, they can’t–or don’t want to–keep up with the societal complexity that technology seems to cause. This brings up something that is seldom mentioned, at least explicitly:

                 I have observed (and I’m far from the only one who has) that we are at or near a point where technology no longer serves us, but we serve it (it continues to do things for us, of course, but at an ever-greater cost in our time, attention, and energy). Kim Komando’s computer-related radio show is just one small example of this; she and her callers are forever running on a treadmill just to keep up with the latest digital gadgets, programs, apps, and internet-connected appliances–which within five years (if not less) will all be dusty and obsolete yard-sale items, and:

                 Thousands of years ago, human beings developed agriculture and largely ceased to be nomadic (even shepherds and goatherds stopped roaming so far, no longer having to) because it made life easier and more pleasant, and created surplus supplies and leisure time. This trend has continued–with more advanced technology than back then–before and during my lifetime, but it has begun to reverse, now that people have to keep updating their skills–skills which, like the technology, will be obsolete soon–at an ever-increasing rate. I’m not advocating stagnation by any means, but we’re going in a direction which leads away from happiness and toward harried, mere existence rather than living. If one’s efforts don’t–after providing the necessities of life–make one happy, then all of the ever-more-frenzied activity is pointless (the Amish, Mennonites, and Hutterites live simply and happily). In addition:

                 I know many people–besides myself–who have deliberately simplified their lives because even the greater income that such activity brought did not make them happier or satisfied, because they seldom had a moment that they could simply enjoy in quiet, and this relates to starflight in this way:

                 While I would love to see what exoplanets and other stars look like up close, and know what their characteristics are (just as I do for bodies in our Solar System), I would be satisfied to see robotic probe missions gather these things; there don’t have to be dramatic “flag and footprints moments.” Moreover, it isn’t important enough to me that I would want a race of star travelers to be bred for the purpose. If one day, natural human beings build multi-generation starships (or develop hibernation, or even relativistic or super-luminal star travel), that’ll be great, but exploring the stars isn’t remotely important enough a goal for people to tinker with their very essences over.

                 • Charley on April 24, 2018 at 23:21

                   “I’m not advocating stagnation by any means, but we’re going in a direction which leads away from happiness and toward harried, mere existence rather than living. If one’s efforts don’t–after providing the necessities of life–make one happy, then all of the ever-more-frenzied activity is pointless (the Amish, Mennonites, and Hutterites live simply and happily). In addition:

                   I know many people–besides myself–who have deliberately simplified their lives because even the greater income that such activity brought did not make them happier or satisfied, because they seldom had a moment that they could simply enjoy in quiet, and this relates to starflight in this way:”

                   it’s enormously obvious to me that you and your are in no any way shape or form familiar with what it is to be an old person, otherwise you would not make any of the observations that you are making. While I agree with you that technology makes us slaves to the very machines that we used to give us more freedom, you are failing to note that there is one machine that can in fact actually liberate us: robots or robotics.

                   If these machines become sophisticated and agile and easy to use as the general hope will be that they will become like that, you will see a tremendous amount of time freed up for you to pursue what ever interests that you have. As an old man. I would love to have a machine perform a lot of the services that I need to have done in my behalf. Shopping, cooking, cleaning, repair work, driving me to doctors visits, and I can imagine that there would be a tremendous number of other functions and services such a machine could provide for me that I can even think of. Note I say that an individual can take advantage of such a service mechanism, BUT it is not an absolute requirement that you take advantage of such a machine, if you would in fact derive greater pleasure from doing the task yourself. It’s totally your decision. So technology CAN be a tremendous benefit in the long run to people, provided that it is a properly applied, and utilized in a productive and thoughtful manner. I noticed that you didn’t address that issue of robotics. You agree or disagree?

10. Gregory Benford on April 16, 2018 at 15:24

    lava tubes:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_lava_tube

    • J. Jason Wentworth on April 23, 2018 at 5:00

      That’s interesting–even if that 100 m deep pit crater doesn’t lead into a lava tube, it should be possible to drill horizontally into its walls to provide protection. The long collapse pit chain (with un-collapsed sections) looks like a good “fixer-upper” base site, whose roof and wall sections could be reinforced with lunarcrete, once production of it was established on the Moon.

11. ljk on April 20, 2018 at 13:47

    NASA’s new mandate, which is about returning to the Moon first as a joint science-commercial effort (which is the only way we are truly going to have a permanent presence in the Sol system) and then on to Mars and elsewhere once we have real experience living and working in space:

    http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/missions/human-spaceflight/nasas-exploration-goals-come-focus-updated-road-map/

    • J. Jason Wentworth on April 23, 2018 at 5:13

      I hope that “To replace the decreased support from NASA, the agency proposes to open up station visits to more international astronauts and expend [expand] partnerships to new nations.
      Read more at http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/missions/human-spaceflight/nasas-exploration-goals-come-focus-updated-road-map/#hqy0HorMHPT9rKKZ.99” includes China (and India, too). They have good hardware, increasingly-large rockets, and an important intangible–enthusiasm for manned space flight and exploring the Moon, and:

      I’ve heard many people at NASA say, “We’ve already been to the Moon–been there, done that,” but the younger personnel say, “No, *you* [the older generation] went there, but we haven’t.” Even the most interesting Apollo sites (the Marius Hills, Tycho, etc.) remain un-visited, as does the selenographically different far side. We’ve hardly explored the Moon at all.

