Building Moon base with electricity and provision which make the life of astronauts comfortable and safe seems like a plot of sci-fiction. But, is there any reality in it? BBC science correspondent Sue Nelson studied the colonialist plans of the world space agencies and found out if they had enough strength and resources to implement them on Moon colonization and beyond it.
Read Also: Earths Oldest Rock Found On The Lunar Surface
In January 2019, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) spoke about the upcoming stages of its successful lunar program to set up a moon base. After the first-ever soft landing of the Change-4 automatic station on the far side of the moon, two subsequent missions are to deliver samples of lunar soil and rocks to Earth.
Then, Change-7, which is scheduled to be launched in 2023, will begin research on the South Pole of the Moon, a region of particular interest because of the presence of water ice there.
China has already planned to send a robotic mission Change-8 to the moon by 2027, which will conduct an experiment with 3D printing, using local resources for the construction of simple structures.
We hope that Change-8 will help test some technologies and do some exploring, said CNSA deputy head Wu Yanhua.
China is not alone in an effort for the moon colonization: today, all the space powers are talking about it. And although to date, only Americans landed on the satellite, now they have to catch up with rivals in the moon race.
Read Also: Apocalypse Is Coming: Moon Collision With An Asteroid Will leave Earth To Die?
For a long time, NASA has not made public plans to create a lunar base, highlighting Mars as a priority. But in May 2019, the US space agency announced that American astronauts would land on the moons surface by 2024.
A few steps ahead, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced its intention to create a moon base in 2016. A year earlier, ESA CEO Jan Wrner introduced the concept Lunar Village, a non-profit project that brings together public and private investors, scientists, engineers, businessmen, architects, and artists. The task of like-minded people is to create and share infrastructure on the Moon for a variety of purposes: astronomical research, tourism, and geological exploration the search for minerals that are lacked on Earth.
CNSA and NASA have already shown interest in the Moon Village project, and Jeff Bezoss private aerospace company, Blue Origin, offered to develop a cargo ship with a payload of 4500 kg to implement it.
The Moon Village is not an official ESA program, but the agencys plans are no less ambitious. So, the mapping of the lunar surface should be completed by 2030, then modules of the future moon base will be delivered to the selected location, their collection will be completed by 2042, and all life support systems, production facilities, and an observatory will be created by 2062.
But whatever organization wins the 21st-century lunar race, survival will be a key priority. Until now, people only have been on the Moon for three days, because is not the most hospitable place for a long stay.
Because of the rarefied atmosphere, the temperature difference on the surface of the moon is very high. So, at a sunflower point, it can heat up to +127 C and cool down to -173 C at night. The lunar day is 29.5 times longer than the earthly days, which dooms the colonialists for two weeks of daylight and two weeks of the night. This can be a problem for the accumulation and use of energy, so any new technology for the moon outpost must work in difficult conditions.
Several organizations, including Blue Origin, Airbus and ESA, recently created a moon-centric prize program known as The Moon Race.
It is already known that the development and testing of technologies are planned for 2021, and the Moon mission itself is set for 2024.
Prototypes of technologies selected for testing in a rarefied atmosphere of the moon will allow completing the mission in 5 years. In 2024, the Moon Race visionaries want to start building infrastructure, energy production, and growing plants.
Traveling into space is expensive. The heavier the payload of the launch vehicle, the more fuel is required and the higher the cost of the flight is. That is why, to create the infrastructure of the lunar base, economical visionaries prefer to use the available resources. For example, lava can be used as shelters leading to frozen water ice below the surface. Another plan is to build a base of lunar regolith fine sand, which is similar to the volcanic sand on Earth.
Professor Mathias Sperl of the University of Cologne collaborates with the German space agency DLR, printing volcanic powder bricks. A regolith simulator forms the desired shape through a process called sintering when concentrated sunlight or lasers bind the material together.
Sperl said, Were not building Lego but we have interlocking bricks. They are going to build something similar to Igloo using the bricks. It must be strong enough to withstand the pressure of a meter layer of regolith, which will protect the colonizers from cosmic radiation. But the construction of one building would be a very long process.
It takes roughly five hours to make a brick, said Sperl, and you need 10,000 bricks for an igloo. It will take months.
To speed up the process, more lenses will be required on the moon to store sunlight, and the construction itself to entrust the robots.
Since traces of water ice were found at the poles of the moon, lunar bases are most likely to appear in those places. No wonder the current mission rover Change-4 collects data in the Aitken crater at the South Pole.
Read Also: NASA Full Plan to Extract Minerals From Martian Soil For Rocket Fuel
There are enough useful resources on the moon. Oxygen inside the regolith can be extracted and used for breathing. Its most likely source is the mineral ilmenite (FeTiO3), which, in combination with hydrogen at a temperature of about 1000 C, produces water vapor, which must then be separated to produce hydrogen and oxygen.
Moreover, future moon colonizers need to take care of the food. Food production in space is not a new idea. It began developing in 1982, when Soviet cosmonauts first grew the Arabidopsis thaliana flower on the space station, Salyut-7.
