When will the first Moonbase be built?
If you are as passionate about the idea as I am, you will be happy to hear that it is coming soon!
A friend of mine recently recommended me Lex Fridman’s podcast with Elon Musk in which they talk about SpaceX’s challenges, Mars, Tesla, life in general… The whole two hours were really interesting, but one subject especially grabbed my attention: “When will we build a base on the moon?”. It took me back fifteen years when I was still a kid, reading a lot of books on space exploration. At the time, I had this one book that I was reading over and over again, and whose main subject was the creation of a moonbase. How extraordinary would it be? To be able to cultivate vegetables in a sere while watching at the earth, to go for a walk in craters, to jump 3 meters high in the air — well, not the air actually. So this podcast got me thinking: when will we have a base on the moon? When will my childhood dream come true?
Going to the moon is expensive, and politics have not much interest in those expenses anymore
Before building a base there, we first have to get to the moon, but since Apollo 17 mission in 1972, no one has been there, why? Well, the main reason is the cost. Going to the moon is expensive. NASA estimated about 28 billion dollars for a round trip. The cost of Project Apollo is equivalent to about 156 billion actual dollars. While it was worth it during the cold war for politics to show off who has the best space program, space has now become way less attractive and the budget follows as such.
Hopefully, thanks to SpaceX’s fashion effect, more and more people are looking at space as an opportunity. Slowly but surely investment in space exploration is growing (be careful, most graphs on Space Investment showcase huge growth but most of it is focused on satellite investment which is not our area of interest here). With ideas such as going to Mars, or exploring the deeper space, we seem set for a new era of space exploration, we just have to hope that investment will follow as it does with SpaceX. Another hope is the rise of China in the matter. The country surpassed all countries — besides the US — in the number of space startups receiving financing, and is set to be a major US competitor in space development.
Technically speaking, we can also await a cost reduction thanks to spacecraft as the Falcon 9 does not totally go to waste after its launch but can be reused. Since 2010, the cost per kilogram of a Falcon 9 spacecraft has been reduced by about 25%.
With all this in mind, plus the consideration of the new rise of political interest in space because of its popularity, we can hope for human to set foot on the moon again in the years to come (the US are planning to go back as soon as 2024 with the Artemis program).
The moon, a (not so) perfect environment for construction
Now that we know we are set to go back to the moon, what’s left to build a base there? To actually design the base.
The moon environment is way less attractive than it might seem to us dreamers. The conditions there are extreme. Temperature can oscillate between 127 Celsius — or 260°F — during the day and -173 Celsius — minus 280°F — at night. You also have to consider the exposition to cosmic radiation due to the lack of a protective atmosphere. Those radiations have very bad impacts on the human body, and even in low orbit astronauts of the ISS have to be very careful of their exposition to the radiation. Those are the same radiations that are being a real headache for Earth to Mars travel. Constructions on the moons also need to have walls strong enough to withstand impact from micrometeorites. So many considerations that can become real problems when building structures on the moon.
To solve those problems, scientists and designers are working hard to create the best base possible. Yearly contests are being held by space agencies to create the best moon camp possible, and the results are very exciting! You can check the introduction video of the Moon Camp Challenge from the European Space Agency — or ESA — down below.
Scientist are already imagining a way to produce lunarconcrete — or mooncrete — a new type of concrete created using lunar dust called regolith. Building on the Moon would then be way less stressful if we could use local materials.
A collaboration between ESA and Foster & Partners resulted in another great idea: using 3D printing technology lunar habitation. The base would first be unfolded from a tubular module transported from the earth using rockets. An inflatable dome then extends from one end of this cylinder to provide a support structure for construction. We would then use regolith to build up protective layers over the dome using a robot-operated 3D printer. This regolith shell would ensure protection from meteorites, gamma radiation, and high-temperature fluctuations. The result would be a Teletubbies like dome totally incorporated into its environment.
The need for (electric) power, oxygen, food, water, and other useful things
After solving problems regarding materials and construction, we need to imagine new sustainable machines to generate the most essential thing: electricity.
Electric power is not even negotiable up there. Mandatory to run air and water recycler, light, and every other instrument on the base, we need power!
A good starting point would be to copy what is done on the ISS, but there is a problem doing so. The international space station runs on solar power, but the moon as a fortnight exposition cycle — meaning, our panel would be exposed for 14 days (great) but would then have no light was so ever for a whole other two weeks (less great). This inducts the need for batteries or another kind of system to collect energy. Some researchers proposed the use of lasers to beam the energy from areas exposed to the sun to darker areas.
Once the power problem is solved, electrolyzers would allow for water to be transformed into oxygen, providing lunar residents with air to breathe and cultivate plants. The question then becomes: “how to get water”?
Luckily, and quite extraordinary, the moon’s surface is full of water, iced water. Scientists have come up with multiple solutions for this. Some method does not even require electricity. Rather, mirrors would be used to concentrate light on a specific spot, thus resulting in the melting of the water which can then be exploited. For years, NASA has been working on a robot and process to extract water from rocks: Aqua Factorem. The electrolysis would also provide fuel to send back rockets or space tugs out of the moon.
Using water and electricity growing plants now seems easy. Plants would be an integral and necessary part of the new moonbase ecosystem. Providing food, but also recycling carbon dioxide — or CO2. With little space, aquaponic systems and LEDs could be used to grow potatoes or kales. Some studies even suggested moon soils could be used to grow plants, with a little increment. The Japanese government — which also plans to conquer the satellite — already started the development of a cultivation system maximizing food waste and the use of resources.
All the basic needs are now fulfilled. Solar panels are providing energy during the solar exposition phase, battery and laser during the dark phase. This electricity is then used to mine water, produce oxygen, grow plants… Live. The only thing left to do: decide when to go!
So when?
Well, we do have ideas and tech, and investment in the domain seems to be growing, so we do can hope to be able to see it coming in our lifetime. Based on some domain specialists, we could hope for moonbase to be built by the end of the decade. The US wants to establish a strong presence on the Moon as soon as 2028. China plans to deploy its moonbase by 2027 — even though this is mostly to say that they will get there faster than the US.
But even though we are not so far from building a base on the moon, you can forget about the fancy design we have all seen on social media. The first base on the moon will be far from being a palace, the reality is that it will look more like a revisited version of the ISS for the ground.
What do you think about it? Do you also dream of being able to quietly admire the earth from up there?
And if you have any design idea for a very cool moonbase, don’t hesitate to join the 2021–22 Moon Camp Challenge of ESA!
