How NASA is Taking Steps Towards a Lunar Colony
A breakdown of the Artemis Program
On July 29, 1958 the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was founded. Their initial purpose was to respond to the Soviet Union’s launch of the satellite Sputnik in October of 1957. However, through the years NASA has evolved to become much more than that. They started off with launching the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions which eventually fulfilled President Kennedy’s promise of landing a man on the moon before the start of the 1970’s. Additionally, they were a driving force in the construction and design of the International Space Station, and they have now sent 5 rovers to Mars over the decades. Needless to say, NASA has done plenty more work than that, and on a mere 2.42% of the annual budget of the U.S. military.
On February 19, 2019 NASA announced the news of a very exciting program they were starting: the Artemis Program. They said the Artemis Program would be like the “Twin Sister of Apollo” and that they would land more astronauts, including the first woman and first person of color, on the lunar surface by 2024.
NASA says the Artemis Program will be like one big stepping stone in a way; a practice for what will be coming up next in their efforts to land on Mars. Specifically for the Artemis Program, there are 35 new astronauts that have been selected. They will be going through extensive training to prepare for their upcoming missions in the next few years.
The first Artemis mission is scheduled for 2021, an unmanned spacecraft will deliver 16 instruments to the moon in preparation of future missions to come. In 2024, Artemis III is scheduled to launch. That mission that will bring the next man and first woman to the moon after more than 50 years since the last Apollo mission.
As far as setting up an actual base on the lunar surface, NASA is expecting that to take a while longer. Essentially, their plan is to first set up a small space station that is orbiting the moon, then to expand on that overtime, so that when astronauts have made their three day journey from orbiting the earth to orbiting the moon, they can dock with the lunar space station and refill on any supplies needed. Afterwards, they’ll take a small lunar landing capsule and fly down to the moon’s surface. NASA believes that with enough of these missions they’ll be able to bring enough materials to construct a lunar base at the Moon’s South Pole, where they think there will be enough frozen water to mine and turn into a sustainable drinking source.
There have been many sketches and drawings showing what the base itself may look like, and each have their own positives and negatives. A popular idea is to have the base be underground to protect against harmful solar flares. While this doesn’t sound very fun for the astronauts living in a dark hole under the surface, it may be essential for their safety because the moon has such a small atmosphere that solar flares can easily penetrate it, which overtime can be very deadly for astronauts. However, if they are underground it significantly reduces the chances that the astronauts will be affected by the solar flares and raditation.
Of course, there are some other designs and 3D models in the works. However, with the technology we have as of now astronauts could not stay and work here for very long without running the risk of being severely affected by the strong solar flares and radiation from the sun.
Overall, NASA’s Artemis Program is ambitious to say the least. With many specifics still being developed, it’s hard to know exactly what will take place within the next decade, but it’s safe to say that whatever happens, it should be pretty exciting to watch.
