Maybe We Will Finally Get our Moon Village, Some Decade Soon
The Concept
According to Stanley Kubrick, we should have had this by
2001, but predicting the future is tricky, and, after all, what’s a few decades
(or centuries) in the big scheme of things.
At any rate, that’s the long range planning being mooted about in a
recent paper in Acta Astronautica. The
idea was introduced by Jan Worner of ESA in 2015, and this paper (in press in
mid-2017, by B. Sherwood of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory) develops the idea
further. I should note that the paper
was written in a private capacity by Mr. Sherwood, and not in his capacity as
an employee of JPL.
The paper looks at how such a base might be built, what
political and industrial needs might be fulfilled, and how it would advance
knowledge and science. Basically, this
blog will just briefly re-cap some highlights from the paper, which is very interesting, but probably
difficult for most people to access.
The International Space Station (ISS) shows how difficult it
is to make practical use of off-Earth environments. The ISS and its precursors (MIR and Skylab)
were supposed to be platforms for industrial research and development
(micro-gravity manufacturing and so forth), but it has been tough to really get
the private sector involved. The
research that has been done has tended to be basic research, which is
important, but it is also expensive for governments to foot the bill.
The Likely Participants
The model preferred in the paper is the mixed-use business
park. It is hoped that governments could provide the infrastructure (i.e. the
base), which could be used by private companies on a cost-recovery basis. Thus, no individual company would have to
develop expertise in building and maintaining a base. Governments have provided these kick-starts
in the past, often for national security reasons but also for industrial
development (e.g. Manhattan project, the internet, St. Lawrence Seaway).
The moon is becoming an interesting target once more for
governments and space agencies – it is close, highly visible, but still
difficult, and thus, getting there continues to be a feat to impress the
world. The U.S., Russia, China have all
had lunar missions, including landers and rovers (of course, the U.S. even had
manned missions). The European Space
Agency could probably do it, if it chose to.
These countries could either pursue the venture
independently, or collaboratively, as has been the case with ISS. Other countries with developing space
expertise (e.g. India) or niche space program (e.g. Japan or Canada) might also
join in. To these, we might also add
major corporate players, such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Participants like SpaceX open up the
interesting possibility of non-government entities actually making the trip on
their own.
One obvious issue would be how to split the risks and
rewards of such a monumental public-private venture, especially one that spans multiple
national governments. Careful management
would be required to ensure that the venture didn’t privatize the rewards,
while keeping the risks firmly on the public side of the ledger. However, if that could be finessed,
unleashing the power of the profit motive might well accelerate space
exploration and development by orders of magnitude.
The Activities
Fundamental Lunar Science
Basically, this means learning everything we can about the
moon, much like we have learned about the Earth, via the sciences of geology
and geophysics. Eventually, this would
facilitate using the materials of the moon to construct the habitations and
industrial structures that we build there.
Low g gravity
Much like the ISS, the environment of the moon is
fundamentally different from the Earth, due to low gravity. Orbiting platforms allow us to experiment in
free-fall, while a moon village will allow us to study low (one-sixth g)
gravity up close, including its effects on human beings and the flora and fauna
that we depend upon for survival.
Practical Lunar Engineering and Science
Obviously, there would be a lot to learn about day to day
science and engineering as it relates to the lunar environment. We need to know what construction methods
will work there, what transportation methods will work, how to protect ourselves
from a dangerous environment, how that environment will affect everyday health,
and so on.
Lunar Social Science
I would include economics here, as well as the
psychological, sociological and political effects of colonizing the moon. Would the moon’s economy develop its own
unique features? Could it develop a
self-sustaining economy, or at least one that had a net positive balance of
trade with the Earth (e.g. Helium 3 exports)? Would such an economy and culture
tend towards competition or cooperation?
How would a multi-national polity be governed, and how would that
governing process evolve with time? What
about demography? Would there ultimately
be moon babies? If so, what nationality
would they be? Would the moon village
people develop their own unique cultural practices – literature, music, religion,
low-g sports, and so forth?
The Lunar Village
Habitation
The first question, of course, is where to build it? It seems obvious that access to key resources
is essential. One of those would be
water, so it would probably be sensible to locate somewhere that has minable
water, which we now believe can be found in craters that are in constant
shadow, near the poles. Access to
regolith and minerals that could be used for construction material is another
obvious factor in location. Existing lava tubes might provide a natural
“partially constructed” habitation.
