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Although the desire to live on the moon drops dramatically when you discover that it is not made of cheese, there are still many reasons to dream of being able to call home one day. On the one hand, there is the pure wonder of living elsewhere than on earth. It is also interesting to use the Moon as a base to launch deeper exploration into space.
But how much would it cost to put a colony on the moon? After all, the moon is only one-sixth the gravity of the Earth and almost none of the water. It also means that there is not enough air to breathe and you are exposed to dangerous sunlight normally blocked by the Earth's atmosphere.
Here is a closer look at what would be needed to build a lunar colony and what it might cost in the end.
Need: to arrive on the moon
Escaping earthly gravity is not easy. Just getting into orbit requires a huge amount of energy, hence the huge rocket boosters and fuel tanks that you see attached to the shuttles before launch. So, before you can build a colony on the moon, you will have to move everything you need at a very high cost.
Cost: $ 10,000 per pound
The current cost to put something in space is $ 10,000 a pound, according to NASA. And no, there is no cheaper option for "land transport". That would mean that sending a 10-pound rice bag to feed astronauts living on the moon would cost you $ 100,000 just for transportation. This would make any lunar colony a massive and very expensive venture.
Why it could be cheaper
<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Fortunately for the future, NASA is working on a number of theoretical solutions in order to ultimately reduce the cost of traveling in the space of several hundred dollars per pound. Whether it's rockets capable of "breathing" air, or an electromagnetic launch using a track, or even an electrodynamic tether, many ideas will reduce the cost of reaching the space."data-reactid =" 24 ">Fortunately for the future, NASA is working on a number of theoretical solutions in order to ultimately reduce the cost of traveling in the space of several hundred dollars per pound. Whether it's rockets capable of "breathing" air, or an electromagnetic launch using a track, or even an electrodynamic tether, many ideas will reduce the cost of reaching the space.
Need: electric power
Once on the moon, astronauts will probably need a lot of energy to stay alive. Whether it is to maintain a breathable atmosphere or to make lamps work to grow food, a constant supply of electricity will be the only thing that will keep astronauts alive. However, because of its orbit, most of the moon's surface has nights that can last for two weeks, making solar power reliable almost impossible outside of certain areas.
Cost: $ 20 million
People at NASA have a plan for this, not just for the moon. The space agency completed testing in 2018 for a project called Kilopower, a small nuclear reactor that can be transported over long distances before providing 10kW of energy for 10 years. Not enough to power Moon Las Vegas, but certainly to support a small human outpost on another planet.
The budget for the entire project amounted to less than $ 20 million, which is impressive given similar projects conducted in the past, with budgets of nearly one billion dollars in one case. And that does not include the cost of launching it in space, which could be significant since it weighs between 880 and 3,000 lbs.
Why it could be cheaper
If the idea of installing a nuclear reactor on a rocket makes you naturally nervous, there could be alternatives. For starters, although the long lunar night makes the use of solar energy difficult, there are four areas on the moon where the sun shines all year round, making it an ideal location for solar panels.
There is even a fascinating idea to send to the moon a self-replicating robot that could exploit its resources, start making more robots like it, and then use that army of robots to build solar panels.
Need food
Everyone needs to eat, but a lunar colony would face interesting problems. Either you launch food replenishment missions at a huge cost, or you need to know how to grow your own food in an airless place and nights that can last two weeks at a time.
Even if there is a farm on the moon, things are difficult. Water moves differently in low density environments, which means that the soil can often be ineffective. And if you fail in your replenishment mission or harvest your lunar harvest, it could endanger the lives of anyone living in a lunar colony.
Cost: $ 230,000 per person
It is possible to grow things on the moon. In fact, the Chinese lunar lander Chang'e 4 has managed to sprout cotton seeds on the lunar surface, the first life to have surfaced since the last Apollo mission. You need about one acre of land per person to feed a population on Earth, but hydroponics can improve yields five or more times.
