Moon wargaming - some thoughts.

[Rick]

Water and Oxygen are both locked into the subsurface moon rock as far as I'm aware so both would be valuable resources to recover. As far as I'm aware NASA are still trying to work out what other deposits and resources are on (in?) the moon but, as it's composed mainly of Earth 'overspill', chances are a lot of what's here is also there.

[modelwarrior]

I remember being told that Regolith(dirt) was the most important thing on the moon as it can be turned in oxygen and rocket fuel ? I could be wrong on this statement

[anevilgiraffe]

it's about 40% oxygen according to wikipedia (take your measure of salt to taste), it's water/hydrogen that's going to be the issue.

[Cat]

It's still up in the air whether or not there's ice in Shackleton, which would be a tremendous lode of water.  It's still on the shortlist for a US moonbase site if we ever fricking get around to it.
 
Whatever is being fought over is really just fluff text for gaming though.

I don't recall that they ever specified what minerals the prospectors were looking for up in the hills in Moon Zero Two, other than hoping to find something better than moon-quartz, and they could get rich if they struck a good lode of somethingobtanium.  But those hills are great skirmish terrain and fat-tired moonbuggy obligate!

[zrunelord]

Rick, ( posted here from other thread )
Re what you asked.

Just out of curiosity, zrunelord, what sort of heavy weapons did you envisage?
I thought about the usual SAW, HMG, Autocannon sort of thing and considered the recoil would be tremendous - you'd go flying rearwards in no time. I also thought about MDC's or railgun's and you'd likely need a power pack the size of a fridge-freezer for even a few shots.
So if you've got some ideas it would be great to hear them.

My suggestions are based on possible projectile weapons ( whether gyrobolt, darts or flechettes )

First question would need to be . What Era are we talking about ? Because then the science or technology would be easy to invent.

Your arguments about armour penetration are not taking into consideration, the most vulnerable of these type of suits. i.e. the face plate. A huge target of a helmet. All you need is a small crack, which can lose air.
For sure one of the most important pieces of equipment will be some form of rapid sealant.
Apart from the fact that suits are cumbersome by nature , so trying to seal one's leaking air tank will be a life or death situation., if nigh impossible

Corpsmen will have to deal with internal injuries AND leaking air.

Again , I would strongly suggest reading this superb trilogy by Ian Douglas
https://www.goodreads.com/series/41537-heritage-trilogy


Z

[zrunelord]

Another thought comes to mind .... what if ..
Apart from natural resources there could be also technological ones.

e.g. Lost Alien technology situated on the dark side of the Moon would make be a great incentive for Mega corporations .

Z

[Rick]

Funny you should mention that. I was just recently thinking of the 'Giants' series of books by James P Hogan - in the first one 'Inherit the Stars' a science team on the moon discover a long dead human in a space suit. A very, very long dead human in a completely unknown type of spacesuit with some advanced technology in it.

[zrunelord]

The truth is out there 

There is a ton of material available.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/124711.Moon_based_Adult_Science_Fiction

'Inherit the Stars'

Now that sounds very interesting. Another book added to the long to do list...
Z

[steders]

I watched 'For all mankind' and wasn't sure about M16s on the moon
So I found this article, some really interesting points especially considering temperatures and moon dust
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a35982314/could-astronauts-carry-m16s-on-the-moon-for-all-mankind-apple/

[Rick]

Yep. All interesting points - also how do you deal with ejected cartridges flying off at right angles in low gravity? 
I saw an article a long while ago that suggested caseless rounds ignited/combusted by electrical ignition (electro-chemical?) and using graphite or graphene as a lubricant in space guns!

[anevilgiraffe]

I don't recall that they ever specified what minerals the prospectors were looking for up in the hills in Moon Zero

Nickel, although the asteroid that is forced down is full of ceramic (?) sapphire

[Cat]

Ah, nickel.  It's been a couple of years since last watching the movie and reading the book.
 
For shell casings, an attached hopper could catch them.  Or bring back Italian WW2 technology: Breda 37 HMG used 20 round clips and carefully reïnserted the spent casings back into the strip as it fed through to keep the gun emplacements tidy.
 
Finally began reading Hot Moon (Alan Smale, 2022) — Russia gets there first backstory completely ripped from For All Mankind, action begins with the start of the shooting war in 1979.  First shots are fired by a cosmonaut in the hatch of his craft in lunar orbit.  As our heroine is being fired on, she muses about the use of an AK-47 in space (just in case the reader was wondering), concludes that the rounds do contain their own oxidiser so will function, and hopes that the heat build up will lead to the gun jamming.

[Rick]

There does appear to be a big difference between the older (upland or highland) terrain and the newer sea (maria?) terrain, in that the seas seem to have most of the metal deposits whilst the older (more heahily cratered) upland terrain has other deposits (and, of course, most of the surviving craters). The uplands are definitely where the really interesting stuff is likely to be found, whether deposits or alien impact craters! 

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Guns...
Anvil 28mm with Gyrojet rifles


With HK G11 rifles.

[Storm Wolf]

Interesting stuff, but the bit that got me was Nap of the Moon or NOM

It is of course made of cheese