All About Moonbases

A moon base sounds like an exotic idea but is well within our reach. There were people around, I expect when the idea of a space station around the earth was thought of, years ago, that were extremely sceptical. The international space station now exists orbiting the Earth and has got bigger and bigger by the year.

Some of the experiments carried out in the international space station include materials and their properties in zero gravity, the fundamental forces and the way that they change in zero gravity, observations of earth and the effect of zero G and other factors on the human body. Some very useful stuff.

A moon base will further extend the reach of humankind and could turn out to be a good insurance in the future. Aside from the enormous amount of scientific work that could be carried out a moon base would provide a good look at what it is like to live on another planet and prepare us for moving further out, the obvious one being Mars. It will also help the global and economic situation, allowing different countries to work together, like the space station and would obviously have a lot of public interest.

What is needed for a moon base? If robots are going to be alone on the moon base then the requirements are minimal. If humans are going to be staying at hotel lunar, then obviously they will need a lot more basic stuff. The essentials are-

• Water
• food
• Energy
• Air
• Pressurised shelter

It may be a good idea to have some entertainment available just in case keeping the base going and scientific work isn’t enough. I don’t expect in the early days, space sex would be allowed as it will be about establishing and letting the roots grow. But as the moon base expands this could be a very important part of research and I expect there would be lots of volunteers.

Virtual reality might come into play as well as you could completely escape the moon and its prison like environment. Virtual reality isn’t very advanced at the moment, but by the time the base is established, I would expect it to be a great resource.

Inflatable moon base

So, we are keeping our astronauts entertained. But what would they be entertained in? The Moon exerts a gravitational pull 1/6th that of the Earth, so engineers will be allowed to build less gravity-restricted structures. Also, local materials should be used where and when possible. There are lots of ideas for a moon base some of which include inflatables: a concrete and lunar material base and under the surface with lava tubes.

A paper on the design and construction of lunar bases.

Lunar regolith (fine grains of pulverized Moon rock) for example can be used to cover parts of habitats to protect settlers from cancer-causing cosmic rays and provide insulation, a wood burning fire is just not practical, According to studies, a regolith thickness of at least 2.5 meters is required to protect the human body to a “safe” background level of radiation.

Once settled in their cosy habitat playing the Wii to keep fit, I expect they will want to search the surface of the moon. The Apollo program’s lunar Rover was reasonable for searching a very small part of the moon but the astronauts were exposed to solar flare events that would produce a lethal dose of radiation. One of the Rovers suggested for a future mission is NASA’s SPR which has a pressurised cockpit, a much wider range and can be set up as a scientific laboratory or a refuge.

The first steps to a moon base have already been taken. The lunar reconnaissance orbiter has been mapping the surface of the moon for a while now and has even picked up the Apollo landing sites. Mapping is obviously important so that a good place can be picked for a potential base with potential mineral sites and good exploration sites around it.

Water would be a great thing to find on the moon. It has recently been found in the upper couple of millimetres of the moon’s soil. This water could be retrieved by harvesting.

Recently LCROSS impacted the moon looking for water. It is not known at the time of writing whether anything was discovered. A small plume was found, and this is being searched for water. The hope is that there is a large lump of ice that could provide sufficient water for future operations so that water doesn’t have to be hauled from the Earth at great expense.

It may be a good idea to send a robot to further explore the surface of the moon, and in this case, something that is being developed at the moment. Is the lunar rover initiative’s Scarab.

Scarab

So I can hear the question reverberate around the Internet, how does all this get there? The Ares rocket. It has been built and is just about to be rolled out for its first flight at time of writing. Weirdwarp covered the Ares rocket in this post.

Many people were led to believe that this would happen after the Apollo lunar landings all those years ago. Unfortunately, it seems that one-up manship with the nasty evil Soviet bloc is to blame . In regard to humans on the moon, nothing has happened since then. Recently the present vision for the moon is carrying on slowly, very slowly and NASA is waiting for some commission to say whether it is a good idea or not or if it should be done differently.

Really we should be sending people to Mars, and not really worrying about the moon although the moon is a good place to start a mission to Mars. The trouble is, I think we will get bogged down on the moon and Mars will just slip further and further away in time. Of course NASA aren’t the only ones thinking about the moon and China or Russia may get a look in. An international mission would obviously be ideal.

It all boils down to money. The figures really aren’t that big when you compare it to the military of the USA . So I don’t think there really is any excuse but to dip down into the pockets for that extra penny. The UK will give you, errr, encouragement?

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