What does my moon colony need?

I have a group that's building a moon colony. The final end goal is a self-sufficient colony of at least 1 million humans.

They have access to one million metric tons of lift per week at nominal cost. If it matters, this is being done by superheros (flyers, energy producers, etc). Most materials are lifted, boosted toward the moon, then intercepted and landed. Overall this takes four days. Time-sensitive materials can reach the moon in as little as three hours under constant acceleration, but it's roughly ten times less efficient to do it that way.

What resources does the colony need from Earth, and what is the most efficient way to transport those resources? For example, sure we need air - how should we transport it, how do we divide each transport up, etc?

Edit: To clarify on the "way to transport", what I mean is in terms of storage. Assume they've got the mechanics down of getting stuff from point A to point B. But say you're transporting water - should you do it as liquid or ice? Or possibly both? Is it worth super cooling air to a liquid to make things easier, or should you compress it but keep it a gas? If you need to transport animals or plants, what's the best way?

Specifically I'd like to know about the following two scenarios:

• First year (what do we need initially)
• After 1-2 years (what do we need while we build toward self-sufficiency)

Average technology is 1990s, but the superheros have access to 2015-equivalent technology because of Spark-type supergeniuses. This is an AU Earth, and they're building it on AU Luna.

If they can get the resources elsewhere in the solar system more efficiently, they will do that instead. Keep in mind that almost everything else is farther away, which effectively reduces the efficiency since it takes longer to get there.

posted over 8 years ago

Dan Smolinske‭

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