NASA Funds Moon Projects to Help Astronauts 'Live off the Land' (msn.com) 24
NASA awarded several contracts "to build landing pads, roads and habitats on the lunar surface, use nuclear power for energy, and even lay a high-voltage power line over half a mile..." Instead of going to the moon and returning home, as was done during the Apollo era of the 1960s and early '70s, NASA intends to build a sustainable presence focusing on the lunar South Pole, where there is water in the form of ice. The contracts awarded Tuesday are some of the first steps the agency is taking toward developing the technologies that would allow humans to live for extended periods of time on the moon and in deep space. Materials on the moon must be used to extract the necessities such as water, fuel and metal for construction, said Prasun Desai, NASA's acting associate administrator for space technology. "We're trying to start that technology development to make that a reality in the future," he said.
The largest award, $34.7 million, went to billionaire Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin space venture, which has been working on a project since 2021 called Blue Alchemist to build solar cells and transmission wire out of the moon's regolith — rocks and dirt. In a blog post this year, Blue Origin said it developed a reactor that reaches temperatures of nearly 3,000 degrees and uses an electrical current to separate iron, silicon and aluminum from oxygen in the regolith. The testing, using a lunar regolith simulant, has created silicon pure enough to make solar cells to be used on the lunar surface, the company said. [NASA says it could also be used to make wires.] The oxygen could be used for humans to breathe. "To make long-term presence on the moon viable, we need abundant electrical power," the company wrote in the post. "We can make power systems on the moon directly from materials that exist everywhere on the surface, without special substances brought from Earth."
The award is another indication that Blue Origin is trying to position itself as a key player in helping NASA build a permanent presence on and around the moon as part of the Artemis program... The company said it is developing a solar-powered storage tank to keep propellants at 20 degrees Kelvin, or about minus-423 degrees Fahrenheit, so spacecraft can refuel in space instead of returning to Earth between missions.
Other winners cited in the article:
- Zeno Power, which "intends to use nuclear energy to provide power on the moon," received a $15 million contract (partnering with Blue Origin).
- Astrobotic — which plans to launch a lander to the moon this year — got a $34.6 million contract "to build a power line that would transmit electricity from a lunar lander's solar arrays to a rover. It ultimately intends to build a larger power source using solar arrays on the moon's surface."
- Redwire won a $12.9 million contract "to help build roads and landing pads on the moon. It would use a microwave emitter to melt the regolith and transform treacherous rocky landscapes into smooth, solid surfaces, said Mike Gold, Redwire's chief growth officer."
The technologies — which include in-space 3D printing — "will expand industry capabilities for a sustained human presence on the Moon," NASA said in a statement.
The U.S. space agency will contribute a total of $150 million, with each company contributing at least 10-25% of the total cost (based on their size). "Partnering with the commercial space industry lets us at NASA harness the strength of American innovation and ingenuity," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. "The technologies that NASA is investing in today have the potential to be the foundation of future exploration."
"Our partnerships with industry could be a cornerstone of humanity's return to the Moon under Artemis," said acting associate administrator Desai. "By creating new opportunities for streamlined awards, we hope to push crucial technologies over the finish line so they can be used in future missions.
"These innovative partnerships will help advance capabilities that will enable sustainable exploration on the Moon."
If they get there first! (Score:1)
Before we try to inhabit the moon, can we try... (Score:1)
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Waterbomb. We have hydrogen bombs right? Just flip the switch so it makes water instead of fire. Easy peasey!
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Before we try to inhabit the moon, can we try terraforming it?
They are talking about a science base, not a colony, just like Antarctica.
Though we do seem to be in the process of terraforming Antarctica. Lets see how that goes.
Antarctica is already a lot more hospitable than the moon or mars, but nobody seems to want to live there.
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No ... it can't ... no atmosphere to speak of ... and weak gravity. if you built underground and a covering to keep the oxygen in then sure. Mars can't even support that stuff right now because of the same reasons and it HAS higher gravity ( it rotates, the moon is tidally locked) and it has much more of an atmosphere. Still nothing remotely close enough for Lakes and forests
Sigh... (Score:4, Informative)
It's not the first time, and it won't be the last - but it does get tiresome when some blogger* tries to reinvent a phrase. "Live off the land" implies self-sufficiency - and growing food, to boot! It's very unlikely that even a long-established moon colony will ever get within sniffing distance of self-sufficiency.
* A lot of general-interest stories in newspapers aren't written by staff, they're bloggers doing piecework e.g. "Special to the Post" crap.
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Being made of cheese would've actually been useful. Just need to bring crackers then, and something to drink.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0qagA4_eVQ [youtube.com]
Living off the land (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, it's also true that every kilo we don't need to ship to the moon is a massive savings overall.
So, "growing food, to boot!" is actually pretty high up the list. Just growing your own food is a massive step towards self reliability. I mean, I think that I'd rate it just under recycling water. If you need 3-4 liters of water a day, which is 3-4 kilograms, it should be obvious that just recycling that can save you lots in launch costs.
Plus, you're looking at around .6 kg of food/day. [nasa.gov]
Plus, well, growing your own food not only takes care of that .6kg of food, it also helps take care of the 2.52 kg of O2 [cnet.com] people need per day.
So, for the cost of some equipment, illumination by some way(likely lights and solar panels), and seeds, we can drastically reduce what we need to send to the colony.
Now, that isn't really "living off the land", but it's a step closer to self-sufficiency
TIL: paving moon only costs 5X paving on Earth (Score:2)
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Of course they are! (Score:2)
Good (Score:2, Troll)
The knowledge we get from these attempts will be very valuable. The most valuable without doubt, being the likely discovery that humans cannot live outside Earth. And not even in all of Earth, really. Of course you can create Earth-like bubbles and try to live there, but soon will be seen as futile, as just the human exploration spirit acting up when there is nothing else to be explored.
We have been capable to go to the Moon for like 60 years, haven't gone in like 50, half a century. Because the main knowle
Re: Good (Score:2)
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I can say that I share that desire to go beyond our planet. As I said, it's the explorer spirit. However there is not, and will never be, a rationale for space travel, that's the reality of it, except if some new physics are discovered some day. There is not even a rationale for the ISS, except exploring the effects of space in human beings. Short answer, not good. You talk of oil platforms and submarines, and that's not germane to the issue, as there is a profit there to get. Does anybody doubt that if Mar
Re: Good (Score:2)
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> And without the space program, technology would not be where it is right now.
You mean, without the government pumping billions into research and development?
but that's socialism. and socialism is bad.
(which is why we should all stop using the internet, its development was socialist too)
anyway, everyone knows that innovation requires capitalism, it's why we humans never invented anything before we invented capitalism (which has always existed and is unquestionably the Natural Order of Things). This is w
They Mean Making Money Off The Land (Score:2)
Make enough profit from leasing mines etc. to cover the cost of travel etc.
At least we won't be killing off the indigenous peoples since there aren't any.
I thought pillaging would be involved (Score:2)
Largest award to Blue Origin? (Score:2)
Yes This is a Fertile Land (Score:2)
sounds like a great place... (Score:2)
to build Galt's Gulch.
Hopefully, all the billionaires will migrate thinking it's paradise without all those uppity workers thinking they're not worthless greedy parasites just because they're the ones who do unimportant menial stuff like growing food and and maintaining oxygen equipment.