Word: vacuums
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...find the moon economically irresistible. Anywhere they choose to locate on the 15 million square miles of lunar surface, there is a near perfect vacuum?a condition that is obtained on earth only with thick walls and elaborate pumps, and at great expense. As the need grows for "hard" vacuums in industrial processes on earth, the day may come when certain lightweight, easily transportable items that require a vacuum in their production?electronic tubes, computer components, hearing aids ?can be made more economically in lunar factories...
Metallurgical research would also benefit from the moon's vacuum, in which pure metals with maximum densities could be produced. Manufacturers who need elaborately protected "clean rooms" on earth for their production processes would find that the moon itself is a huge clean room, with no atmosphere to circulate dust and other contaminants around assembly areas...
...lunar environment is also ideal for cyclotrons and other devices that accelerate subatomic particles in a vacuum. For the same reason, electron beam-welding?which also requires a high vacuum?would be facilitated on the moon. Another joining process, cold-welding, could become an important part of lunar industry. In a vacuum, two perfectly clean and smooth metal surfaces?uncontaminated by oxides that are formed in the earth's atmosphere ?can be welded solidly together without heat and with little pressure...
Even the lunar vacuum itself may some day become a salable commodity. Says Industrial Research magazine: "It is conceivable that a simple sealed pressure shell containing literally nothing inside, or an insulated package of a material cooled to ?441° F. or lower, with suitable 'vacuum locks,' could be shipped to earth ports intact?for a price less than evacuation or helium cooling on mother earth...
Valuable as the moon's vacuum may be, there are more palpable treasures. Some scientists, assuming that the moon was created when the earth was, some 4.5 billion years ago, calculate that about 10 trillion tons of meteors have fallen on the lunar surface. From their analysis of the composition of the relatively few meteors that reach the earth's surface (most are burned up by the atmosphere), they estimate that meteors have deposited 450 billion tons of iron, 30 billion tons of nickel, 10 billion tons of phosphorous, 9 billion tons of carbon, 6 billion tons of copper...