Regarding the cost, AmHydro sells a basic hydroponic package that can generate between 3,500 and 4,000 plants per week and insert into a 4,320 square foot greenhouse (about one tenth of an acre), that's $ 161,500. And hypothetically, you would need two for each person.
Why it could cost more – or less
Of course, although the basics of hydroponics do not change hypothetically on the moon, there is no difference with regard to the moon. The greenhouse, for example, should not only be perfectly airtight, it should also be able to protect the plants inside the sun's rays that are not stopped by the atmosphere. And all this without mentioning the cost of transporting all equipment, seeds and water to the moon.
That said, NASA scientists are actively working to understand the ins and outs of hydroponics off the Earth. The weight and space occupied by food supplies means that the creation of sustainable sources at the final destination would free up an essential cargo space for future space missions.
Need: shelter
Shelter on the Moon is more than a three-bedroom home. Whether it's ultraviolet radiation or temperatures that can go from 253 degrees a day to 387 degrees at night – yes, that's Fahrenheit – any lunar colony would need housing solutions to guarantee safety of its inhabitants. And given the difficulty of any construction project at the other end of a space mission, this basic need is not easy to fill.
Cost: unknown
Building shelters for people living on the moon would not be easy, but there are various ideas on how it might work. The use of underground caves, for example, could mean homes that would not expose astronauts to dangerous UV radiation or the accident of small meteorites crashing to the surface.
That said, none of these ideas are sufficiently advanced to allow a meaningful cost estimate. The closest comparison you could get would be the cost of an underground bomb shelter, which, according to Atlas Survival Shelters, would cost around $ 20,000.
Why it could cost more – or less
Aside from the fact that anything built on the moon will cost much more than on Earth, it's a safe bet that the moon shelters will need a whole host of additional features to cope with the conditions on the moon.
However, it is planned to build remote bases at a much lower cost. Many people plan to make possible the colonization of Mars by sending 3D printers in advance to build the base remotely, but testing any such program on the Moon seems to be more cautious at first.
Need water
Although survival is often a priority, it is lack of water that can be the real cause of death. A human can survive for a month or more without food, but without water, it will usually die in about 48 hours. And this is only drinking water. Add to that the bath and the kitchen – not to mention the irrigation of a hydroponics house – and it should be clear that any lunar colony project must install primarily on a source of energy. # 39; water.
Cost: $ 80,000 – $ 160,000 per day
Providing about 2 to 4 gallons a day, according to the World Health Organization, is necessary for the maintenance of human life, it would be expensive. Many A gallon of water weighs about 8.34 pounds, which means it would take about 80,000 to 160,000 dollars a day to carry enough water on the moon to feed one person, between $ 30 and $ 60 million a year.
Why it could cost more – or less
It turns out that there is water on the moon. Not much, because solar radiation will emit water molecules in its parts made of hydrogen and oxygen, which could then escape into space. However, in places where it is protected from the sun, there is water. Lunar dirt contains a small percentage of water, and other scientists have advanced the theory that there may be a lot of water trapped in the lunar mantle after previous volcanic eruptions.
But we still do not know how viable a solution is. The upper layer of lunar soil contains about 32 ounces of water for each ton, which means that astronauts should treat four to eight tons of dust per astronaut per day.
Need: Air
As time goes by, it's a big problem. You can spend a month without food, a few days without water, but try to stay more than a minute without air and you will realize that nothing matters anymore. And since the low gravity of the moon prevents it from creating a real atmosphere, it's hard to get enough air to survive. And that's a lot: the average adult breathes 11,000 liters a day, or about 3,000 gallons.
Cost: $ 60 million per year
There really are not a lot of options to get the air on the moon if it is not transporting it from the Earth. The good news is that rebreathers have been used in submarines and spaceships for years, purifying carbon dioxide to help reuse the exhaled air. However, you must always replace the oxygen that your body consumes, even as you eliminate carbon dioxide. The average human being absorbs oxygen at a rate of 0.55 kg per day, or about a quarter of a gallon.
