Evolution of the moon: The 1974 model

The interpretive evolution of the moon can be divided now into seven major stages beginning sometime near the end of the formation of the solar system. These stages and their approximate durations in time are as follows: (1) The Beginning: 4.6 billion years ago, (2) The Melted Shell: 4.6 to 4.4 billion years ago, (3) The Cratered Highlands: 4.4 to 4.1 billion years ago, (4) The Large Basins: 4.1 to 3.9 billion years ago, (5) The Light-colored Plains: 3.9 to 3.8 billion years ago, (6) The Basaltic Maria: 3.8 to 3.0(?) billion years ago, and (7) The Quiet Crust: 3.0(?) billion years ago to the present. The contributions of the Apollo and Luna exploration toward the study of those stages of evolution are reviewed

Evolution of the moon: The 1974 model

Investigations are reported of Apollo and Luna explorations which have brought about the understanding of the moon and its structure. It is shown that with this knowledge of the moon, a better understanding is presented of the earth's origin, structure and composition

A closer look at semistability for singular principal bundles

We substantially refine the theory of singular principal bundles introduced in a former paper. In particular, we show that we need only honest singular principal bundles in our compactification. These are objects which carry the structure of a rational principal bundle in the sense of Ramanathan. Moreover, we arrive at a much simpler semistability condition. In the case of a semisimple group, this is just the Gieseker-version of Ramanathan's semistability condition for the corresponding rational principal $G$-bundle.Comment: To appear in the International Mathematics Research Notices. V2: Minor correction

Global Boundedness for Decorated Sheaves

An important classification problem in Algebraic Geometry deals with pairs (\E,\phi), consisting of a torsion free sheaf \E and a non-trivial homomorphism \phi\colon (\E^{\otimes a})^{\oplus b}\lra\det(\E)^{\otimes c}\otimes \L on a polarized complex projective manifold (X,\O_X(1)), the input data $a$, $b$, $c$, \L as well as the Hilbert polynomial of \E being fixed. The solution to the classification problem consists of a family of moduli spaces ${\cal M}^\delta:={\cal M}^{\delta-\rm ss}_{a/b/c/L/P}$ for the $\delta$-semistable objects, where \delta\in\Q[x] can be any positive polynomial of degree at most $\dim X-1$. In this note we show that there are only finitely many distinct moduli spaces among the ${\cal M}^\delta$ and that they sit in a chain of "GIT-flips". This property has been known and proved by ad hoc arguments in several special cases. In our paper, we apply refined information on the instability flag to solve this problem. This strategy is inspired by the fundamental paper of Ramanan and Ramanathan on the instability flag.Comment: To appear in the International Mathematics Research Notices. V2: A few typos corrected (notably in the definition of semistability in the introduction); Expanded Introductio

ETHICS, ECONOMICS, AND INSTITUTIONAL INNOVATIONS

Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

Economic geology of lunar Helium-3

Economic geology evaluation of lunar He-3 should answer the question: Can lunar He-3 be sold on Earth with sufficient profit margins and low enough risk to attract capital investment in the enterprise. Concepts that relate to economic geology of recovering He-3 from the lunar maria are not new to human experience. A parametric cost and technology evaluation scheme, based on existing and future data, is required to qualitatively and quantitatively assess the comprehensive economic feasibility and return on investment of He-3 recovery from the lunar maria. There are also many political issues which must be considered as a result of nuclear fusion and lunar mining

INTERMARS: User-controlled international management system

Existing international space law as well as the best interest of all nations are consistent with the establishment of a user-based international organization, herein called INTERMARS. INTERMARS would provide access to facilities and services at a Martian base which would be of high functional potential, quality, safety, and reliability. These opportunities would be available on an open and nondiscriminatory basis to all peaceful users and investors. INTERMARS is a model organization concept tailored to provide cooperative international management of a Martian base for the benefit of its members, users, and investors. Most importantly, INTERMARS would provide such management through a sharing of both sovereignty and opportunity rather then unilateral control by any one nation or set of competing nations. Through an Assembly of Parties, a Board of Governors, a Board of Users and Investors, and a Director General, INTERMARS would meet its primary goal as it would be in the self-interest of all members, users, and investors to do so. The internal structure and philosophy of INTERMARS would provide not only for all participants to have representation in decisions affecting its activities, but also would insure effective and responsive management. Surely this is the precedent wished for, to establish for mankind at the now not-so-distant shores of the new ocean of space

The politics of Mars

A discussion is presented comparing past and present major accomplishments of the U.S. and the Soviet Union in space. It concludes that the Soviets are presently well ahead of the U.S. in several specific aspects of space accomplishment and speculates that the Soviet strategy is directed towards sending a man to the vicinity of Mars by the end of this century. A major successful multinational space endeavor, INTELSAT, is reviewed and it is suggested that the manned exploration of Mars offers a unique opportunity for another such major international cooperative effort. The current attitude of U.S. leadership and the general public is assessed as uniformed or ambivalent about the perceived threat of Soviet dominance in space

The real world and lunar base activation scenarios

A lunar base or a network of lunar bases may have highly desirable support functions in a national or international program to explore and settle Mars. In addition, He-3 exported from the Moon could be the basis for providing much of the energy needs of humankind in the twenty-first century. Both technical and managerial issues must be addressed when considering the establishment of a lunar base that can serve the needs of human civilization in space. Many of the technical issues become evident in the consideration of hypothetical scenarios for the activation of a network of lunar bases. Specific and realistic assumptions must be made about the conduct of various types of activities in addition to the general assumptions given above. These activities include landings, crew consumables, power production, crew selection, risk management, habitation, science station placement, base planning, science, agriculture, resource evaluation, readaptation, plant activation and test, storage module landings, resource transport module landings, integrated operations, maintenance, Base 2 activation, and management. The development of scenarios for the activation of a lunar base or network of bases will require close attention to the 'real world' of space operations. That world is defined by the natural environment, available technology, realistic objectives, and common sense