      • Ioannis Kokkinidis on April 24, 2018 at 18:04

        Moon, Mars, I am happy either way so long we do not just keep on doing the same things we did as when I was a kid and was reading in the newspaper on how the most recent Soviet crew just arrived at Mir. DSG, now renamed LOP-G seems to be happening, even if we have a change of government. By now it is moving ahead by the inexorable Power Of Bureaucracy, the same thing that made sure the ISS was built despite W being elected and Columbia. I might just write in the future an article about the way ahead, from LEO to the stars

12. Michel Van on April 25, 2018 at 4:35

    The critic about “Artemis” is flawed
    Author Ioannis Kokkinidis assume seasonal tourism on Moon
    and compare to tourism on Greece islands.

    That do not work

    The problem with Greece islands is,
    none one goes in Winter on vacation there. the moon has no Winter

    Next to that is that Vacation are not more seasonal
    in Europe and China people take several vacation over the year.
    Here the traditional summer Seasonal vacation exist no longer.
    People goes in winter on Vacation in hot tropical places
    again the moon has no Winter

    The Lunar Domes can offer that Climate the Tourst want

    Summary:
    The Lunar city will have constant flow of Tourists year in, year out

    • Ioannis Kokkinidis on April 25, 2018 at 19:31

      Greece is 70% mountains. Greece is home to the coldest place in the Balkans, Kato Nevrokopi which had a record temperature of -28 C, that is -18 F for the metrically challenged back in 1967. The people of Kato Nevrokopi are known for their toughness, famously breaking the ice on their creek so that they can jump in the water to get the cross during the blessing of the water at Epiphany (January 6). Here is a pic from 2016:
      http://dramania.gr/media/k2/galleries/24163/05.jpg

      We have 21 ski resorts in Greece, if you want a map there is one here:
      https://xionodromika.gr/
      Arachova is known as Mykonos of winter, because in addition to the ski resort and being next to the oracle of Delphi, it also has an awesome night life. Kaimaktsalan on top of being a premier ski resort is also known as a place to play cards. Of course, you might not want to go on a ski resort, you might want to enjoy a walk in the snow. We have quite a large number of mountain destinations, like Vytina, Mt Pelium, Nymphaio where you do not need to do ski but just enjoy winter. Tourists though do not visit in the winter only to ski, cities have city break tourists year round and summer destinations have Snowbirds, people from cold climates for whom it is cheaper to overwinter in a warmer climate than to heat their house. If you ever go to Myrtle Beach SC for Spring Break, the signs there will welcome you saying : “Welcome Snowbirds” or “Snowbird Central” or “Everything Snowbirds need”. Places like Santorini, Mykonos, Rhodes and Crete have quite a large number of North European Snowbirds overwintering there, attracted by the cheaper prices and the hospital infrastructure we have.
      According to the Hellenic Statistical Authority and the Bank of Greece, in January 2017 we had 520 thousand tourists, February 444 thousand, March 628,000, November 741,000, December 2017 563,000 and January 2018 603,000. This is compared to 5,8 million for August 2017, winter months are 1/9th to 1/10th of August but not insignificant.

      People take their vacation in the summer not because of the climate but because school is out. This is why the other popular seasons for vacation is Christmas break and Spring Break. Chinese tourism is also seasonal, Chinese tourists are known to visit in February, May and October which corresponds to national holidays in the PRC. Cities are known to be less seasonal because they get business travelers year round. Still Paris has seasonality (see http://fr.zone-secure.net/42102/324705/#page=10) and even Las Vegas has some seasonality, just not as pronounced as say Miami.

      So long there are national holidays and vacations, tourism will be seasonal.

13. ljk on June 12, 2018 at 9:57

    How blockchain technology can track humanity’s lunar heritage sites

    One challenge for future human lunar exploration is keeping track of past exploration sites in order to preserve their heritage. Roy Balleste and Michelle L.D. Hanlon describe how the blockchain can be used to help create a database of those sites to aid in efforts to protect them.

    http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3512/1

    To quote:

    Author Andrew Chaikin put it best when he noted in 2008, “We need to think very, very carefully about how we are going to revisit those sites and not destroy the record of the first human explorations of another world… But having said that? Not every footprint on every Apollo site need be preserved.”

    I don’t know about that last statement. Of course first we need to get back to the Moon in a serious way to worry about this first.

