Columnist Susan Snyder: Devotees launching a crater cause

Monday, July 25, 2005 | 8:25 a.m.

Those who attended a conference in Las Vegas last week about how people are going to arrive, live and work on the moon have a firm grasp of reality.

They know it sounds ridiculous.

But then, Orville and Wilbur Wright's plans to fly sounded that way too. (Try to forget that President Bush announced we would return to the moon in 2020. This is the same guy who declared the war in Iraq over.)

"Nothing ever comes of just wishing it done," said Ruth Richter, a founder of the Space Engineering & Science Institute in Los Alamos, N.M. "So, maybe it will happen."

A fair number of well-educated and strategically placed scientists, physicists, geologists and NASA specialists gathered Thursday at the Flamingo for the "Return to the Moon VI: Reality Check" conference. The convention ended Saturday.

The event, sponsored by the Space Frontier Foundation, wasn't a place for Trekkies, Star Wars freaks or other space fans. The meetings and speakers, which included five NASA experts, was designed for those who have the scientific and technical skills to get to the moon and those who have the money to pay for it.

Being an average person who has thrilled to received a "C" in anything requiring scientific or math skills, I had to check in on Thursday's sessions about how we would live up there and what we would do. I was somewhat amazed that I understood a lot of what the experts discussed.

It wasn't hard to figure out to what Ken Stratton, an electrical engineer specializing in automation and robotics, was referring before he opened his Power Point presentation.

Stratton works for Caterpillar.

Caterpillar makes bulldozers.

Yes, the first essential item the group considered in its discussion about how we will live on the moon was bulldozers.

We will need them for digging holes and mining lunar soil.

At least this time we won't have to kill off whole nations of Indians.

"We want to be the tool-provider to the miners and construction companies," Stratton told the group after showing off photos of big, yellow remote-controlled contraptions with shovels.

Dennis Wingo, a former University of Alabama professor who runs a company called SkyCorp., said he thinks the moon's resources have been "underappreciated and under-talked-about."

Well, there is a lot of dirt.

However, that dirt has some pretty amazing qualities, said Larry Taylor, a University of Tennessee professor of geology and materials science.

Taylor described how it contains miniscule pieces of iron encased in glass that, when placed in his microwave oven, didn't destroy the oven but instead melted. This same reaction, Taylor said, could be used to melt the soil into road surfaces.

Makes sense, actually. And I, for one, have always advocated sending all the bulldozers and road-builders to the moon.

Still, it would seem talk of such an existence is finally moving into more mainstream minds. For example, it was rewarding to watch as Michael Wargo of NASA had trouble opening his two-slide Power Point presentation.

And I was not alone in cackling when someone observing Wargo's struggle from the fourth row whispered, "Gee, it's not exactly rocket science."