I think the US should build a giant laser and carve "property of the USA" on the moon before the Russians can get there.
the moon
- Thread starter splodenode
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In reality, it wouldn't matter if anyone claimed the Moon. It has half again the surface area of North America; nobody has the technology or resources to occupy it or defend it. Whoever gets it will be those who settle there, and they'll pretty much just get what they can build on; and that won't be for a century, at least. I just hope that the Sea of Tranquility gets to be a US State. 
By the 24th Century, there are 50 million people living on the Moon. On a clear night, you can see Lake Armstrong.
Actually attacking and defending planets (and moons) is much harder than what is shown in fiction. You could talk about mutually assured destruction. Two planets would be ultimately disconnected in their development, there is little ways for one of them to impose any control on the other. And then an attack with relativistic missiles can literally obliterate the other planet without the possibility for any kind of response before that.
An attack that targets only military installations is too hard to do – see how hard it is if you're on the same planet, now do it on another. The only chance you have are relativistic missiles that can't be detected before they've accelerated enough, but that would still do you no good I think.
A single base on the moon, however, is trivial to take out, and they won't even notice they were under the attack. Note to self: Do not hide on the moon if the authorities are looking for me.
+1
What about Vermontlight on the Moon, though? 
At this stage of technology, though, it would be nearly impossible. It would be possible, if anyone were willing to redirect the resources, to set up a colony on the moon, but that would not be equivalent to occupying the Moon (no matter what they may claim). Anyone else could set up their own colony and nobody could do anything about it. It may be possible to boost a nuclear warhead up there, but the other guy would have days to intercept it. Kinetic weapons are no good; we certainly don't have the technology to divert an asteroid, boosting a dead weight from the Earth would be prohibitively expensive, and we couldn't aim at a target on the Moon with enough accuracy to justify it. The only option at this point would be to threaten terrestrial proxy targets or a conventional war. Hardly seems worth it, given all the territory available there, but if it were an ideological conflict, I suppose common sense wouldn't matter.
You can trade it back for Alaska.
A
Amaris
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In reality, it wouldn't matter if anyone claimed the Moon. It has half again the surface area of North America; nobody has the technology or resources to occupy it or defend it. Whoever gets it will be those who settle there, and they'll pretty much just get what they can build on; and that won't be for a century, at least. I just hope that the Sea of Tranquility gets to be a US State.
LOL, you think they'd try to battle it out in space. They won't, they will do it here where it's cheaper and more effective.
That's so crazy, it just might work!
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