By Keith Walsh
While Moon colonies were once a topic for science fiction, there are good reasons why scientists and industrialists will eventually help the human race migrate to the moon. Certainly, curiosity and the determination to transcend a challenge play a role. Without being too dramatic, there’s a possibility that moving to the moon may ensure the survival of earthly life forms should Earth become inhabitable in future centuries due to climate change and other threats.
There are numerous challenges of course. Should potable water be found beneath the surface, that would be a baseline for existence of human species. The inability of earth creatures to live in the zero oxygen environment must also be overcome. Because of these persistent limitations, Moon colonists would be adventurers and pioneers of a new sort.
Luckily NASA and other agencies around that world are hard at work on these problems. For more info, please check out this link and interview with scientist Darby Dyer, who postulates that water could possibly be extracted from minerals on the moon. One hopes an inexpensive method of extraction can be developed. Read about this here: https://sservi.nasa.gov/articles/colonizing-the-moon/
As for oxygen, despite the idea that there’s no oxygen in the Moon’s atmosphere, physicists postulate that it exists in the soil, and can be extracted from the water there. Find out more in this article that also postulates how energy could be harvested and how Moon colonists could be protected from cosmic rays. (Yes, Fantastic Four fans, cosmic rays are an actual thing!!) Find out more here: https://www.iop.org/explore-physics/moon/how-could-we-live-on-the-moon
Links:
Colonizing The Moon At SSERVI
The Physics Of Moon Colonies at Institute Of Physics dot org
“What Are Cosmic Rays?” at Space dot com
The Fantastic Four at Marvel dot com
Photo credit: (c) Supamotion at stock.adobe.com
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