Creating a house building service on the moon is an exciting and innovative way to create a sustainable settlement in space. In this article, you’ll learn more about how to choose a location, create a house, and extract water from ice deposits at the moon’s poles.
Cost of materials
Getting materials from Earth to the Moon would cost roughly $2 billion. However, there are several more affordable options. For a start, NASA is currently pursuing a novel approach to delivering materials to the lunar surface. It has been working on a new moon rocket since 2011. It has also outsourced some of its more mundane near-term missions to the industry.
In the past, a number of companies have received federal funding for the design and construction of miniature payloads. The most recent round saw 14 teams competing for funding of approximately $800,000. One company, SpaceX, is reportedly developing a version of its Starship that will be used as a habitation module during the initial construction of a lunar base. It will then be used as a backup base and for delivering goods to the lunar surface.
A number of private companies are also mulling the idea of mining lunar ice for a fuel that could power moon bases for decades to come. The concept, if realised, could cut the cost of sending humans to the moon and make long-distance travel in the solar system far more cost-effective.
Creating a sustainable settlement
Creating a sustainable settlement on the Moon might seem like a distant dream, but researchers are taking steps to make it a reality. The Moon’s resources are not abundant, but with ingenuity, they can be transformed into almost everything a human needs.
Dr Paul Spudis, a renowned lunar scientist, has put forth a plan for a semi-permanent settlement on the Moon. His plan includes sending robots to the Moon to extract water from the polar deposits. He has also developed technologies for mining the Moon’s soil, a key component in creating a sustainable lunar agricultural ecosystem.
Using solar power, settlers on the Moon would generate fuel. They would extract hydrogen and oxygen, which could be used as fuel cells or propellant. In the long run, this would enable the Moon’s base to become self-sufficient, providing resupply for spacecraft headed for Mars.
NASA is experimenting with modular structures, inflatable structures, and even 3-D printers that can be built from moon rock. The agency’s LUNA center is also looking at ways to grow food on the Moon.
Extracting water from ice deposits at the moon’s poles
Several robotic missions have spotted tantalizing hints of water ice at the Moon’s poles. These findings are promising for future human exploration of the Moon, as well as commercial mining companies. The presence of ice on the Moon could help researchers understand the inner Solar System’s early history, especially when the Moon was still a part of the early solar system.
These areas are also among the coldest in the solar system. They are deep and dark, making exploration challenging. But they may be hiding untold ice deposits.
Scientists have long thought that the Moon might hold water ice in the depths of craters near the poles. Some believe it comes from comets, but others think it was formed by the solar wind. If the Moon’s ice is meteoritic, it could be billions of years old.
Several Earth-based radar images of craters near the moon’s poles suggest a heterogeneous distribution of ice deposits. They show thick ice layers in some of the craters, but not in the slabs that cover most of the surface.
