Colonize The Moon

Colonize The Moon – Really?

 

Now NASA is talking about colonizing the moon

I kind of jokingly put up a Facebook post last week that asked “would you live on the moon”?  It surprised me that anybody even responded, but they did.  The “share” there was to an article discussing that the new head of the European Space Agency wants to do just that – colonize the moon.

I referenced the article so anybody wanting to read it could do so and moved on.

Now I see there may be some teeth in the proposal as NASA is also suggesting we colonize the moon.  And it looks like they may be serious about it (I’ll link to a full PDF report that gives all the gory details below).

They even have a video that discusses how we might be able to survive in lava tubes that I didn’t even know existed on the moon (or just didn’t pay attention until now).  That is one way we can be shielded from the radiation that our atmosphere helps take care of on Earth, and also helps avoid the massive +250F temps on the surface during the day and -250F temps there at night.

Take a look at the article below and be as amazed as I was, then share it … I’m really not making this stuff up!

 

Study: Lunar Colonization Could be Surprisingly Cheap — But There’s a Catch

 by: Danny Clemens
Surface of the moon

hkeita/thinkstock

…… The Space Frontier Foundation-penned study encourages NASA to mine the moon’s hydrogen for the “commercial production of cryogenic propellant”. The report estimates that there are 10 billion cubic meters of water on the moon’s poles — equivalent to Utah’s Great Salt Lake. The mining operation could potentially reduce the cost of sending humans to the moon by 90%.

First, however, NASA must send robotic scouts to confirm that the polar water is even harvestable. “This will be a complex operation requiring a period of growth, trial and error, failure, repair, and maintenance as the process matures in operations and procedures,” the report concedes.

A lunar propellant production facility and fuel depot could be significantly beneficial to future missions to Mars, as well as routine launches carried out by the Department of Defense, according to the report.

Click here to read the full article: discovery.com

Article Source: discovery.com

The full NexGen Report on Colonization sited in the above article can be read here.