(urth) Cumaean???

[Pedro Pereira]

> > Recursive Loop wrote:> > "Lune is a tricky subject. We know it LOOKS bigger than now. That may be because its closer. Why> > its closer we don't know. Maybe Wolfe assumes it would be closer do to gravitational attraction,> > but thats wrong, because the Moon is actually getting farther away from Earth. Maybe it was> > intentionally "pushed" towards the earth? Why I can't possibly understand. Some people say that> > its mass was increased. Maybe, but what for and how?"> > > > If it were terraformed, they might have pelted it with comets to build the atmosphere. That would> > increase the mass. But they also might have pelted it with rocky or metal asteroids to build the> > mass (and increase the gravity) to help retain that comet-pelting created atmosphere (speculation> > here).> > Lune may look bigger because it is closer. "...the green, reflected > light that fell from the myriad leaves of the Forest of Lune, fifty > thousand leagues away." (if an Urthly league is still three miles long, > that's 150,000 miles, or 3/5 of the current distance.> > The moon may not be strictly terraformed, as it is not massive enough to > retain useful atmosphere, and there are not enough asteroids or > observable comets to make it so. 
 
What about in the asteroid belt? We are talking about galaxy spanning ship technology. I don't think there would be much a problem to increase the moons mass to a point where it could retain an atmosphere.
 
 
It may be be covered with greenhouse > domes, or anything else green-colored, making the Forest of Lune as real > as the Swamps of Venus were.
 
I believe that Wolfe's idea is real forests on Lune, dome-free and covering the whole place (at least a big portion of the side facing us). 
 
On the other hand this would lead to a study on how much mass would be needed, at what distance the moon is, degree of compaction of the new added mass, etc, etc. just to know exactely how big the moon appears. Thats why stuff is left deliberately vague in many cases. I honestly don't think Wolfe gave himself all that trubble. He takes great care with what he does as a writter, but he's nor perfect. 
 
Pedro
 
 
 
 
> > Moving it closer brings it closer to the Roche Limit. Cross that line and the Moon breaks up,> > IIRC. I'm not sure where the Roche Limit is in the Earth-Moon system (looked through a few books> > on the shelves, but haven't found it yet).> > Roche limit changes if the size of the moon changes.> -- > Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com> < http://www.io.com/~jwilson >> _______________________________________________> Urth Mailing List> To post, write urth at urth.net> Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net
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