Fly Me To The Moon: Past and Future Missions

[as of JULY 2024]

Selected Media

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Part One: Before Apollo

For as long as humans have gazed skyward, the moon has been a focus of fascination. We could always see our cosmic partner’s mottled, cratered face by eye. Later, telescopes sharpened our views of its bumps, ridges, and relict lava seas. Finally, in the mid-20th century, humans visited Earth’s moon and saw its surface up close. Since then, a volley of spacecraft have studied our nearest celestial neighbor, swooping low over its dusty plains and surveying its curious far side. Now, after six decades of exploration, we are once again aiming to send humans to the lunar surface. The earliest forays into lunar exploration were a product of the ongoing Cold War when the U.S. and Soviet Union sent uncrewed spacecraft to orbit and land on the moon. The Soviets scored an early victory in January 1959, when Luna 1, a small Soviet sphere bristling with antennas, became the first spacecraft to escape Earth’s gravity and ultimately fly within about 4,000 miles of the moon’s surface. (Read more about early spaceflight.) Later in 1959, Luna 2 became the first spacecraft to make contact with the moon's surface when it crashed in the Mare Imbrium basin near the Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus craters. That same year, a third Luna mission captured the first, blurry images of the far side of the moon—where the rugged highland terrain is markedly different from the smoother basins on the side closest to Earth. Then, the U.S. got in the game with nine NASA Ranger spacecraft that launched between 1961 and 1965 and gave scientists the first close-up views of the moon’s surface. The Ranger missions were daring one-offs, with spacecraft engineered to streak toward the moon and capture as many images as possible before crashing onto its surface. By 1965, images from all the Ranger missions, particularly Ranger 9, had revealed greater detail about the moon’s rough terrain and the potential challenges of finding a smooth landing site for humans. In 1966, the Soviet spacecraft Luna 9 became the first vehicle to land safely on the lunar surface. Stocked with scientific and communications equipment, the small spacecraft photographed a ground-level lunar panorama. Later that year, Luna 10 launched, becoming the first spacecraft to successfully orbit the moon. NASA also landed a spacecraft on the moon’s surface that year with the first of its Surveyor space probes, which carried cameras to explore the moon's surface and soil samplers to analyze lunar rock and dirt. Over the two years that followed, NASA launched five Lunar Orbiter missions that were designed to circle the moon and chart its surface in preparation for the ultimate goal: landing astronauts on the surface. These orbiters photographed about 99 percent of the moon's surface, revealing potential landing sites and paving the way for a giant leap forward in space exploration.
Luna-3 (USSR 1959)
Ranger 7 (1964)
Surveyor 1 (1966)

