10 reasons why people should go to the moon again

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The satellite of our planet is a whole world that has yet to be mastered.

1. Harmful industries can be transferred to the moon

Heavy industry causes great damage to the environment. Hazardous emissions, toxic waste, combustion products and other side effects from the operation of factories and factories do not add health to us, people, or nature in general. Global warming is also happening due to human actions, and none of us will like its consequences.

The moon is not threatened by any environmental disasters. There is no atmosphere to pollute, there are no oceans to poison, there are no plants and animals that can die from the toxic waste of hazardous industries. The moon is an empty and dead stone, which absolutely does not care what we do with it.

If in the future humanity will build its factories only on the Moon, our home planet will only say thank you.

Billionaire Jeff Bezos, for example, claims that the main goal of his Blue Origin company is to move heavy industry from Earth to the Moon. Then the pollution of the planet will come to an end, and the catastrophic climate change will finally stop.

2. There you can get helium-3

It is a stable isotope of helium that can be used, for example, as a fuel in thermonuclear fusion. On Earth, it is extremely rare, and it is difficult to produce it artificially and economically unprofitable.

On the moon, this substance is simply in excess: its amount there is estimated at 1.

2. in about 2.5 million tons, which will be enough for humanity for the next several millennia. It is a safe and environmentally friendly source of energy - much more efficient than oil and gas.

In addition to being used in nuclear power engineering, helium-3 will also be useful in medicine for magnetic resonance imaging of the lungs, in cryogenic chambers and refrigerators, as well as in the creation of ionizing radiation detectors. In general, a very useful thing.

3. The moon is full of minerals

In addition to such an exotic resource as helium-3, the satellite of our planet can boast of more familiar, but no less valuable riches. For example, iron, titanium, aluminum, silicon, calcium, magnesium and many rare earth minerals are abundant there. The extraction of metals on the Moon will save mankind from a shortage of raw materials for centuries to come.

Again, mining ore in an airless space is much more environmentally friendly than drilling endless mines in the long-suffering Earth.

Another useful substance 1.

2. on the moon - it's good old water, present there frozen. It can not only provide lunar colonies with drink, but also give them oxygen for breathing, and also serve as fuel for spaceships.

It will be much more profitable to extract water, produce hydrogen from it by hydrolysis, and then refuel rockets for flight to other planets than to transport entire tankers from Earth.

4. And a lot of free solar energy

Solar panels are an environmentally friendly and cheap source of energy. However, there are several problems associated with their use on Earth.

First, as you might guess, they work only during daylight hours and in clear weather. If the day turns out to be rainy, the owner of such a panel will sit without electricity. Secondly, they take up a lot of space, and if they are built only in some kind of Sahara, then you still need to be able to transfer the extracted energy from there to the cities. Third, the panels get dirty quickly and it takes a lot of time and money to clean them.

And finally, the construction of batteries requires a lot of resources, in particular - silicon, which still needs to be mined, and this is harmful to the environment. In addition, some of the substances used in their production, for example cadmium, are in themselves toxic.

But University of Houston physicist David Criswell proposed 1.

2. a way to avoid all these troubles.

You need to build farms with solar panels not on Earth, but on the Moon - and that's the end of it.

There is no atmosphere and wind there, which means that neither air, nor dust, nor weather will affect the efficiency of photocells on its surface. The Moon has an abundance of silicon (in fact, it is mainly made of it) and other minerals from which solar panels could be built. In addition, a day there lasts 15 days, so it is easy to understand that there is much more sunlight there than on our own globe.

And you won't have to pull the wire to the moon: energy can be transmitted in the form of microwaves by directed beams to collectors located on Earth. No harm to the environment and a lot of free electricity.

5. On the Moon you can do astronomical observations

For the most part, the atmosphere of our planet benefits us. It protects from meteorites periodically falling on our heads, insulates from excess solar study, conserves heat, without which the Earth's surface would quickly freeze - in short, there are only solid pluses. But there is one small but: the atmosphere interferes with astronomical observations.

