Creating A Moon Base is a horrible idea: Lets Do It!
02/20/2022
Science fiction has usually always portrayed colonising the moon as something out of our modern reach, but what if I were to say that with our technology in 2022 we could successfully set up a permeant moon base? The main problem is funding. To set it up, it will need and investment of 20-40 billion US dollars over the course of 10 years. For this, we will assume that we have all the funding we need. Colonization in the past has had 3 common phases: 1. The explorers sent by governments set foot on the new region, plant a flag, stay for a few days then leave. 2. Semi permanent outposts are set up, some dying out and some surviving, but still heavily reliant on the home nation. 3. After that, permanent city's are set up, almost always exporting goods for the benefit of the home nation until there is some sort of revolution resulting in independence. On the moon, the first phase started 65 years during the Apollo mission. Before the colony can become self-sufficient, it needs time to grow. The best spot to set up a base is near the lunar artic poles, where days and nights are 6 months long. This means that we can use reusable rockets to land, set up, stay for 6 months while solar panels work, then leave and come back when its day again. Another advantage to the the lunar poles is the ice, which can be melted down and used in hydroponics (a process where plants are fully grown in water, not soil). Another idea which can be utilised is growing fish in the same water as the plants, as a more mixed diet could be an amazing boost to the astronauts having to spend 6 months in a pressurized metal tube on the moon with only 4 or 5 other people. Once the colony has been established, the next people to come will probably be engineers, builders, and contractors sent by companies and governments. The moon is rich in rare metals, and will be viewed as a massive profit by big business. Two of these people will result in a breakthrough, not scientific, but social: the first baby in space. The big question after this is about national identity: will the baby take the nationality of their parents, or be the first of a new nation, the moon. And when treaties about space and inevitably rewritten, will the colonists get a say. And when that happens, will there be independence...?