Lunar Aquaculture

[Rhyshaelkan]

I am not a fan of eating any sort of meat from the water. Be that as it may. I think aquaculture would be the predominant "meat" source for those living on Luna. And as an export to space stations.

I doubt the various water creatures will find it much different swimming in a tank on Luna vs. a tank on Terra. As on Terra there is an explosion of life for the first 30 meters depth of water. After those first 30 meters it falls off rapidly until you reach the bottom where you find the bottom feeders of various forms.

With the weight of water in Luna's one-sixth gravity tanks, pumps, and structures would not have to be nearly as massive to support their construction.

[Boxy]

Erm. Tanks are reinforced on Earth to withstand the pressure of water, not necessarily its weight. You would still need just as much reinforcement to keep it together.

I hadn't thought about fish as a potential protein source, however. That does sound promising not just on the moon, but in Earth orbit, as well. All you would need is enough sunlight for algae et cetera to support a full ecosystem. The main problem with food production that I see, particularly with protein production, is that one needs a complete ecosystem in order to support it, seeing as how support from Earth would be expensive.

If you can't already tell, I'm a big proponent of asteroidal and Earth Orbital infrastructure. It just makes more sense than lunar development, at least in the near term.

[Rhyshaelkan]

Sea water on Terra has the weight of 64lbs per cubic foot. For divers that means that for every 33 feet you descend into sea water you have a column of water pressing down at 14.7 PSI. The point being. Were water to weigh less, say on the Lunar surface or in the micro-gravity of orbit. The pressure would be correspondingly less. Thus less requirement for support.

[Boxy]

Erm, aquariums deal with shallow depths all the time yet still require pretty intense support to withstand the normal water pressure. Even at room temperature at sea level (i.e. just below the surface) you still have to worry about the water bouncing about and pressing against the sides of the tank.

What you seem to be saying is that building large tanks on the Moon wouldn't entail the same engineering challenges, but certainly they still entail some engineering challenges. The simplest engineering solution for building fisheries on the Moon would be with lunacrete (i.e. concrete made from the lunar regolith) to make massive pools. They would still have higher pressures on the bottom, since even lunar gravity compresses water slightly. But in order for there to be enough oxygen in the water, we would need to pressurize it further than gravity alone would do.

I've changed my mind: I reckon that fisheries would be more effective on the Moon than they would be in asteroid colonies. Unless, of course, we had bolo colonies that simulated gravity. Then fisheries could be built just like on the Moon -- possibly using different materials, however.