How will the base be established on the moon?

If money were no problem, what would it take to establish a habitable moon base? NASA is investigating this question, using the Hubble Space Telescope to pinpoint suitable locations. And what will happen if they build on one of the millions of plots already sold by developers?

An oxygen plant on the moon

If money were no problem, what would it take to establish a habitable moon base? NASA is investigating this question, using the Hubble Space Telescope to pinpoint suitable locations. And what will happen if they build on one of the millions of plots already sold by developers?
It is relatively easy to get to the moon, only five days of spaceflight from Earth. What is more complicated is to establish a lunar base where humans can live, work and breathe.
That's what NASA is trying to do, using the Hubble Space Telescope to pinpoint possible locations as part of President Bush's plan to return to the moon in 2018.
Air, water and electricity are the basic requirements of any lunar habitation facility. Because it would be expensive to constantly send supply spacecraft, these products would have to be manufactured on the moon itself. The raw materials are abundant, but it is not certain that they will be easy to mine.
NASA is looking at three possible sites. Two of them are sites where the Apollo 15 and 17 spacecraft landed in the 42s. The third site is a XNUMX km wide crater near the equator. The first results should be received in October.
NASA is looking for sites with a good supply of the mineral ilmenite from which it will be possible to extract oxygen, hydrogen and helium, as well as create air and water. The flammable gases can be burned to generate electricity. Now NASA engineers know the location of ilmenite because it is found in the soil of the samples brought back by the Apollo astronauts.
"We would also like to use the moon rocks as building materials - it is very expensive to put even one extra kilogram of steel into space - it could reach hundreds of thousands of dollars." says Prof. Colin Pillinger, the British scientist who headed the failed Beagle 2 mission.
"It will not be difficult to make bricks and cement from the rocks of the moon, and the ilmenite will give us a good supply of titanium, a light and strong metal, as well as iron.
A lunar base will almost certainly be used for research as well. The equipment would need to be shielded from the interference of Earth's electronic chatter. This means it should be set up on the far side of the moon, says Prof. Pillinger. This means that it will be necessary to establish an array of communication satellites to allow the residents of the station a constant connection with the Earth.
In addition, on the moon there are huge changes in temperatures from 100 degrees during the lunar day to minus 73 degrees at night. In addition, there is the constant risk of being hit by solar storms as well as danger when breathing moon dust. While the construction permits are not a problem - there is no applicable law - the ownership claim of the American entrepreneur Dennis Hope, who in 1980 discovered holes in the Outer Space Treaty drafted by the United Nations in 1967. Although no country can claim territorial claims on the moon, the possibility of ownership is not mentioned in the treaty individuals or companies. Since then he has sold many plots on the moon. In the 18 months that have passed since President Bush's announcement, the developer has received many letters from plot owners demanding payment from the US government for the right of landing on the plot they own.
UN lawyers say that Hope's claim to ownership of the lunar lands is baseless and no government has recognized this claim. This is of course also true for the 3.4 million people he sold these plots to (for a total of 10 million dollars) and also those who purchased plots from competing companies.
The company claims that among the plot owners are the actors Kerry Fisher, William Shatner, the Pope, President Bush and 30 NASA employees.
Hope predicts that lunar colonies will be established within 12 years, and that the company is also an investor in Trans Orbital, which is supposed to launch a commercial flight to the moon at the end of the year. The small ship will carry a CD in it detailing the property rights of the "Moon Embassy", which will allow an ownership claim under US real estate laws.
So far, he claims to have negotiated with the US government. We propose to the US government and any other country that will send humans to the moon to lease them a large area free of charge for a period of 400 years. This will provide them with a legal tool to apply in the construction of the colony without violating the outer space convention because the area will be private and not owned by the governments - something that is prohibited according to the convention."
His competitors also hope to make lunar real estate a reality. The lunar registry company (The Lunar Registry) says that it has made progress in selling shares of the Kennedy 2 project, a private initiative to establish an independent permanent colony in terms of its needs by the end of the century.
However, the agents have no illusions as to the real reason for the activity of owning the moon - an innovative value.
The company also sells plots of land on Mars, but in each purchase, the fine print states that the owner of the land will not be able to charge NASA a fee for landing on the plot. In any case, NASA will have no objection to establishing a base on the far side of the moon because no one has purchased a plot there. "No one is interested in the dark side of the moon that cannot be seen from Earth - we only sell the bright side." The city representatives of one of the companies marketing plots on the moon.