14. ljk on September 18, 2018 at 9:27

    The Next (Manned) Expedition To The Moon Will Be Filled With Artists…

    http://spaceref.com/commercial-space/the-next-expedition-to-the-moon-will-be-filled-with-artists.html

    To quote:

    As for the Moon trip itself, again details are still incomplete. but Musk wants people to have fun and suggested that it would be fun to go “really close” to the Moon and then zoom out so even the Moon is small then zip back in again. Musk also said “I used to watch this corny show “Moonbase Alpha” (Space 1999). Its 2018 and there’s no base on the damn moon. I think there should be one that the average person could save up for and visit.”

    The BFR is not just a Moon ship though. As has been previously revealed BFR is being designed to be an interplanetary transport that can put 100 tons or so on the surface of anywhere it is sent – such as Mars, the Moon, or the moons of Jupiter. “This is the sort of thing that makes you want to be a human being – and wake up in the morning. BFR is intended to make people excited about the future.” Musk said.

    As the event ended Someone ask Musk if he will go into space. He said, tearing up just a bit, “this has restored my faith in humanity. He’s donating seats. It has been suggested that I will join.” Yusaku Maezawa then said “yea yea”. Musk replied “OK, maybe I will”.

15. ljk on September 18, 2018 at 9:33

    Japanese billionaire named as 1st passenger to fly around Moon in SpaceX BFR

    by Derek Richardson

    September 18, 2018

    http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/organizations/space-exploration-technologies/japanese-billionaire-named-as-1st-passenger-to-fly-around-moon-in-spacex-bfr/

    To quote:

    Maezawa is the 18th richest person in Japan, according to Forbes, with a net worth of 2.9 billion. He founded Zozotown, which is Japan’s largest fashion mall. The Japanese billionaire is also an art collector and the founder of Tokyo-based Contemporary Art Foundation, which opened in 2012.

    He said he wants to take artists to the Moon in order to inspire humanity. During his presentation, he asked what famous artists would have created had they had the opportunity to view the Moon up close.

    “If Pablo Picasso had been able to see the moon up-close, what kind of paintings would he have drawn? If John Lennon could have seen the curvature of the Earth, what kind of songs would he have written?” Maezawa asks on the #dearMoon website. “If they had gone to space, how would the world have looked today?”

    [John Lennon was a huge fan of the 1968 SF film 2001: A Space Odyssey. I read that he went to see it at the theater all the time. On the other hand, Pablo Picasso was asked what he thought when Apollo 11 put the first humans on the Moon in 1969. His response was What do I care? It doesn’t mean anything to me.]

16. ljk on September 18, 2018 at 10:33

    Meet the Billionaire Dreamer Taking Musk’s Rocket to the Moon

    Lisa Du and Yuji Nakamura

    September 18. 2018

    (Bloomberg) — In a country known for conformity, Yusaku Maezawa has always sought to stand out.

    He skipped college, moved to California to play in a rock band and started his own e-commerce company. After making it big, the 42-year-old started dropping hundreds of millions of dollars on artwork. Now the billionaire founder of Start Today Co. is set to become the first paying passenger to the moon on a SpaceX rocket scheduled to blast off in 2023. It’s the latest headline-grabbing project by Maezawa, whose Twitter handle is @yousuck2020.

    …

    “I love art, so I want to see what artists will collaborate on together and see it directly with my eyes,” Maezawa said.

    Maezawa has long stood out in the Japanese corporate world. In a place where company executives maintain low-key lifestyles and keep out of the spotlight, the billionaire is active on social media, sharing snippets from lavish meals or vacations, and regularly makes headlines in the Japanese entertainment world for dating young, popular actresses.

    The first would-be civilian passenger to the moon was already signaling his interest in outer space before the announcement. Maezawa first mentioned in a Twitter post in 2015 that his “eyes were opened,” after touring NASA and talking to astronauts. A year later, he told Japan’s Newspicks online magazine he wanted to try his hand in space. In April, he tweeted that space is one of his main “hobbies,” along with art and wine.

    “Ever since I was a kid, I have loved the moon,” Maezawa said. “Just staring at the moon filled my imagination. It’s always there and has continued to inspire humanity. That’s why I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to see the moon up close.”

    Full article here:

    http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/meet-the-billionaire-dreamer-taking-musks-rocket-to-the-moon/ar-BBNu1qv?ocid=ientp

    I *really* hope NASA is taking notes on how to publicize space exploration and utilization. They also need to emulate IBM in terms of how they changed and adapted to a world where small and powerful computers are now made by many types of companies and sold relatively cheaply. Had IBM stuck with big old mainframes they would have gone the way of so many other pioneering computer giants.

17. ljk on September 25, 2018 at 12:49

    SpaceX’s BFR gets closer to Mars, by way of the Moon

    SpaceX used the announcement of the first customer for its Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) to reveal some changes to the vehicle’s design. Jeff Foust reports on the update and the unique plans that customer has for that mission.

    Monday, September 24, 2018

    http://thespacereview.com/article/3575/1