NASA wants to learn how to live off the land on the moon in preparation for the Artemis missions to the lunar south pole. The Artemis Base Camp will be a permanent outpost at the lunar south pole. The Artemis Base Camp concept includes a modern lunar cabin, a rover, and a mobile home.
NASA wants to harvest resources that astronauts could use on the moon, such as water, and rare elements that could serve commercial interests. This could aid in the development of a future lunar economy.
The temperature fluctuations on the moon are intense, ranging from -248 to 123 degrees Celsius (-414 to 253 degrees Fahrenheit). To make the moon habitable, we would need to live in shelters. A sealed shelter would allow us to breathe and protect us from meteorites, radiation, and toxic lunar dust
NASA has several reasons for wanting to learn about harvesting lunar resources:
- Sustainable colony NASA wants to learn how to use lunar resources like water ice to develop a sustainable colony.
- Commercial opportunities NASA wants to quantify potential resources, including energy, water, and lunar soil, to attract commercial investment.
- Sustainable operations NASA wants to develop technologies that use the Moon’s resources to support sustainable surface operations with decreasing supply needs from Earth.
- Human presence NASA wants to establish a sustained human presence at the Moon.
- Engineering expertise NASA wants to gain expertise in engineering and operating life-support systems, sustainable energy sources, supplying food, and recycling water.
- Testing technologies NASA wants to use the Moon as a proving ground to test technologies and resources that will take humans to Mars and beyond.
NASA’s website describes a potential “lunar gold rush”. Geological surveys show the moon contains key ingredients, including:
- Water for drinking, growing crops, and making rocket fuel
- Helium for nuclear fusion
- Rare earth elements used in a host of modern electronics
NASA’s Artemis program plans to build a space station called the Lunar Gatewaywhere astronauts will live and work as they orbit the moon. The Lunar Gateway will not be permanently occupied, but will serve as a platform where astronauts can live and undertake research for short periods.
The Artemis Base Camp will be a permanent outpost at the lunar south pole in or around the Shackleton Crater. The Artemis Base Camp concept includes a modern lunar cabin, a rover, and a mobile home. The surface habitat itself will be capable of housing four humans at a time.
The Artemis 2 mission is an eight day mission that will send three NASA astronauts and one Canadian Space Agency astronaut around the moon on a free-return trajectory. It is the last test flight before the Artemis 3 crewed moon landing mission in 2025.
Water on the moon exists in ice form. Rovers could find, drill, and gather this ice. The water could be used for drinking, and the hydrogen and oxygen could be extracted for rocket fuel.
Here are some ways that water could be harvested on the moon:
- Directing the sun at it
- Heating it to around 1,000 C with hydrogen
- Using rockets to blast lunar dirt and gravel into a vacuum-like device that separates and stores the particles of water ice
Other processes that may contribute to water on the moon include:
- Production from additional sources of incoming protons
- Episodic delivery of water via comets and asteroids
- High-energy electrons from Earth breaking down rocks and minerals on the lunar surface
Universe discoveries 