Fellow sci-fi great Ursula K. Le Guin also includes a lunar colony in her novel The Lathe of Heaven , which won the Locus Award for Best Novel in and was adapted into film twice and In an alternate reality, lunar bases are established in and then attacked by a hostile alien species from Aldebaran who in another reality are benign.
In , the late and great Isaac Asimov released the novel The Gods Themselves , where the third section takes place in a lunar settlement in the early 22nd century. The Lunatics by Kim Stanley Robinson author of the Red Mars trilogy, and Aurora centers on a group of enslaved miners forced to work under the lunar surface launch a rebellion.
In , Ben Bova released Moonrise and Moonwar , two novels that centered on a lunar base that is established by an American corporation and which eventually rebels against Earth. In , Andy Weir author of The Martian released Artemis , a novel set in a lunar city whose economy is built around lunar tourism.
Considerable attention is given towards the details of daily life on the Moon, which includes descriptions of a nuclear power plant, an aluminum smelter, and an oxygen production facility.
The earliest recorded example of humans living on the Moon was made in the 17th century by Bishop John Wilkins. In his A Discourse Concerning a New World and Another Planet , he predicted that humans would one day learn to master flight and establish a lunar colony. However, detailed and scientifically-based proposals would not come until the 20th century.
In , H. Wells wrote The First Men in the Moon , which tells the story of native lunar inhabitants Selenites and includes elements of real science. This novel tells the story of humans colonizing the Solar System and describes in detail what life would be like in space. With the beginning of the Space Race in the s, a number of concepts and designs have been suggested by scientists, engineers, and architects.
In , Arthur C. Clarke proposed the creation of a lunar base consisting of inflatable modules covered in lunar dust for insulation. Communications would be maintained with astronauts in the field using an inflatable radio mast. Over time, a larger, permanent dome would be built that relied on an algae-based air purifier, a nuclear reactor for power, and electromagnetic cannons to launch cargo and fuel to vessels in space.
Clarke would explore this proposal further with his short story Earthlight. In , John S. This was in response to the then-popular theory that there were oceans of regolith that were up 1.
Known as the Lunex Project , the plan called for a crew lunar landing that would eventually lead to an underground Air Force base on the Moon by Their concept called for a sub-surface base located at the Sea of Tranquility, the future landing site of the Apollo 11 mission. The base would be made up of 30 habitat modules divided between seven living areas, eight operations areas, and 15 logistics areas.
These plans envisioned space station modules being emplaced on the lunar surface and using existing designs and technology in order to cut costs and ensure reliability. This is all necessary, and then private industry can come in and do what they know how to do, which is make some money and create an economically efficient system. While partnering with other nations in this endeavor is a great way to spread the up-front costs around, it could lead to conflicts as to which member nation will get access and rights to which resources.
Mars poses many of the same challenges in exploration and eventual colonization that the Moon does, such as deadly radiation, micrometeorite impacts and clinging dust particles — not to mention the six month trip needed just to get to the former, compared to a measly three days for the latter. That vast distance also strains our ability to remotely control rovers and other teleoperated robotic systems we send to the Red Planet due to the minutes-long communication lag.
Prospective explorers and colonists will also have to contend with the wide temperature ranges that exist at each destination. On the Moon for example, the sun-ward side can be as hot as Celsius while the shadowed side can drop to Celsius, causing intense thermal stress on objects moving between them.
Protection from galactic and solar radiation will also have to factor heavily into any decisions regarding where to settle on the surface. Mind you, I plan to live another 50 years! The project involves nine teams around the country, of which Dyar serves on three. She will be studying minerals on the moon and other airless bodies such as asteroids. Among her tasks: Figure out how future residents on the moon can get at that chemical compound that is essential to human existence — water.
No water, no life. The challenge is to find out where the water is and how to tap it, said Dyar. Water would also come from comets that have crashed on the moon. Comets are made of ice, said Dyar, and the heat of the impact melts the ice.
However, in the following Apollo missions, astronauts collected rocks allowing scientists to better understand the composition of the moon's surface, many of which they preserved for later generations with better technology to study. With new remote sensing technology, scientists recently discovered the existence of water on the north and south poles of the moon.
This discovery, paired with the knowledge acquired from the preserved moon rock, will better guide Artemis venturers on a quest to discover lunar water. The existence of this water could be fairly groundbreaking if, with further exploration, more is discovered and scientists are able to find ways to extract it. An ample supply of lunar water could help support a space station on the moon - which was previously considered unlikely due to a general understanding that the moon was drier than the Sahara.
At this point, if anyone wants to colonize Mars, they will need to take laborious, energy-heavy trips from Earth lasting up to 8 months one-way. A moon station could help mitigate the lengthy journey, according to planetary geologist Georgiana Kramer. This could save Mars-faring rockets time, energy and money. Because the moon isn't tilted on an axis, like Earth, the poles receive no sunlight at all.
Water ice exists in deep craters on these poles, where Artemis plans to land. NASA planetary geologist Sarah Noble said the source of the water is still unknown, but that it could be the result of comet and meteorite deposition because the moon has no atmosphere to ward them off ; solar winds from the sun, which could bring hydrogen that mixes with oxygen-hosting minerals on the moon's surface; or early lunar volcanism, which could have released water that is still trapped.
Early lunar volcanism also created lava tubes, which are also found on Earth in volcanic areas in Hawaii and Colorado. They are long, cave-like tunnels on the surface of the moon, where lava once flowed and has now cooled.
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