[Crazy] Astro-vandalism

[Artlav]

Given modern technology and unlimited amount of money, what would be a practical, or at least possible, way of writing a four-letter F-word on the face of the Moon, that would be clearly visible to the naked eye back on Earth?

First thing that come to mind are nukes, lots of them on Saturn V - sized rockets. But would a nuke cause a sharp enough discoloration of the surface?
Sure, you can bury them to make craters, but that would be on the far side of feasibility.

Same weight of paint, pulverized before impact, might do it, but how much paint would that be?

Shotgun kind of discoloration - lots of pebbles at multiple escape velocities making lots of small craters over wide area. Does not sound too contrast.

Putting a stencil between the Sun and he Moon would work great, but is not quite modern technology.
So is a solar powered super-projector that can outshine sunlight.
Well, not on the lit side anyway.

Bulldozing rocks into piles is once again marginally possible, but far from practical.

Any better ideas?

 

[garyw]

Space borne high power laser to excite the dust and move it?

 

[Ark]

Automated H-3 miners programmed to run a certain path, I would say. So long as the regolith coming out the back is a slightly different color.

 

[garyw]

So long as the regolith coming out the back is a slightly different color.

Thats an idea, what about layering something over the top or mining something to change the regolith colour?

 

[T.Neo]

We are talking here about a 'structure' that would have to be thousands of kilometers across... creating it would be no easy feat.

I would suggest millions of Big Dumb Tractors (either "clanking replicators" or very effectively mass-produced) that utilise lunar titanium ore (such as ilmenite- common on the Moon) to create reflective titanium dioxide particles and dust them over a wide area.

The high reflectivity of the titanium dioxide will stand out very brightly against the low albedo lunar regolith. In fact, it could increase the brightness of the Moon considerably and even obscure the lettering with glare.

The 'tractors' could be 'herded' by a system of pylons/masts hundreds of kilometers apart, broadcasting radio signals. Inaccuracy on the level of single digits or even tens of kilometers would likely not be a big deal at this kind of scale.

Space borne high power laser to excite the dust and move it?

Sure. Would you prefer the 10 or 100 trillion dollar option on your lunar laser, sir?

 

[N_Molson]

Some comic author had the idea in "Z comme Zorglub" ; this character (Zorglub, a genius that was fired from the university because of his crazy ideas) auto-proclaiming itself "the electronic dictator", turning people into loyal zombies with some EM wave. To make his soldiers/scientists/agents/servitors impossible to understand by other people, he learns them (via an electronic processing machine that "format" their brain) to speak backwards. Like "Rocket" becomes "Tekcor".

So to strike the world attention, he launches hundred of rockets towards the Moon, spreading a red chemical paint... But neglected a tiny little detail : the whole operation was in the hand of his zombies... That of course wrote the message backwards :lol: :facepalm: So he gets completely depressed and is recovered by the "good ones".

Interesting fact : the book was published in 1967, at the peak of the Moon race... It was not that innocent...

 

[Aeadar]

I love this place! :rofl:

 

[Izack]

Interestingly enough, we have that ColaCoca Moon, and in decent resolution:
[ame="http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=4108"]Zorblug's Moon - Level 9 - v0.3[/ame]

 

[MaverickSawyer]

:hmm: How about the SAPL from John Ringo's latest books? Bunch of mirrors down towards Venus orbit, collecting light in a distributed array, and concentrating it. last I read, it was up in the EXA-watt range... Surely it won't take that much power! :lol:

 

[Hielor]

Interestingly enough, we have that ColaCoca Moon, and in decent resolution:
Zorblug's Moon - Level 9 - v0.3

That's not quite correct--based on the image posted earlier by N_Molson, the words when read backwards should actually be "Cola-Coca"--whether this was intentional or not at the time, I don't know.

 

[N_Molson]

The author of the comic did not asked the permission to use the logo, so I think it is a trick to avoid any potential trademarks problem (also, you can't see a "C"). Anyways, in all the books of the series he wrote, he always used fake names of countries, towns, cars, etc... Really created it's own universe, he never draw an existing car (quite a challenge).

So I think he just meant that the reader "gets the idea", which undoubtely works very well.

 

[Hielor]

The author of the comic did not asked the permission to use the logo, so I think it is a trick to avoid any potential trademarks problem (also, you can't see a "C"). Anyways, in all the books of the series he wrote, he always used fake names of countries, towns, cars, etc... Really created it's own universe, he never draw an existing car (quite a challenge).

So I think he just meant that the reader "gets the idea", which undoubtely works very well.

Ah, indeed, the "C"s are also not reversed. Interesting tidbits, thanks!

Still, I think the mod should be updated to reflect the actual image...

 

[Izack]

Ah, indeed, the "C"s are also not reversed. Interesting tidbits, thanks!

Still, I think the mod should be updated to reflect the actual image...

It was probably done with little effort - take the coke logo, mirror and paste. Hardly anyone would get a reference to a French comic anyway.

 

[Ark]

Thats an idea, what about layering something over the top or mining something to change the regolith colour?

I would assume the very top layer of regolith that's been exposed to solar radiation for billions of years would be a different color than the stuff underneath it. Large craters have visible ejecta lines, presumably because the stuff blasted out of the ground has a different appearance.

Remember, you can pick up a rock and one side will be worn by meteorites, and the other side as sharp and clean as the day it was created.

 

[N_Molson]

Maybe chains LEDs could be used like X-mas decorations ? :hmm:

 

[T.Neo]

I would assume the very top layer of regolith that's been exposed to solar radiation for billions of years would be a different color than the stuff underneath it. Large craters have visible ejecta lines, presumably because the stuff blasted out of the ground has a different appearance.

The issue is that not only could these variations from normal terrain colouring change with regard to area, but that normal terrain colouring changes with area.

Hence why the distribution of something that is likely to be radically different in albedo to the surrounding terrain (such as titanium dioxide) could be a better option.

The problem though, is that you have to manufacture the titanium dioxide...