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   RamenCatholic 🐢 🌈 (ramencatholic@mindly.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Aug-2025 12:54:24 JST RamenCatholic 🐢 🌈

   When the technology is available for it, would it be a good or bad idea to build the moon colonies on the ring between the light & dark side?

   #ELI5 #ExplainLikeImFive

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     RamenCatholic 🐢 🌈 (ramencatholic@mindly.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Aug-2025 13:22:25 JST RamenCatholic 🐢 🌈

     in reply to

     • Sam Levine

     @SRLevine this is why I need an ELI5 - I've been trying, and failing, to remember the astrology I learned as a kid. I loved space stuff, but I've let the science parts of my brain go rusty.

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     Sam Levine (srlevine@neuromatch.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Aug-2025 13:22:27 JST Sam Levine

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     @RamenCatholic You do realize the moon rotates, right? There isn't actually a "dark side" that's dark all of the time. It's just that a day takes 2 weeks (from sunrise to sunset).

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     RamenCatholic 🐢 🌈 (ramencatholic@mindly.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Aug-2025 13:26:58 JST RamenCatholic 🐢 🌈

     in reply to

     • Sam Levine

     @SRLevine the dragon on the moon

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     brennen (brennen@federation.p1k3.com)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Aug-2025 13:28:34 JST brennen

     in reply to

     • Sam Levine

     @RamenCatholic @SRLevine ah, this one:

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2312_(novel)

     (it was... kind of uneven, but some fun ideas in there.)

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     brennen (brennen@federation.p1k3.com)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Aug-2025 13:28:35 JST brennen

     in reply to

     • Sam Levine

     @RamenCatholic @SRLevine the original question reminded me of some science fiction i read with a city that crawls along a track just ahead of the terminator on... mercury, maybe?

     RamenCatholic 🐢 🌈 repeated this.
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     Sam Levine (srlevine@neuromatch.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Aug-2025 13:31:35 JST Sam Levine

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     @RamenCatholic What you need is a really nifty thing called an orrery, which has gears and turns the moon around the earth and the earth around the sun. It's much easier to see what's going on if you have access to one of them.

     Also: pink floyd has a lot to answer for.

     Side note: there is a science fiction story* set on a crawling city thing that moves along the mercury terminator (day/night divide) in order to keep the temperature regulated, it's a neat idea, but metal stresses different at different temperatures seem like it would be a serious barrier to making it work

     *apparently there is more than one with this idea

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     RamenCatholic 🐢 🌈 (ramencatholic@mindly.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Aug-2025 13:37:18 JST RamenCatholic 🐢 🌈

     in reply to

     • Sam Levine

     @SRLevine I feel like there are a number of "Nazis on the dark side of the moon" movies and conspiracy theories out there that may have a lot to answer for here, too.

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     Sam Levine (srlevine@neuromatch.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Aug-2025 13:50:03 JST Sam Levine

     in reply to

     @RamenCatholic Curse you for sending me down this rabbit hole, now I want expensive toys I absolutely do not need.

     https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/planet-earth-and-moon-in-orbit-42179

     ETA: wait no, the moon doesn't also rotate on it's axis (just around the earth), nevermind that's trash.

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     RamenCatholic 🐢 🌈 (ramencatholic@mindly.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Aug-2025 13:53:06 JST RamenCatholic 🐢 🌈

     in reply to

     • Sam Levine

     @SRLevine hahaha I might need one of those too - but most of my Lego are still in the box anyway.

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     Legit_Spaghetti (legit_spaghetti@mastodo.neoliber.al)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Aug-2025 15:13:39 JST Legit_Spaghetti

     in reply to

     @RamenCatholic The prime real estate on the Moon is the Peaks of Eternal Sunlight and the Valleys of Eternal Night, which conveniently are very near each other.

     Near the Moon's pole, there's a formation that's in near-permanent daylight. If you're colonizing the Moon, that's the land you should grab, because that's the ideal place for solar panels. Second priority are the nearby craters that never get any sunlight, because if there's frozen water on the moon, that's where you'll find it.

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     RamenCatholic 🐢 🌈 (ramencatholic@mindly.social)'s status on Thursday, 07-Aug-2025 03:22:09 JST RamenCatholic 🐢 🌈

     in reply to

     • Sam Levine
     • sahqon

     @sahqon that was half of my idea :) @SRLevine

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     sahqon (sahqon@beige.party)'s status on Thursday, 07-Aug-2025 03:22:11 JST sahqon

     in reply to

     • Sam Levine

     @SRLevine @RamenCatholic Oh and here I thought they meant the circle around that we see from the Moon, so that the colonies could see the Earth, but the Earth would still see the Moon as it is. Which wouldn't be a bad idea (assuming the sites are good for building)