Since then, hydroponics (growing plants on artificial environments without soil) took a step forward, and in 2010, the University of Arizona (the USA) developed a prototype named Lunar greenhouse. The hydroponic system uses a 5.5-meter membrane tube, water vapor lamps and envelopes to hold seeds with carbon dioxide exhaled by astronauts.
In 2018, with the help of such a system, the Neumayer III-polar station team in Antarctica harvested the first crop grown in greenhouses without land and sunlight: 3.6 kg of lettuce, 18 cucumbers, and 70 radishes. In a high-tech greenhouse, behind the walls of which the temperature was kept at -20 C, a reusable water cycle, a nutrient system, LED lighting and careful control of carbon dioxide were used.
For the construction and life support of the lunar base, a large amount of energy will be needed, and the Sun is far from its only source.
According to ESA scientific adviser Aidan Cowley, during the night, the water extracted from the ice can be divided and recombined to produce electricity. He said that there would be a lot of solar energy during the day, which would help dividing water into hydrogen and oxygen. This is a unique tool that they could use on the moon to provide energy for a long-term mission.
Read Also: 10 Future Space Missions Timeline | NASA Missions To Mars
There is also the possibility of accumulating energy through heat pumps.
There is no wind on the moon, and the heat from the sun remains in the regolith. Cowley suggested to use a lens or a mirror to focus sunlight at a specific point on the surface, and use this resource to heat the base or generate electricity.
Once scientists figure out these technologies and test them, humans will be able to build a moon base and ultimately moon colonization
Excerpt from:
Moon colonization: Who is going to build the Moon base ...
- A Murder At The End Of The World's Retreat Guests Explained: Who ... - Screen Rant - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- The Moon People: Assimilation and the Jewish Literary Transvestite - Tablet Magazine - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- Will two generations of Moon walkers shake hands? - OnlySky Media - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- SpaceX Prepares for Second Starship Launch as it Eyes Moon and ... - OPP.Today - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- Invincible Season 2 Episode 3 Review - But Why Tho? - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- TV Recap: "A Murder at the End of the World" - Chapter 1: Homme ... - Laughing Place - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- Thursday: Hili dialogue Why Evolution Is True - Why Evolution Is True - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- Space Habitat Market to grow by USD 169.38 million from 2023 to ... - PR Newswire - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- Cosmic conservation: Why experts argue portions of the solar ... - Salon - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- We havent even set foot on Mars and we are already setting up a ... - Softonic EN - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- NASA's MOXIE Experiment Triumphs in Generating Oxygen ... - The Weather Channel - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- ECOVIEWS: Thermal vents produce bizarre life forms | Features ... - Charleston Post Courier - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- Elon Musk's 'most powerful rocket ever made' is finally ready for launch - Technext - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- What's the Bare Minimum Number of People for a Mars Habitat? - Universe Today - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- India may be moving to change its name to ancient Sanskrit term ... - FOX Bangor/ABC 7 News and Stories - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- My Nuclear Family - The Good Men Project - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- The MCU Multiverse Is Continuing A Great Marvel Trend - Screen Rant - April 30th, 2023 [April 30th, 2023]
- How Starship Will Change Humanity Soon - by Tomas Pueyo - Uncharted Territories - April 30th, 2023 [April 30th, 2023]
- China is taking 3D printers to the moon - TechRadar - April 27th, 2023 [April 27th, 2023]
- Mae Martins SAP showcases affirming, optimistic humor - The Wellesley News - April 27th, 2023 [April 27th, 2023]
- Of Moths and Marsupials - bioGraphic - April 27th, 2023 [April 27th, 2023]
- Teachers Rejoice! OpenAI Released Tool to Catch ChatGPT Writing - January 31st, 2023 [January 31st, 2023]
- Are You Smarter Than ChatGPT? OpenAI Tool Aims to Detect AI-Generated ... - January 31st, 2023 [January 31st, 2023]
- What is Artificial Intelligence (AI) ? | IBM - January 31st, 2023 [January 31st, 2023]
- Overview | Earth's Moon NASA Solar System Exploration - January 27th, 2023 [January 27th, 2023]
- Moon Phases | Moon in Motion Moon: NASA Science - January 27th, 2023 [January 27th, 2023]
- All About the Moon | NASA Space Place NASA Science for Kids - January 27th, 2023 [January 27th, 2023]
- January 21, 2023: Closest New Moon Since the Middle Ages - January 27th, 2023 [January 27th, 2023]
- Colonization of Europa - Wikipedia - January 4th, 2023 [January 4th, 2023]
- American Colonization Society | abolitionist organization - January 4th, 2023 [January 4th, 2023]
- Deimos (moon) - Wikipedia - December 28th, 2022 [December 28th, 2022]
- Everything NASA is taking to the moon before colonizing Mars - December 21st, 2022 [December 21st, 2022]
- Chinese Lunar Exploration Program - Wikipedia - December 21st, 2022 [December 21st, 2022]
