The Regolight project uses intense light to sinter lunar regolith pictured, centre into plaster-like bricks right, made in 30 minutes. Larger bricks can be built left, 3 hours , but materials hold together less well.
Credit: DLR. Architecture firms Bollinger Grohmann Schneider and Liquifer Systems Group, both in Vienna, showed in April that by interlocking the bricks into arches and domes, they could create robust structures. Sperl says these are solid enough to survive Moon quakes and bear the weight of more gravel piled on for protection. Currently, the process takes around 5 hours to make a single brick — but channelling more sunlight could speed it up, he says.
Scientists elsewhere are exploring making shelters by searing regolith together in microwave ovens, or binding it together with materials brought from Earth, such as polymers. Plant scientists have also spent a good deal of time thinking about the final ingredient needed in a self-supporting Moon base: food. As part of a closed ecosystem, plants would recycle organic waste and turn carbon dioxide into oxygen to breathe.
In May, Chinese state media reported that volunteers finished a record day stay inside such an ecosystem, a simulated base known as Lunar Palace 1, in which they grew crops and raised mealworms for protein. A NASA programme run from the Kennedy Space Center, known as Veggie, has helped to select crops that grow well in confined spaces and are packed with the nutrients that degrade most in storage — vitamins C1, K and potassium.
Kale is a winner. On the Moon, astronauts would grow plants in water under white and red LEDs which they can tweak to alter the mineral and vitamin composition of the plant. Next year, ISS tests will examine how the composition of tomatoes changes depending on the light. Most nations today accept that this does not rule out mining in space, says Dimitra Stefoudi, an expert in space law at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. Since , two countries, the United States and Luxembourg, have enacted national laws allowing space mining, to promote nascent companies.
Russia and Belgium are among countries which argue that mining needs a new international framework. But the treaty also says that space activities should be for the benefit of all countries and humankind, so firms will still need to find ways to share know-how and the eventual gains of harvesting resources on the Moon, Stefoudi says.
Ultimately, says Mueller, setting up camp on the Moon is likely to be a desire checked not by technology, but by political will and economics. Download a PDF. Research Highlight 10 NOV Editorial 03 NOV Outlook 27 OCT News 11 NOV Article 10 NOV News 04 NOV News 01 OCT Article 18 AUG Zhejiang University School of Medicine.
Francis Crick Institute. Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily. Meghan is a senior writer at Space. She joined Space. Meghan earned an MA in science journalism from New York University and a BA in classics from Georgetown University, and in her free time she enjoys reading and visiting museums.
Follow her on Twitter at meghanbartels. View Deal. Meghan Bartels. See all comments 1. In flat earth lore, the Moon is considered flat and translucent, where stars can shine through during lunar eclipses :. Any permanent Moon settlement may have to be mostly built underground to shield it from harmful cosmic radiation Credit: Getty Images.
Jan read the tea leaves. Nasa aims to land astronauts on the lunar surface by and is planning a lunar orbiting platform called the Gateway. Private companies are heading to the Moon too.
But whichever organisation gets there first, the key priority will be survival. The longest time humans have lived on the Moon so far is just three days. The Moon has temperatures ranging from to C to F. A lunar day is also around 29 Earth days, which means two weeks of daylight followed by two weeks of darkness — an issue for solar power.
Any new technologies for a lunar outpost must therefore work under these conditions. With this endeavour in mind, several organisations — including Blue Origin, Airbus Defence and Space and Esa — recently helped set up a non-profit organisation called The Moon Race. This global competition is to encourage companies to develop technologies in the areas of manufacturing, energy production, resources filling a bottle with lunar water and biology to sustain the first lunar greenhouse and will officially launch in October at the International Astronautical Congress.
The technology prototypes selected for testing under lunar conditions will hitch a ride onboard a lunar mission. One is planned for Despite the imaginative concept art of early moonbases, the reality is more basic. And grey. Travelling to the Moon is expensive. The heavier the payload, the more fuel required and the higher the cost. But a more immediate plan is to build a habitat using lunar regolith, the fine dark balsaltic grey sand that is similar to volcanic sand on Earth.
Getting to the Moon is mission enough - but how do you then build a shelter on it?
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