Tag: moon base

“Moon Base – Possibilities And Associated Difficulties”

Humans have been interested in space and it’s associated phenomenon since ages. Which has really fascinated humans to go much deeper into space studies and know space better and solve the mysteries residing out there. This journey as we all know started as a fight between the two countries at the time of the late 50’s which were Soviet Union and The United States of America. But as soon as they came to know that it’s much bigger than just a competition, it became a field of much more investment of both money as well as research and new ideas. The first manual landing on the earth’s natural satellite changed the dimensions for humans as we could imagine humans travelling outside the planet and thus have a close look to space and its constituents. Considering all this, humans were planning to set up a proper human base, so as to develop knowledge about the age-old regolith present there as well as find better resources for human travel. 

This all sounds interesting and fascinating, but how easy it is to set up a proper base with humans working all around Or people visiting as travelers on it and many more scenarios. 

 

  • The first problem which is a major one is to shift such heavy material or construction material through spaceships to the moon, which will cost billions and trillions of dollars, and the cost of building would be different too.
  •  Also it’s not sure that these constructed bodies would be able to stand still and strong at the surface of the moon or not get affected due to gravity and other factors such as meteors colliding.
  • We know that the moon doesn’t have a proper environment or shield which would break the coming meteors on it, thus these meteors impact the moon and form crater or big holes on the moon. This is very risky for us as well as our human base as our efforts would get dissolved and a big loss for us if our base gets destroyed and humans get hurt.
  • Also we would be requiring much water, food resources for people working over there.
  • One of the other major areas of concern is the radiation from the sun, which comes directly and this could be very dangerous for people working over there.

 

But most of the solutions were found for building bases, as in 2014 , a company named Made In Space brought the concept of 3-d printing parts in space. They tested making things with some plastic and regolith (moon soil), and made things out of them. These were really strong enough of handle heavily stresses. Also it was mostly automatic with little interference of humans. Thus this technology can effectively be considered for building out things in space. Also scientists believe that, there are tubes under the surface of moons, which would not only save us from the meteors, but provide effective temperatures to work in, save humans from radiations and also save much of our resources building human base, as we could consider them for the same. But the only reason to worry is that we do not know that, either these tubes are active or not. Since these tubes as we know carry magma in them from the moon core, so if some of them still act to be active then that would prove to be a problem for humans. 

Scientists and researchers are working in the field of developing new technologies and systems which could surely turn out to be a key changer in the lifestyle of humans. Would help us to reach the farther of the planet and also make it feasible to even live on them. “But it’s not a task of years, it’s a task of decades and centuries, so our initial steps towards developing better can turn out to be a stepping stone for our future generation to see and live what we just dream of”. 

“Unusual Marks On Moon Soil – If not humans ,then ?”

Space missions and experiments have become a field of research as we acknowledge new discoveries with every trip to space . Human advancement in space and related technology in the late 50’s led to sending satellites in space and later in the late 60’s landing on the Moon opened new phases for human understanding of space. Since then humans have achieved new advancement in the technologies and the machine which has opened many of these new operations. Landing on the moon was a great step for humans to understand their ability to travel to different planets too. Spacex is coming up with their idea of sending manned spacecraft to Mars in the early 20’s . It Is expected to carry astronauts by 2024 and are planning a full setup forming base for humans. 

But as we know the last mission which landed on the moon was dated Dec 17 1972 . Various other astronauts have made a moon walk and left their remains as footprints still present on the surface of the moon. Eugene Cernan and Harrison Smitt hold the record to be the last men walking on the moon. This mission accomplished the longest moonwalk and collected more than 500 samples of this lunar soil. They covered a distance of 20 miles with the help of a lunar rover, collecting samples and understanding terrain, while driving around. The remains or the marks of their journey till remains as we see through satellite. Due to absence of winds , there is no phenomenon which could move or distort those marks. NASA high resonance cameras recorded those prints present there after more than 3 and a half decades since the last landing on the moon. In 2009 . 

But some other picture depicting the marks of footprints shocked the scientists as soon as they saw them. These were more than the size of a normal human being and were following a trail depicting a proper moment over the surface. It is just like we leave a trail on the deserts , but due to wind it gets hidden or distorted. But on the moon the scenario is different but the marks remain forever as there is no wind to distort them. It was interesting to notice these movements or marks since they were present about “30 miles from the landing site, while humans have never travelled on the surface of moon for more than 20 miles.” 

But since we do question the existence of life in space , scientists were interested to know what could be the reasons for those if not humans or Aliens. So they came up with the thoughts like :

  1. They could be due to meteors which do hit and Impact the surface of the moon. But still doubted as the occurrence is in a straight line . While meteors and asteroids do hit and make craters which we see, but not a line. 
  2. Other scientists came up with a belief that these could be a tube of lava. We know that there are a number of volcanoes on the surface of moons. Scientists believe that there is still lava present inside the surface and is still running  causing lava tubes to form . We could come up with this observation as is the case on earth and there are various tubes through which lava still flows. 
  3. These tubes are supposed to be as long as several kilometers under the surface of the moon. 

There could be many other beliefs of scientists, but the belief in tubes, if it is there, can be beneficial for humans to set up their base on the moon. It is believed to be strong, tough and resistant from external damage. This could be safe from the radiations and also provide suitable temperatures for humans. Along with those would also save from meteors which do fall frequently on the surface. But it could be an issue of concentration, since we know that lava still flows underground through this tube and we are not sure that these caves are dead or not, so it could be an area of concern if we do reach the moon and set up base in them. 

“The unusual activities or observations do bring out the fascination of humans to know about thee. The major field humans are working on is to find life in space, and observations like these do keep those expectations alive.But if not, we do find out something new every time which could help us in near future, in understanding space. And thus making our future travel and trips more secure . “