Colonising the Moon! (May 2025)
It is possible to actually colonise the Moon through building and living in domes with thick walls that shield us from the sun's harmful radiation and provide a place where we can grow vegetation for food and generate oxygen for breathing. However, vegetation on the Moon will need added nitrogen (imported from earth) and an immense amount of artificial light (with growth through hydroponics) due to its two-week-long day and night cycle (one day on the Moon is 28 days on earth or almost a "month"). If food is too difficult to grow on the Moon, it can be imported from earth along with animals for meat and improved ecosystems. In time, the Moon could breed and grow the animals and crops it already has to multiply them and become self-sufficient. Oxygen can be mined from the ground (as 40% of the Moon’s weight is oxygen) along with various minerals and energy while water can be produced by mixing hydrogen (from earth) with the locally available oxygen. In addition, both air and water can be continually recycled when there is enough of it. If the construction of lunar buildings is too difficult or expensive (in gravity that is about one sixth as strong as that of earth), colonists could look at living underground. It will certainly help to shield them from the sun's harmful radiation and various bombardments from outer space which the Moon has no atmosphere to protect against. While the Moon does have a lot to offer in the way of oxygen and metals it does lack a lot of vital elements such as carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen. However, this can always change with future discoveries and breakthroughs in technology that allow us to generate such resources in other ways.
I recommend we focus on sending people to the Moon and not with conventional rockets or shuttles but instead technologically advanced, reusable "space planes" (as pictured below) that can be housed and launched from any large airport and which are built to protect human beings from the harsh conditions of outer space, which include solar flares and radiation. They could be built in a way so they can be fixed and maintained from the inside. The idea is to create a vehicle that minimises the amount of times that people have to leave it when in space or on the surface of the Moon as both are quite dangerous, even when in spacesuits. These space planes will also have all we need to get us to the Moon (in terms of human supplies, propulsion technology and fuel), once in space, land on its surface, live on it and then return to earth. Think of it as taking a campervan with all you need instead of going on foot with only the bare essentials and hunting gear on your back. I believe that in space we cannot risk such things. One injury or casualty is one too many. For added assurance, if there is ever an emergency, another space plane can immediately be sent up to help or the original space plane sent back to earth.
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Theoretically, life support systems can be made to make the Moon completely self-sufficient (as discussed above) but they will first have to be fully tested in practice, despite the amount of theories and calculations that back them up in the literature. An example that shows that things need to first be fully tested and not just theorised is America’s famous Bio-dome project which was made to be a fully self-sufficient ecosystem in an environment that was completely isolated from its surroundings but which later required extra oxygen to support it. Another example involves the amount of green slime and shabby conditions that have developed on space stations over time. Before we go about creating a self-sufficient colony on the Moon we need to determine for certain if resources such as air and water in limited supplies can truly be continually recycled. In addition, we must remember that in practice things can and often do go wrong. Machines break down (anyone who purchased and set up a home computer before 2000 will know exactly what I’m talking about) and people get sick. Some even go crazy. In the beginning, people should not even travel too far from the base to avoid getting lost and stranded with dwindling supplies. Instead, robotics should be sent out to conduct such exploration. Yes, it appears that the Moon may need earth for a long time before it can become its own independent settlement but both can benefit from each other immensely from the very beginning through inter-planetary trade. With the first colonists not being bogged down with the continuing ‘housework’ of operating self-sufficient systems they can freely adapt to their new surrounds, build a new society amongst themselves and focus on lunar ‘exports’ to pay for continual shipments of needed supplies from earth and support a growing lunar colony. Such exports can include but not be limited to:
- Lunar tourism and fun in weak gravity;
- Potential space walks before landing (where passengers get to leave the planes in spacesuits (tethered to it) and experience the indescribable exhilaration of floating in outer space);
- Breathtaking views of earth and space from the Moon;
- Research of the Moon and the universe through lunar exploration vehicles and telescopic observations made from the Moon’s surface without the atmospheric disturbances experienced on earth;
- Sales of lunar rocks, minerals and soil (including the highly valuable Helium-3 which scientists believe may have accumulated on the lunar surface from past solar winds, which the Moon has no magnetic field to deflect). Helium-3 can also be used to generate energy for local use and to utilise as a further export;
- New cultural activities such as sports, games, pastimes, music, literature, film, photography, and even a live reality TV show starring some of the first colonists;
- Launching satellites with vast solar panels to continually orbit the Moon and not only generate energy that could be beamed back to its surface through microwaves but also to that of earth (through a series of satellites) to help solve its current energy crisis and climate change; and - Testing technologies that are deemed to be too dangerous to test on earth.
- Lunar tourism and fun in weak gravity;
- Potential space walks before landing (where passengers get to leave the planes in spacesuits (tethered to it) and experience the indescribable exhilaration of floating in outer space);
- Breathtaking views of earth and space from the Moon;
- Research of the Moon and the universe through lunar exploration vehicles and telescopic observations made from the Moon’s surface without the atmospheric disturbances experienced on earth;
- Sales of lunar rocks, minerals and soil (including the highly valuable Helium-3 which scientists believe may have accumulated on the lunar surface from past solar winds, which the Moon has no magnetic field to deflect). Helium-3 can also be used to generate energy for local use and to utilise as a further export;
- New cultural activities such as sports, games, pastimes, music, literature, film, photography, and even a live reality TV show starring some of the first colonists;
- Launching satellites with vast solar panels to continually orbit the Moon and not only generate energy that could be beamed back to its surface through microwaves but also to that of earth (through a series of satellites) to help solve its current energy crisis and climate change; and - Testing technologies that are deemed to be too dangerous to test on earth.
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