The Moon has fascinated us for as long as humans have existed as a species, and in the 20th century we finally set foot upon its surface. However, since then we haven’t been in a hurry to go back.
That’s changing, and with renewed interest in our one and only Moon, comes the revival of the moonbase idea. Why would we want a permanent facility on the Moon? I can give you at least five reasons it’s worth it.
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New Possibilities in Astronomy
There’s a reason we have to shoot telescopes into space and that’s mainly that while Earth’s atmosphere is awesome at keeping us alive, it’s terrible if you want to see what’s out there in the universe.
While space-borne telescopes are a good way to get around this, there’s ultimately a limit to how big and powerful you can make them. The Moon, on the other hand, has no atmosphere, it has only one-sixth the gravity of Earth, and offers endless options when it comes to views of our universe.
In theory, you could build enormous observatories on the Moon and see further and more clearly than ever before. It’s not just optical telescopes that would have a better time on the Moon, radio telescopes on the far side of the Moon would be shielded from electromagnetic interference from Earth. For example, there’s a NASA proposal to build a large radio telescope in a lunar crater on the far side of the Moon.
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Studying the Moon Can Teach Us About Earth
The Moon is a time capsule of the early solar system. Unlike Earth, which undergoes constant geological changes, the Moon’s surface has remained largely unchanged for billions of years. If we study lunar rocks and craters, it can teach us about how the Earth-Moon system formed and what the early conditions on Earth were like. There’s almost certainly ice on the Moon, and if we sample and study it it could teach us about how water formed in our solar system.
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The Perfect Place to Safely Test Space Exploration Technology
Right now, research into the feasibility of bases on places like Mars, or testing of equipment meant to protect humans from the harsh environment of space is happening here on Earth. Before we step out into the rest of our solar system, a Moon base could be the perfect place to test and perfect the technologies that we’ll need to go beyond the (relatively) close Moon. It is the furthest away any human has been from Earth to date.
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It Could Be the Key to Nuclear Fusion
Nuclear fusion is the holy grail of near-limitless and clean energy. This is the same energy we get from the sun, but it turns out that creating a small sun to power our lives is easier said than done. While we’re making lots of progress in sustaining longer and longer fusion using complex magnetic fields, we’ll need a fuel source. Scientists have suggested the Helium-3 isotope as a promising source of fuel for nuclear fusion.
Unfortunately, Helium-3 is extremely rare, unless you’re on the Moon. So a base on the Moon could lead to mining operations where Helium-3 is harvested to provide abundant and clean energy back home on Earth. That is, if it lives up to the hype. It’s still not clear if Helium-3 really is the ideal fusion fuel, but if it does turn out to be the case, there’s a lot of it just hanging there in the sky.
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It Could Be the Solar System’s Gas Station
Launching stuff from the Earth’s surface is hard and expensive. Thanks to Earth’s relatively strong gravity, we can’t exactly load up spacecraft with excessive amounts of fuel. Launching from the Moon’s surface is much easier. So, in theory, you could manufacture rocket fuel by converting lunar water into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity from solar power or from nuclear fusion stations on the Moon, powered by the Helium-3 I just mentioned.
In this way, we’d only have to give our spacecraft enough fuel to make it to the Moon, and then they could fully fuel up there before embarking on a journey to Mars, asteroids, or any other destination in our solar system.
While we’ll never terraform the Moon (which means making it Earth-like) for various reasons that make it impossible, with abundant local materials, potentially endless energy, and the prospect of automated construction systems, there may one day be a substantial settlement on the Moon, serving as a gateway to further exploration of space.
