“The missions we are targeting are mostly from space agencies. The technology prototypes selected for testing under lunar conditions will hitch a ride onboard a lunar mission. “The competition will last five years because the ambition of The Moon Race is to bring the best team’s idea up to the Moon’s surface.” “We will issue guidelines and rules within the next month,” says Germany-based Airbus space engineer and Moon Race co-founder, Pierre-Alexis Joumel. This global competition is to encourage companies to develop technologies in the areas of manufacturing, energy production, resources (filling a bottle with lunar water) and biology (to sustain the first lunar greenhouse) and will officially launch in October 2019 at the International Astronautical Congress. With this endeavour in mind, several organisations – including Blue Origin, Airbus Defence and Space and Esa – recently helped set up a non-profit organisation called The Moon Race. Any new technologies for a lunar outpost must therefore work under these conditions. A lunar day is also around 29 Earth days, which means two weeks of daylight followed by two weeks of darkness – an issue for solar power. Then there’s radiation and the low gravity, one-sixth that of the Earth’s. The Moon has temperatures ranging from 127 to -173 C (260 to -343F). For longer stays, it’s not the most welcoming of destinations. The longest time humans have lived on the Moon so far is just three days. But whichever organisation gets there first, the key priority will be survival. Blue Origin, for instance, is partnering with OHB and MT Aerospace on its Blue Moon cargo ship for a lunar landing.
Private companies are heading to the Moon too. Nasa aims to land astronauts on the lunar surface by 2030 and is planning a lunar orbiting platform called the Gateway. “Last year we had Esa astronauts Matthais Maurer and Samantha Cristoforretti participating with Chinese colleagues on sea rescue and survival,” says Cowley. Unlike Nasa, which has an exclusion policy for working with China on spaceflight, Esa also collaborates with CNSA. “At first every one looked at me as if I had a second head,” he laughs, “so for me it’s been very satisfying to see the uptick in interest and this focus on the Moon. Not everyone used to think this way but Esa science advisor, Aidan Cowley, also welcomed Woerner’s idea as he was one of the first to work on lunar technologies at Esa’s European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. Ariel Ekblaw, founder of the MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative, also wants to “democratise space” and, to this end, has brought together multi-disciplinary research groups ranging from robotics and synthetic neurobiology to architecture, art, space and design. This could be for astronomical research, tourism or geological prospecting for minerals in short supply on Earth. Pioneered by its new director-general, Jan Woerner, his vision for a ‘Moon village’ would contain a diverse population of people – from scientists to artists – and both public and private organisations. The European Space Agency (Esa) was already one step ahead.Įsa announced plans for a permanent lunar base in 2016.
Nasa’s primary focus until then had been Mars. It didn’t unveil plans for a permanent moonbase until August 2018. The irony is that, while only the United States of America has left footprints on the Moon, the Americans are now having to play catch up. Across the globe, 50 years after the Moon landings, the practicalities of a moonbase are taking shape. “We hope that Chang'e 8 will help test some technologies and do some exploring,” deputy head of the CNSA Wu Yanhua said in January, “for the building of a joint lunar base shared by multiple countries.”Ĭhina is not alone in this ambition. The Chinese space agency CNSA (China National Space Administration) has announced the next stages of its successful Chang’e lunar exploration missions - shortly after Chang’e 4 became the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the far side of the Moon.Ĭhang’e 5 and 6 will be sample return missions while Chang’e 7 will survey the South Pole, a region of specific interest for human habitation because it contains water ice. SpaceX is not alone is wanting to get humans back on the Moon. “Cheesy show,” Musk tweeted, “but I loved it.”
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The TV series obviously made an impression on a young Elon Musk because, when the SpaceX founder revealed their plans for a lunar colony in August 2017, he called it Moonbase Alpha after the lunar base in Space: 1999. It began with a nuclear explosion wrenching the Moon, and an international lunar colony of over 300 people, out of its orbit and into an unknown journey into space. In 1975, three years after the final Apollo Moon landing, Space: 1999 first aired on British television.
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