First of all, do not post something like "it has too little gravity" or "it has no magnetosphere", because I know that already. Also, please try to avoid "yes or no" answers. So, what would happen if we give the moon an atmosphere of krypton (the heaviest not-radioactive noble gas, to make it harder for solar radiation an wind to strip it off) and a small amount of oxygen to form an ozone layer, so that the total atmospheric pressure of 0.1 atmosphere. (above the Armstrong limit).We could also use SF6 in small amounts (as it is heavy and is a good greenhouse gas)
Recommended Answer:
I once read that if the Moon were provided an Earthlike 1 bar atmosphere of O2/N2, it would have a half life of about 1,000,000 years. An artificial magnetic field could be created by making a superconducting coil/ring at each pole of say 250 miles in diameter. Water loss would be much quicker due to UV spliting of H2O combined with the low molecular weight of Hydrogen, but adding extra O2 to the mix. Krypton or even Xenon could be manufactured in a Thermonuclear fusion reactor employing perhaps Bromine/ Iodine as starting material and the neutron flux of the reactor to transmute elements. Krypton/Xenon could indeed be used in lieu of N2 as the buffer gas, (and Uranium hexafloride is probably the heaviest known gas, but this is likely too toxic to be breathable).But a one Bar atmosphere is not really necessary. A 0.15 Bar atmosphere of pure O2 would be the minimum breathable atmosphere, with 0.21 Bar being Earth equivalent at sea level. A 0.3 Bar atmosphere that is 2/3 O2 and 1/3 buffer gas would be ideal, with a half life of over 2,000,000 years..Jumping around on the Moon with no space suit! It is fun to think about!Other Answers:
- By the way you explained it, I think that yes, it is possible; however, consider how it may be accomplished. How will we be able to collect such a vast amount of krypton to cover the entire moon? Where will we acquire it? Even if we did, how would we transport it from Earth to the Moon, and even then, how much would it cost? Would it be practical or efficient? Would it be possible in the near future? Grand, large-scale projects should only be started if they are worth the effort.
- OK and how many billions of tonnes of krypton gas would that be? Terraforming will work but we will only ever be able to terraform planets using resources already ON those planets. Mars could be terraformed because there is already tens of trillions of tonnes of water (in the form of permafrost) on it right now. It couldn't be terraformed if we had to transport that water from Earth.
- Work out the distribution of molecular velocities for Krypton at the highest temperature on the moon, and determine if it exceeds the moon's escape velocity. If so, your plan will not work. I am too lazy to look up the equations and do the math, that is left for you. Of course as others have already pointed out, collecting enough Krypton and then transporting it to the moon is totally impossible.
- Sure it would work. But we have to think of the ramifications of a race of super beings from krypton orbiting a yellow sun.
- And where do you expect to get so much Krypton? It's a trace gas... The best approach would be to somehow access the molten magma interior of the Moon ( even though it's geologically inactive, it's not frozen solid ) hence releasing CO2, water and ammonia at a rate faster than gases from the atmosphere is lost. Remember Titan is just 2% the mass of the Earth yet it has 1.5 atmospheres of surface air pressure. It isn't the gravity or the magnetosphere that gives a planet or Moon an atmosphere, it's about gaining more gases than you loose, gravity and magnetospheres just reduce the rate of loss.Of course, you're not being very imaginative, why do we have to colonize and terraform planets and moons? It's a planetary chauvinism to think we need to live on planets and moons, it would be far better to colonize O'Neill Cylinders, Bernal Sphere's and Stanford Torus's.