Thus, at a quarter gallon per day, an astronaut will experience a little over 80 gallons of oxygen a year. If you simply want to fill a tank and throw it into space, a 125-gallon tank from the ConVault storage equipment company weighs 6,000 pounds. And at $ 10,000 a pound, that would mean spending $ 60 million to transport a 125-gallon tank on the moon.
Why it could be cheaper
Engineers who send people into space have actually gained excellent air rebreathing capability with minimal additional oxygen need or waste generation. At present, the ISS process involves breaking down wastewater into hydrogen and oxygen components. It can then extract the carbon dioxide from the air and combine it with additional hydrogen in a process creating water and methane as a by – product, two applications that could have many uses on a lunar colony.
In addition, there is a perfectly natural way to keep the air breathable: the plants. After all, plants naturally absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen are the means by which air remains breathable here on Earth. As such, maintaining large farmland indoors could play a key role in keeping life on the future astronauts' moon, by essentially converting the carbon dioxide you do not want into food that you desperately need.
Need: clothes
Clearly, there will be no open-toed shoes on the moon. At least not for settlers who want to live long enough to see the next lunar sunrise. Any exit on the lunar surface would require a space suit, equipped with several devices to keep you alive, including a rebreather. All in all, the cost of your lunar wardrobe will probably exceed that of Barney's most sumptuous shopping spree.
Cost: $ 250 million
Chances are good that unless a more economical space suit comes along, the future settlers of the moon will have no choice but to be real bodies. The cost of a spacesuit originally amounted to about $ 22 million, but it was during a larger overhaul of the space suit than the savings of $ 9 million. The scale has been maintained, which has kept prices down. Building a new building currently would cost $ 250 million. This is more than a little disappointing, as NASA has spent nearly $ 200 million on several failed projects to make improvements.
Why it could be cheaper
The fact that NASA currently has 11 space suits in working order should be a sign that it is very difficult to create economical outerwear for the outdoors. That said, efforts are being made to develop a space suit that can protect its users without costing millions of dollars. One pair, the Brooklynites Ted Southern and Nikolay Moiseev, raised just over $ 25,000 during a Kickstarter campaign in 2013 for his company Final Frontier Design. The end result is an adjustable outfit that they say will weigh 10 pounds less and cost a third more.
Need: bring our life with us
Of course, life on the moon will not really be life without all the things that make it worthy to be alive. While no one should realistically expect to have all the comforts of life on Earth, some luxuries are needed to maintain mental health. Whether it's an iPod filled with your favorite music or an e-reader with all the Harry Potter novels, creating an existence on the moon will require at least a little bit of what makes us human beings.
Cost: at least $ 15,000
Once again, the cost of $ 10,000 a pound for any transport out of the Earth's atmosphere makes any decision regarding what you carry with you extremely heavy consequences. NASA's current policy allows astronauts to bring with them up to 1.5 lbs of personal items to the ISS. And although it's not a lot – a professional iPad weighs just about all that – it will still cost NASA $ 15,000 to take it with you.
Why it could be cheaper
Obviously, what you need to stay sane during a single shuttle mission is much less than if you are a semi-permanent resident. Astronauts living on the moon will probably have to make the most of their environment, find ways to enjoy life so as not to depend on the possibility of flying objects from the Earth at a huge cost.
Total cost
At least a few people put an estimated price on all the shipping. And even if they are too far away in the future for them to have too much weight, they help provide at least some context on what the whole project could cost.
A projection comes from the YouTube channel Wendover Productions that detailed the costs and estimated the total to $ 36 billion to support four astronauts for a year, or about $ 100 million a day. NASA's astrobiologist, Chris McKay, has a sunnier view of the cost of building the most basic base possible, claiming in a 2016 issue of "New Space" that the cost of getting started could not exceed $ 10 billion.
<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "More about money"data-reactid =" 86 ">More about money
<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Here's what it really would cost to build a lunar colony"data-reactid =" 92 "> This article was originally published on GOBankingRates.com: here's what it really would cost to build a lunar colony
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