Editing Lunar space elevator (section)

==Possible uses==
Materials from Earth may be sent into orbit and then down to the Moon to be used by lunar bases and installations.<ref name="Pearson 2005"/>

Former [[U.S. President]] [[George W. Bush]], in an address about his [[Vision for Space Exploration]], suggested that the Moon may serve as a cost-effective construction, launching and fueling [[Colonization of the Moon|site]] for future space exploration missions. As President Bush noted,<ref name="Vision">{{Cite web|url=https://history.nasa.gov/Bush%20SEP.htm|title=President Bush Announces New Vision for Space Exploration Program|accessdate=June 17, 2009|publisher=[[NASA]]|date=January 14, 2004}}</ref> ''"(Lunar) soil contains raw materials that might be harvested and processed into rocket fuel or breathable air."''  For example, the proposed [[Ares V]] heavy-lift rocket system could cost-effectively<ref name="LowCostMoon">{{Cite web 
| url=http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/ares/aresl/index.html 
| title=NASA - Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle 
| accessdate=13 May 2009 
| publisher=[[NASA]] 
| date=29 April 2009}}</ref> deliver [[raw material]]s from Earth to a [[space dock|docking station]], (connected to the lunar elevator as a counterweight,)<ref>Please refer to [[Space elevator#Counterweight]].</ref> where future spacecraft could be built and launched, while extracted lunar resources could be shipped up from a base on the Moon's surface, near the elevator's anchoring point. If the elevator was connected somehow to a lunar base built near the Moon's north pole, then workers could also mine the water ice which is known to exist there, providing an ample source of readily accessible water for the crew at the elevator's docking station.<ref>{{cite magazine| url=https://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/water-moon-north-pole/ | magazine=Wired | first=Tia | last=Ghose | title=Millions of Tons of Water Ice Found at Moon's North Pole | date=March 1, 2010}}</ref> Also, since the total energy needed for transit between the Moon and Mars is considerably less than for between Earth and Mars, this concept could lower some of the engineering obstacles to sending humans to Mars.

The lunar elevator could also be used to transport supplies and materials from the surface of the moon into the Earth's orbit and vice versa.  According to Jerome Pearson, many of the Moon's material resources can be extracted and sent into Earth orbit more easily than if they were launched from the Earth's surface.<ref name="Pearson 2005"/> For example, lunar [[regolith]] itself could be used as massive material to shield space stations or crewed spacecraft on long missions from [[solar flare]]s, [[Van Allen radiation]], and other kinds of [[cosmic radiation]]. The Moon's naturally occurring metals and minerals could be mined and used for construction.  Lunar deposits of silicon, which could be used to build solar panels for massive [[satellite solar power]] stations, seem particularly promising.<ref name="Pearson 2005"/>

One disadvantage of the lunar elevator is that the speed of the climbing vehicles may be too slow to efficiently serve as a human transportation system. In contrast to an Earth-based elevator, the longer distance from the docking station to the lunar surface would mean that any "elevator car" would need to be able to sustain a crew for several days, even weeks, before it reached its destination.<ref name="Cain 2004"/>