Climbing in Space

I’ve been thinking about putting an expedition together to climb in space. Sound stupid? Perhaps, but I believe its going to happen. Turn up your imagination and follow my train of thought.

First, space tourists. That’s already happening. Virgin has already started. For a small fortune, you can book you place to float in space for a couple of minutes aboard a fancy space penetrating aircraft.

Next, holidays aboard space stations orbiting the earth. Think Luc Basson’s film ‘’The 5th Element’’. The space stations are already there, now we need someone to take the plunge and launch a commercial one. Sounds possible.

Then comes the permanent ‘’Lunar Vacation Station’’ on the moon. With ‘’out trips’’. People are going to want to rent a space suit, take a guide and walk around outside for a couple of hours. Kind of like a ski resort: out in the morning, back for hot chocolate and dinner in the afternoon.

There would be all sorts of packages, for example ‘the earth rise’ morning trip (leaving 6:30 moon time sharp) and the scaling the local high point to see the local lunar panorama trip (bring comfortable space boots).

Before you know it regular visitors and time share billionaires will be buying their own suits and leaving the guide behind. Space buggies, portable space tents and other goodies make it possible to cruise around the moon exploring.

It won’t be long before the highest points identified, first in the local area and then further abroad, are systematically knocked off. Expeditions vie for sponsors, national flags are hoisted upon lunar summits. The ultimate prize of course, would be the 5.5 kilometre high Mount Huygens, the moon’s highest mountain at in the Mare Imbrum. (A mare is a dark area on the moon, originally thought to be oceans by early astronomers. These areas are considered to have one time been flooded with lava.)

Mountains on the Moon are named after famous astronomers, although ranges copy the names of the earth’s ranges, which I think is a boring. There are the Caucasus, the Alps etc.

‘’Anti’’ moon mountaineers, or craterneers might look to the holes on the planet rather than the peaks, tackling the vast number of craters on the lunar surface. They would have to watch out for the Rays, as many craters are surrounded by bright rays, seen best during the full moon, consisting of material thrown out in the impact.

You see, because there is no atmosphere on the moon, when space debris hits the moon, material is thrown out from the impact, but doesn’t move at all after the collision. According to the website ‘’Moon struck’’, the most magnificent rayed crater of all is Tycho, in the southern hemisphere near Clavius. The crater itself is 84 km in diameter but its rays stretch for a thousand kilometers.

So that’s the moon covered, but what about the Solar System? The greatest goal of any space climber must surely be the highest mountain in the Solar System. This, I believe, is the Olympus Mons on Mars. It’s a freestanding volcano that rises 27 kilometres above the flat surrounds. That’s more than three Mount Everest’s on top of one another.

We can only dream…

Cheers until next time The Souch

Sources: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Fields/8616/moonfacts.html

Image of Olympus Mons: www.americafree.tv