After centuries of romanticising the Moon, mankind has been dreaming of colonising it. As our search for habitable planets still revolves around Mars, however, more space scientists are looking at Earth’s natural satellite as a layover point or a launchpad to farther expeditions.
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One trip to remember
India, which will launch its second lunar mission (Chandrayaan-2) on July 15, has been conducting research on various aspects of Moon, including building habitats there. We are interested in sending people to the Moon, Isro chairman K Sivan had said.
Among some serious work by the US, Europe and China is one on using local material to build structures on Moon and building bigger rockets to transport instruments and people. Nasa is leading most of these efforts, with 2028 as the target year, while the European Space Agency is burning the midnight oil on Moon projects.
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Building igloos on moon
M Annadurai, the man behind Chandrayaan-1, earlier had said that India is considering to use Moon as an outpost, just like missions in Antarctica. "In the longrun, the space station is likely to be scrapped, and countries including the US are seriously considering building structures more permanent on Moon and working out of there. When it happens, we want India to have contributed," Annadurai had said.
Isro has been thinking of building 'igloos' on Moon. Earlier this year, Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine said: “We’ll go to Moon in the next decade. When we go, we will stay. We’ll use what we learn as we move forward to Moon to take the next giant leap – sending astronauts to Mars.”
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Are we going to colonise the Moon
Senior space scientist P S Goel, however, is not so optimistic about such ventures in the near future. "Colonising Moon is slightly far-fetched as of now. But, using it as a transit point seems more realistic in the next five to ten decades. There are several engineering challengeslike how to generate energy for one—that must be overcome," he told TOI.
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Lot of action on the Moon
China, which has soft-landed on Moon’s ‘dark side’, has been making significant strides. Scientists agree that humans on future lunar missions will be spending way more time than any of the Apollo missions (US has had 12 of them) did. But a lot of work is yet to be done to accommodate humans there, and this will be done in collaboration with serious space-faring nations combined with big private players like SpaceX.
A senior scientist advising Isro said that in the next few decades, Moon will see a lot of action, but, given the cost, countries cannot do it alone. “It has to be a collaboration, and India can earn a seat at the high table with Chandrayaan-2. You’ll also see big private participation,” he said.