Should a market for helium 3 develop (contingent on
development of fusion reactors), access to that resource would be important. A reliable energy source would also be vital
– nuclear and solar both come to mind.
Wind power is definitely out, as are fossil fuels.
The far side of the moon also has advantages, from the point
of view of radio astronomy (shielded from Earth radio signals). Mind you, that could also present a problem
for Earth-moon communications. So, perhaps a site near a pole, but also near
the terminator (near side – far side boundary), would be a good compromise.
Naturally, as such a base grew from a small research station
to an industrial park, the scale of the village and the number of activities
performed there would grow. In addition
to the initial basic science facilities, spaces needed for practical
engineering work would increase. At some
point, space would also have to be devoted to other “human needs”, such as food
production, recreation and culture. The
village would also likely be a central point, that could service other
industrial sites (e.g. provide lab facilities and medical assistance), that
would be in widely dispersed lunar locations.
Such a village/habitation would have to overcome many
technical challenges to protect the inhabitants – extremes of temperature, near
vacuum outside, solar and cosmic radiation, micrometeorites, low gravity, and
annoying lunar dust, among other problems.
There might also be some fundamental shortages of elements essential for
life, that would have to be imported and replenished from Earth (e.g. nitrogen
for fertilizer).
Economics
What might a moon village export? Besides basic knowledge and science of the
moon and off-Earth living, it could provide Helium 3 to Earth based fusion
reactors (a possible fuel for such devices that has been accumulating on the
moon for eons – of course we still need to invent the reactors). Lunar natural resources might also be
extracted and refined to provide propellant and materials for other space
missions and locations - since the moon has a shallower gravity well than Earth,
it might be a good base for deeper solar system exploration. Ironically, various “rare Earth” materials,
needed for advanced electronics, lasers and the like, may well be more easily
minable on the moon than the Earth. The novelty of the place might also earn
money from tourism and lunar cultural activities.
Ultimately, these activities would have to earn enough money
to become self-sustaining, as Earth governments and corporations would tire of
“throwing money at the moon”. The scale
of any lunar village would therefore be dependent on its economics – should
there be reliable profits to be had, the sky (or the moon) is the limit. Otherwise, the project might never really get
off the ground (or the Earth).
Conclusion
Though very much in the initial blue-sky (or moon-beam)
stage, the idea of a Moon Village or Lunar Industrial Park is gaining some
traction. This paper in Acta
Astronautica is evidence of that. No
doubt we will begin to hear more and more of the idea over the next few years,
especially as the International Space Station reaches the end of it projected
life, and people start casting around for a new challenge. Much will depend on whether the economics of
such a project can eventually become self-sustaining. But, surprising breakthroughs are possible –
a smaller scale example of that is the development of re-usable rockets by Elon
Musk’s SpaceX. When smart, ambitious people put their minds (and our taxes) to
something, you never know.
Sources:
·
B. Sherwood, Space architecture for MoonVillage,
Acta Astronautica (2017), doi: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2017.07.019.
·
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And now that you have read about some real cutting-edge
science, you should think about reading some Science Fiction (because all work
and no play can make you a dull person, or so they say). Here’s a novel that features a neutron star
(and a pretty girl, who is also an engineer, among other characters). The second book in the series features a
lunar near-catastrophe (technically on a different planet, but still...) and some science about Lagrange points:
The Witches' Stones, Book 1 - Rescue from the Planet of the Amartos
Young Earth woman and spaceship mechanic, Sarah Mackenzie,
has unwittingly triggered a vast source of energy, the Witches' Stones, via her
psychic abilities, of which she was unaware. She becomes the focal point of a
desperate contest between the authoritarian galactic power, known as The
Organization, and the democratic Earth-based galactic power, known as The
Terran Confederation. The Organization wants to capture her, and utilize her
powers to create a super-weapon; the Terra Confederation wants to prevent that
at all costs. The mysterious psychic aliens, the Witches of Kordea also become
involved, as they see her as a possible threat, or a possible ally, for the
safety of their own world.
A small but fast scout-ship, with its pilot and an agent of
the Terra Confederation, Coryn Leigh, are sent to rescue her from a distant
planet at the very edge of the galaxy, near space claimed by The
Organization. Battles, physical and mental, whirl around the young woman,
as the agent and pilot strive at all costs to keep her from the clutches of the
Organization.
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