Water and helium will become the main resources of the moon when humans finally decide to establish permanent bases on it. What challenges will they face?
Now the only earthlings' apparatus is traveling on the moon. He is Chinese. How will the silvery landscape be transformed if a massive expansion begins, and will Russia be visible on Earth's satellite?
Unearthly seedlings
The Chinese Chang'e 4 landed for the first time in history on the far side of the moon on January 3, 2019. All previous missions, including the landing of US astronauts, took place on the side of the satellite visible from Earth. The mission objectives are biological experiments and the study of the surface of the "neighbor".
The first success of the Chinese, and immediately a unique achievement - they managed to grow a cotton shoot. Naturally, the seeds sprouted in a special incubator on board the lander. As noted by the BBC, the main problem was not providing seeds with the necessary substances for growth, but maintaining a microclimate: the temperature on the moon ranges from -173 ° C to + 100 ° C or more. The plant lived for several days and died during a moonlit night - the lander is unable to maintain the microclimate at temperatures below -170 ° C for more than 14 days. In addition, a Chinese news agency reported that the night was colder than expected, although details are not yet available.
Growing plants on the Moon opens up opportunities for the colonization of the satellite of the Earth and other planets: they will solve the problems of both providing the station with oxygen and food restrictions.
Promotional video:
Why the Moon?
The most attractive object for long-term settlements outside the Earth is its natural satellite. In particular, the Moon is unique in terms of space expansion.
This is understood by all modern players in the space industry, from the aforementioned China to India with its Chandrayaan-2 project (the launch is scheduled for April this year), and to Israel, whose space startup SpaceIL expects to land its device on the moon in February, which will launch into space rocket of the Space X company.
But the Moon is attractive not just as a testing ground for technology - the available resources make it a springboard for conquering space. First of all, we are talking about water, and in a somewhat longer perspective, about helium-3 (one of the isotopes of helium).
Helium-3 is a potential extremely efficient energy source of the future, when mankind will master controlled thermonuclear fusion. Then, according to calculations, it will be cheaper to extract this substance on the lunar surface than on Earth (where it is extremely scarce), therefore, the development of this resource can turn not only the space sphere, but also life on our planet.
“When you break down a water molecule, you get oxygen and hydrogen, which are critical both for breathing and for making rocket fuel,” explains Michael Poston of the Southwest Research Institute (USA) using water on Earth's satellite. Water on the Moon is stored as ice, mainly in the polar caps.
Regolith - the free-flowing surface layer of the lunar soil - also contains oxygen, silicon, iron, aluminum, magnesium, which can be separated by heating - for this, sunlight concentrators in the form of huge mirrors or lenses can be used. This technology has proven to be effective in tests on Earth, notes Nature.
In addition, launches of spacecraft from the Moon are more energy efficient and, therefore, cheaper - the satellite's gravity is only 17% of that of the Earth, in addition, there is no need to overcome air resistance due to the lack of atmosphere.
New house
The construction of even a relatively simple residential structure on the Moon, which is an outpost of humanity on a satellite, will require maximum resources and unprecedented measures. The lunar base construction project boils down to a number of key characteristics: location, security, food.
- A place. As the leading scientific journal Nature notes, there are two options in choosing a location: to settle at the Moon's equator or at its pole. Each of the options offers its own unique capabilities. It's easier to launch rockets from the equator and keep in touch with Earth, but two-week lunar nights will put additional strain on the colony's power supply. The poles, in turn, may offer settlers proximity to ice and therefore water, but impose difficulties in receiving and launching vehicles due to the worst lighting conditions. In addition, the colony at the pole may have problems with communication with the Earth.
- Safety. The future inhabitants of the colony will have to not only extract or bring resources, but also fight against dangers that do not occur on Earth and low orbits. For example, the absence of the atmosphere and magnetic field leads to an increased background radiation on the satellite's surface. In theory, the shelter would also be good to provide protection from asteroids. Therefore, for the construction of housing, it is proposed to use regolith - the surface layer of the lunar soil - or to equip the base in lava tubes: cavities left after the eruption of lava flows by ancient volcanoes. Such tunnels can reach several kilometers in length and hundreds of meters in diameter. One of them was recorded by the Indian device Chandrayaan in 2010: the length is about 2 km, the width is 360 m.
- Food and resources. As expected by the authors of the article in Nature and confirmed by the Chinese on the "dark" side of the Moon, it is quite possible to grow plants on the Earth's satellite. In addition to food, plants that will be grown using artificial light will also generate oxygen for future colonists.
In any case, there will be no need to talk about the complete self-sufficiency of the colonies in the coming years. Even if the lunar base can provide itself with everything it needs, the dependence of the colony on the metropolis (Earth) will continue in matters of the influx of new colonists and technologies.
Will Russia remain a space power
Russia in the space industry faces challenges from both the United States and growing players in this area - China, India, Japan or Israel.
Nevertheless, going “to the moon” alone is an extremely difficult task and beyond the power of even the leading world powers. NASA intends to cooperate with Roskosmos in the construction of a lunar station. This project may well fill the vacuum of space cooperation that could arise if the United States withdraws from the ISS project. It is assumed that already in the 20s of the XXI century, the Americans will be able to carry out the delivery of astronauts to the International Space Station on their own - at least for this there are Elon Musk's Crew Dragon and Boeing's Starliner projects.
But Roscosmos has a few more trump cards up its sleeve, aimed both at studying and mastering the Moon and at more distant objects in the Solar System.
According to TASS, Russia is also developing a concept for the Soyuz lunar spacecraft, which, as reported by the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, asked NASA to create a second reserve space transport system for lunar missions.
According to RIA Novosti, Roskosmos in early February determined the preferred appearance of the Yenisei super-heavy launch vehicle for flights to the Earth satellite. This option provides six side blocks with RD-171MV engines, as well as a central block with RD-180 engine.
"The detection of water in a frozen state under the lunar regolith in the polar regions brings the study of the Moon to a new level," commented Forbes the prospects for the exploration of the Moon in the press service of Roscosmos.
The Russian Earth satellite exploration program includes a number of autonomous missions:
- Luna-Globe (Luna-25). For testing modern soft landing technologies. The project is scheduled for 2019.
- Luna-Resurs-1 (OA), (Luna-26). An orbiter for the global survey and exploration of lunar resources, which is scheduled to start operation in 2021-2022.
- "Luna-Resurs-1" (PA), ("Luna-27"). Large-size lander for studying regolith at the South Pole of an Earth satellite. Roscosmos expects to launch the project in 2022-2023.
As can be seen from this list, Russia (even in its completely “own”, not international projects) is aimed not only at the fundamental study of the Moon, but also at the exploration of the resources of this celestial body.
Political moments
The state corporation recalled a joint project with the European Space Agency - "ExoMars-2016". In 2020, it is planned to launch the second part of the ExoMars-2020 project: it includes the delivery to Mars of a Russian landing platform with a European rover on board. Roscosmos believes that cooperation with the EU, as well as partnership with the United States on lunar programs, will allow the state corporation to “not miss the moment” and get involved in the construction of the lunar base.
Who owns the lunar resources in terms of international law? According to the 1967 international space treaty, no state can assert sovereignty over celestial bodies. Consequently, the status of ownership of the resources extracted from such bodies is still unclear.
Some countries, in particular the United States and Luxembourg, at the legislative level have supported the plans of private companies to develop the resources of celestial bodies. Russia and some other states point to the danger of this approach: they fear a race for space resources with the subsequent militarization of space - a process that may not reduce all aspirations to create a lunar, circumlunar, or even a Martian habitable base.
