Heinlein’s moon colony (part 1)

As I have mentioned before, my favorite book is Robert A. Heinlein’s science fiction novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. I have begun rereading it again, which I do about once every year. In this novel, revolutionaries on a lunar colony carry out a revolution against Earth, which owns the colony. In the story, the original purpose of the lunar colony is to grow wheat to export to Earth, which is suffering from serious overpopulation problems. After reading about half of it, I began to wonder: could this be a practical program for the future? Could the moon be exploited in this way?

This question is multi-faceted and deserves a careful analysis. Firstly, is this technologically possible? As far as I can tell, the answer is yes. In the book, wheat is farmed in tunnels using hydroponics and ultraviolet light. Both of these are widespread today, and hydroponics is becoming very popular. The technology required to transport whatever materials are need to the moon certainly exist, as does the equipment needed to drill tunnels and make them airtight. The biosphere has been perfected over several decades, so it would also be safe to say that the technology exists to support the “farmers” and their crops on the moon. In order to ship food down, Heinlein suggests a magnetic “catapult” to launch barges of grain down to Earth. This is by no means pure fantasy—MagLev trains illustrate the potential of electromagnetism, and I have no doubt that such a catapult could be developed. Also, remember that the moon sits on top of Earth’s gravity well—with a small push, an object can simply “fall” down to Earth, and land safely with simple retro rockets and/or parachutes.

The second part of the question is: Is this practical and/or feasible? I believe the answer is yes, if we look at the project as a long term investment. The initial cost is going to be very high—in the beginning, fuel, personnel, seeds, and many truckloads worth of equipment must be shuttled up to the moon. Once we get past this initial setback, though, the cost of maintaining the project is much lower. Lunar metal can be used to create more drilling equipment, and lunar ice can support more farms. The most expensive parts of the project from here on in are shipping up of chemicals and whatever supplies cannot be produced on the moon, and the creation of the “catapult” to ship food down to Earth. Eventually, though, the returns will be enormous—food, particularly grain, can be shipped to Earth at any time of year, and it can “land” in any part of the world. If food prices continue to rise as the world population increases, grain will become a very valuable commodity, and it will fetch a very high price.  

But what are the implications of such a project, and is it in fact worth it? As I read more, I’ll continue to think about it and write another post about it. I will also do some research and get some numbers—I’m interested to see if this is actually mathematically feasible.