That is why the Hubble telescope, dangling in orbit, sees much more interesting things in the depths of the Universe than ground-based observatories.

There is no air on the moon. This is unpleasant, but nothing there will obscure the view of telescopes and spectrometers. And if they are placed on the back side of the satellite, we also shield the equipment from the Earth's magnetic field, excluding its influence on the received radio waves.

This means that radio astronomy will be able to take a big step forward: we will be able to look further into space and better study the structure of the Universe.

6. Returning to the Moon will give us a lot of new technologies

Ignorant people often believe that space exploration does not bring any practical benefit and that ordinary inhabitants of the Earth are neither hot nor cold from it. But in fact, we owe a lot of inventions that humanity uses every day to space.

For example, Nike Air sneakers, Eagle Eyes sunglasses and welding helmets, shoe memory foam, furniture and motorcycle helmets, freeze-dried products and modern baby food, NanoCeram two-stage water filtration, and even the ThrustMaster game pad are all thanks to space program.

According to the NASA Spinoff magazine, all space exploration has given man more than 2,000 practical inventions that have become widespread. This is not counting the patents that are just waiting in the wings.

If we build a colony on the Moon, there is no doubt that many discoveries will be made during this mission and many new technologies will be created that will ultimately make our life better. As a result, we will have not only theoretical knowledge, but also quite practical use.

7. The moon can serve as a staging post for long-distance flights

Our satellite has one important feature. The gravity on it is six times less than that of the Earth, which means that it is a trifle to take off from the surface.

Not needed 1.

2.

3. to pile up giant rockets and wildly powerful engines needed on Earth. A tin can tied to a firecracker is also capable of leaving the moon's gravity well.

Believe it or not, look at how small and unpretentious landing modules were used in the Apollo program. And nothing, they easily landed, and then again went into orbit.

That is why it is much cheaper and more profitable to collect and refuel spacecraft on the Moon, and then send them on flights through the solar system than continuing to launch rockets from Earth.

In addition, the satellite is relatively easy to reach, notes Paul Spudis, a lunar geologist at the Institute for the Moon and Planets in Houston. You can fly there in just three days. This means that you do not have to wait for months for a suitable launch window, as is the case with the same Mars.

Therefore, our satellite will be an ideal training ground, where we can work out all the technologies we need before flying to really distant celestial bodies.

8. The colony on the moon will serve as a backup copy of humanity

Elon Musk constantly says that a settlement on Mars will become a kind of "backup" of our civilization.

After all, if something bad happens on Earth, such as a nuclear war, an asteroid fall, an explosion of a supervolcano, an uprising of machines or a banal zombie apocalypse that wipes out people from their native Terra, representatives of our species will stay on the Red Planet. And over time they will be able to repopulate the Earth.

However, the Moon, as we have already mentioned, is much more accessible than Mars, and the living conditions on it are not very different. The gravity is insufficient, there is no normal atmosphere, and the Sun is gamma-rayed both there and there. So what difference does it make where to build life support domes or underground cities - on Mars or on the Moon?

Again, if you have colonies all over the place, the chances of human survival will increase in proportion to their number. In the future, the lunar settlement will serve as a home for us no worse than the Martian cities.

9. Tourism can be developed on the moon

In addition to such serious goals as scientific discoveries and the extraction of useful resources, do not forget about entertainment. The moon could become a real Mecca for tourists, and in the future we will fly there just to have fun.

For example, people will be able to ride on the surface of a satellite of our planet and arrange lunar rover races, as well as collect regolith as souvenirs. And the water parks on the Moon with its low gravity will give you a completely different experience from the terrestrial ones.

This is not to mention the fact that tourists will be able to see live the landing modules of the six Apollo, which are still sticking out there.

They can be surrounded by a red ribbon, like exhibits, and set up a museum.

10. Bonus: It's just cool

After all, is there a need for a reason to study space? Humanity has always conquered more and more new territories, mastering them for their own needs and spreading everywhere where it is possible to gain a foothold. Conquering the moon should be, if only because it is insanely cool - to build a base on a completely new celestial body.

And mankind simply needs a lunar water park, don't forget.