Lagrange point colonization: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 06:20, 22 February 2020

Revision as of 13:41, 29 August 2020

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{{Space colonization}}

'''Lagrange point colonization''' is the colonization of the five equilibrium points in the orbit of a planet or its primary moon, called [[LagrangianLagrange point]]s. The most obvious such points for colonization are those in the Earth–Moon and in the Sun–Earth systems. Although it would generally take days or weeks to reach the latter with current technology, it would be possible to generate energy from sunlight at them nearly continuously since they would, due to their considerable distance from Earth, be shaded from the Sun only seldom and then only shortly.

==Earth–Moon==

[[Image:Lagrange points Earth vs Moon.jpg|thumb|right|300px|A diagram showing the five [[LagrangianLagrange point]]s in a two-body system, with one body far more massive than the other (e.g. Earth and Moon). In this system {{L3}}–{{L5}} will appear to share the secondary's orbit, although they are situated slightly outside it.]]

The only two stable Lagrange points are {{L4}} and {{L5}}. Lagrange points are stable if the mass of the larger body is at least 25 times the mass of the secondary body.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Fitzpatrick|first1=Richard|title=Stability of Lagrange Points|url=http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/336k/Newtonhtml/node126.html|website=Newtonian Dynamics|publisher=University of Texas}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Greenspan|first1=Thomas|title=Stability of the Lagrange Points, L4 and L5|url=http://www.math.cornell.edu/~templier/junior/final_paper/Thomas_Greenspan-Stability_of_Lagrange_points.pdf|date=January 7, 2014}}</ref>. The Earth is over 81 times the mass of the Moon.<ref name = "Pitjeva">{{cite journal|last1=Pitjeva|first1=E.V.|last2=Standish|first2=E.M.|title=Proposals for the masses of the three largest asteroids, the Moon-Earth mass ratio and the Astronomical Unit|journal=Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy|date=2009-04-01|volume=103|issue=4|pages=365–372|doi=10.1007/s10569-009-9203-8|bibcode = 2009CeMDA.103..365P |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1000691}}</ref> The [[L5 Society]] was founded to promote settlement by building space stations at these points in the Earth Moon system.

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==Disadvantages==

{{POV section}}

[[File:Structure_of_the_magnetosphere_LanguageSwitch.svg|lang=en|thumb|upright=1.5|Schematic of Earth's magnetosphere. The [[solar wind]] flows from left to right.]]

The risk of [[Proton#Human_exposure|proton exposure]] from the [[solar wind]] as well as the [[health threat from cosmic rays]] would be significant. The Earth's [[magnetosphere]] protects against solar storms but provides little protection from the more energetic cosmic radiation—the Earth's atmosphere protects us from that.{{cn|date=February 2018}}