- Moon - Wikipedia - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- Artemis is our first step toward space colonization - Big Think - November 21st, 2022 [November 21st, 2022]
- Supermoon - Wikipedia - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Captain Kirk Went to Space and Saw Absolutely Nothing - TheStranger.com - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- We'koqma'q First Nation helps keep tradition alive with ribbon skirt bank - CBC.ca - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Review: Andor Episode 6 gives a heartbreaking victory to the rebels of Aldhani - Winter is Coming - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- National Indigenous Peoples Day 2022: Everything to Know - Newsweek - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Who's the enemy here? - The Korea JoongAng Daily - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Avatar: Where We Were and Where We're at The Minnesota Republic - Kent Kaiser - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Glitching Time and Time-Based Media The Brooklyn Rail - Brooklyn Rail - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- New Artwork on the Toronto Sign Pays Tribute to the Rights of Indigenous Language Speakers Worldwide - Storeys - September 29th, 2022 [September 29th, 2022]
- Is it finally time for a permanent base on the moon? - Popular Science - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Venice Review: In Viaggio is a Fascinating Rorschach Test of the Pope - The Film Stage - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Bon Apptit's 2022 Heads of the Table Awards - Bon Appetit - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Coast Salish sweat-lodge keeper welcomes all to share in healing - Broadview Magazine - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- In Guam, even the dead are dying: the US military is building on the graves of our ancestors - The Guardian - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Living Underground on the Moon: How Lava Tubes Could Aid Lunar Colonization - August 25th, 2022 [August 25th, 2022]
- Colonization of the Solar System - Wikipedia - August 25th, 2022 [August 25th, 2022]
- Under Capitalism, the Colonization of Space Means the ... - Jacobin - August 25th, 2022 [August 25th, 2022]
- A New World of Heavenly Art - The Epoch Times - August 25th, 2022 [August 25th, 2022]
- New Releases Tuesday: The Best Books Out This Week - Book Riot - August 25th, 2022 [August 25th, 2022]
- Diving into student research at the Summer 2022 SEA Fellows Symposium - UMaine News - University of Maine - University of Maine - August 25th, 2022 [August 25th, 2022]
- Skywatch for the week of August 22, 2022 - WQCS - August 23rd, 2022 [August 23rd, 2022]
- Law alum's career heads into orbit with unexpected passion for space law - University of Calgary - August 23rd, 2022 [August 23rd, 2022]
- Heres where we might really be able to set up a colony on the Moon - BGR - August 10th, 2022 [August 10th, 2022]
- Elon Musk's Flawed Vision and the Dangers of Trusting Billionaires - TIME - August 10th, 2022 [August 10th, 2022]
- Travel Bug: You don't have to be a diver to enjoy Palau - Pacific Daily News - August 10th, 2022 [August 10th, 2022]
- Avatar Was James Cameron's Tribute To A Legend Of VFX Filmmaking - /Film - July 31st, 2022 [July 31st, 2022]
- Sonic Youth : Sister, EVOL, Bad Moon Rising - The trilogy | Treble - Treble - July 31st, 2022 [July 31st, 2022]
- NASA's Lunar Orbiter spots comfortably warm 'pits' all over the Moon - The Register - July 27th, 2022 [July 27th, 2022]
- Will 3D Printing Be Used for the First Commercial Mission to Mars? - 3Dnatives - July 27th, 2022 [July 27th, 2022]
- Abe Leaves Behind Complex Legacy in Japan's Neighborhood - The Diplomat - July 27th, 2022 [July 27th, 2022]
- Moon Off-Roading In The Wild GM Electric Car That Makes Hummer EV Look Normal - SlashGear - June 30th, 2022 [June 30th, 2022]
- A conversation with a poet whose home burned to the ground - Yale Climate Connections - June 30th, 2022 [June 30th, 2022]
- Before Langley Air Force Base: The muddy history of Shellbanks, Sherwood and other plantations of Elizabeth City County - Daily Press - June 30th, 2022 [June 30th, 2022]
- colonization of Australia | Britannica - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- NASA Reveals Three Design Concepts For Nuclear Power On The Moon - SlashGear - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- Interview: Small modular reactors get a reality check about their waste - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists - June 22nd, 2022 [June 22nd, 2022]
- Of Wazhazhe Land and Language: The Ongoing Project of Ancestral Work - Literary Hub - June 22nd, 2022 [June 22nd, 2022]
- The Oddest of Organs: A Brief History of the Tongue - Literary Hub - June 22nd, 2022 [June 22nd, 2022]
- 'For All Mankind' Season 3: Episode 2 - Recap And Ending, Explained - Who Was Chosen To Head The Mars Mission? | DMT - DMT - June 20th, 2022 [June 20th, 2022]
- New moon - Wikipedia - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- Why Neil deGrasse Tyson Is Skeptical About Mars Colonization - June 3rd, 2022 [June 3rd, 2022]
- Bitcoin And The Great Filter - Bitcoin Magazine - June 3rd, 2022 [June 3rd, 2022]
- Art Attack: Where to Find Art on First Friday Weekend in Denver - Westword - June 3rd, 2022 [June 3rd, 2022]
- Scramble Campbell on His Two Decades as Red Rocks' Artist-in-Residence - Westword - June 3rd, 2022 [June 3rd, 2022]
- Pro and Con: Space Colonization | Britannica - May 31st, 2022 [May 31st, 2022]