Re: Lo-tech Moon Shot

>Problem: 1-5 Individuals of tech 6-8 stranded on an earth type world at TL0,
>their only means of returning to civilisation is to get to the TL15 vessel on
>the planets moon.
>
>Question: Given time (assuming anagathics if nescessary) could a ship be
>built to get to the moon?
>
>One solution offered thus far is a lo-tech Lifting Plane that is got upto
>hi altitude by balloons.

I think it would be EXTREMELY unlikely given any sensible amount of time
(less than 1000yrs say). Hi-altitude planes are useless as are ballons since
both require an atmosphere to work. Even assuming they produced some sort
of thruster (say evaporating water into the vacuum - rockets require liquid
O2 which is a not possible without complex cooling apparatus) they would
need a computer to plot the course and control the craft (even to do this you
have to have some means of determining your position in space). A further
problem is the velocity change (delta-v) that they would require to land safely
on the moon, water thrusters would be nowhere near powerful enough.

However it might be possible if they landed on the planet with vacc suits,
given a generous ref :-). Using the high altitude glider + balloons to gain
altitude they could then have constructed some simple rockets fueled with,
say alcohol, and use the remaining atmosphere coupled with the oxygen
supplies from some of their vacc suits - this would be a one man trip only.
These rockets could then thrust the one pilot out of the planets gravity
given a thruster pack attached to his vacc suit and towards the moon.
This one guy then has the time it takes him to reach the moons surface from
maximum vacc suit communication range to tell the TL15 ship to pick him
up - otherwise he's dead. (A kinder alternative would be to allow him
to achieve orbit round the moon - but that might overtax his vacc suit's
computer, prehaps a decaying orbit? :-)

Hope that gives you some ideas,

Roger