• Question: Would we be able to colonise the moon to make the conditions good enough that we can live there for extended periods of time?

    Asked by tross15 to Adam, Alexander, Aron, Jess, Neil on 11 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Aron Kisdi

      Aron Kisdi answered on 11 Mar 2014:

      Yes.

      There are few things to keep in mind though. I would say the two big ones:
      The Moon doesn’t have an atmosphere therefore we will need pressurised habitats and wear space suits outside.
      The moon has a very week magnetic field, and while Earth’s magnetosphere protects us from radiation on the Moon we wouldn’t have this protection. Therefore we need to create our own protection or build the habitats underground.

    • Photo: Jessica Marshall

      Jessica Marshall answered on 11 Mar 2014:

      It is certainly possible to do this, and I think one day will be necessary if we want to send bigger, manned missions elsewhere in in the Solar System (as you could put the mission together on the moon and then launch it on its way from the lower gravity environment than you could do from the Earth). As Aron has said, there are technical things to think about, but these could be overcome. We should even be able to use some of the moons resources to help fuel our activities – although I think there should be a debate as to the ethics of doing that! And obviously, it would all be very very expensive – at the moment it costs us about £20,000 for every kilogram we launch into space, and imagine how many kilograms we would need for a base on the moon! Is it worth it?

    • Photo: Neil Bowles

      Neil Bowles answered on 11 Mar 2014:

      Yes I reckon we can do this. There are places around the poles of the Moon where there may be trapped water ice in shadowed craters and plenty of Sun light for solar power near the tops of the craters. If there is water ice, this helps a lot as it means we can use resources already on the Moon to help the lunar colony. However, as Jess suggests, do we want to preserve the Moon for the future, or use it as potential staging post for future exploration? – the lower gravity makes it easier to launch from for example.

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