Part Two: The 17 Apollo Missions

The Apollo program was the name of NASA's project to land humans on the moon in the 1960s and early 1970s. With the success of Apollo 11 in 1969, which put astronauts on the lunar surface for the first time in history, the U.S. was able to declare victory in the space race against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Beginning in 1961, the Apollo program consisted of 11 total spaceflights; four of those tested equipment, and six of the other seven flights landed people on the moon, according to NASA. The first crewed flight occurred in 1968, and the final mission occurred in 1972. By the time the Apollo missions came to an end, 12 astronauts had walked on or driven over the moon's surface, conducting scientific research and snagging rocks to bring back to researchers on Earth. These samples are still being used to make new discoveries more than 50 years after they were collected. The Apollo program grew out of the space race, a contest that began in 1957 between the capitalist U.S. and the communist Soviet Union over superiority in space. With the Russians ahead during the start of the race, U.S. President John F. Kennedy challenged the newly created NASA to land men on the moon and return them safely in his famous 1961 "Moon Speech" at Rice University in Texas. Preparation for Apollo came from NASA's Mercury program, which ran from 1959 to 1963 and sent one-person crews into orbit to see if humans could survive and work in space. That was followed by the agency's Gemini program, which ran from 1962 to 1966 and included two-person missions that tested many maneuvers and components critical for landing on the moon. The Apollo program required a monumental effort, employing roughly half a million people in the United States, according to Space Flight Insider. The program cost a total of $28 billion over its lifetime, or approximately $283 billion when adjusted for inflation, according to the Planetary Society. All Apollo rockets were launched from the Kennedy Space Center near Orlando, Florida. NASA developed several novel vehicles specifically for Apollo, most famously the Saturn V rocket. One of the biggest launch vehicles ever flown, the Saturn V was as tall as a 36-story building and consisted of three stages. Atop the rocket sat the Apollo command module, a three-person capsule that held the astronauts traveling to the moon and back. The inside of the vessel had about as much room as the interior of a car, making for fairly cramped traveling conditions during the roughly week-long lunar voyages. Finally, there was the lunar module, which carried two astronauts down to the lunar surface and landed on spindly legs. Once surface excursions were over and astronauts had climbed back inside, the lunar module's top portion fired its engine and ascended to the command module for the return to Earth. The first Apollo tests took place using the Saturn I rocket, a smaller version of the Saturn V that was used to test out the engines and necessary hardware for the program. The first astronauts were set to fly on Apollo 1, but during a launch rehearsal, a wiring spark generated a fire that blazed throughout the command module, which resulted in the tragic deaths of the three-person crew. The failure was a turning point for the program, resulting in extensive redesigns of the command module. It was more than 18 months before NASA tried to send more humans into space again. During that time, the agency launched six uncrewed missions to investigate the performance of the Saturn V rocket. The first successful crewed launch during Apollo 7 marked the next milestone in the program’s history. Though astronauts remained in Earth orbit for its duration, the mission validated the safety of sending people to space using the Saturn V rocket. Apollo 8 was the first mission to send astronauts all the way to the moon, though the crew did not land on its surface, only circled it. During the event, which occurred on Christmas Eve in 1968, the crew took turns reading from the Book of Genesis and snapped the iconic photo of our planet known as "Earthrise," which is credited with helping inspire the environmental movement. The culmination of Apollo was the Apollo 11 mission when the first astronauts set foot on the moon. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface on July 20, 1969, while Michael Collins flew the command module Columbia over it. Armstrong uttered his iconic words, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," as he stepped onto the moon. The astronauts spent 21 hours and 36 minutes on the surface before returning to the command module. Apollo 13 is remembered as the flight that was saved from near disaster through hard work and clever engineering workarounds. Though the crew never landed on the moon, their travails were dramatized in the award-winning movie "Apollo 13" about their misadventure. By the early 1970s, the high price of the Apollo program and waning public interest led to its cancellation. President Richard Nixon and legislators in Congress decided to redirect Apollo's funding elsewhere, like the Vietnam War. Apollo 17 was the final mission of the program, and the first to include a scientist, geologist Harrison "Jack" Smith, who helped identify important rock specimens to bring home. NASA is currently planning its Artemis program, which is intended to bring people — including female crew members — to the moon for the first time since the end of Apollo. Artemis aims to have its first landing in 2024 and build toward a sustained human presence on the moon by 2028.
Apollo 12 Pete Conrad and Surveyor 3
MyA Alan Shepard

Apollo Summary

Apollo 1 — Jan. 27, 1967. Astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward White, and Roger B. Chaffee had all been veterans of NASA's Mercury or Gemini programs. A disaster involving the highly oxygenated air inside their capsule and a stray spark, along with the vessel's hatch being difficult to open from the inside, resulted in the death of all three men.
Apollo 4 — Nov. 9, 1967. The uncrewed first launch of NASA's enormous Saturn V rocket.
Apollo 5 — Jan. 22, 1968. The uncrewed mission that brought the lunar module to space for the first time.
Apollo 6 — April 4, 1968. The final uncrewed mission of the Apollo program. The launch was designed to test the ability of the Saturn V to inject astronauts into a lunar trajectory. Severe vibrations of the rocket during launch caused the mission to be only partially successful.
Apollo 7 — Oct. 11, 1968. Astronauts Walter M. Schirra, Donn Eisele, and R. Walter Cunningham were the first Apollo crew to go into space. Rather than head toward the moon, the astronauts spent 11 days in Earth orbit testing various components of their command module.
Apollo 8 — Dec. 21, 1968. Astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders became the first humans to leave low-Earth orbit, heading on a trajectory that took them around the moon and back to our planet. Their historic flight happened on an accelerated schedule. NASA officials made a last-minute decision to head toward the moon after only a single crewed mission around the Earth in order to quickly demonstrate technological superiority over the Soviet Russians.
Apollo 9 — March 3, 1969. Astronauts James McDivitt, David Scott, and Russell "Rusty" Schweickart remained in Earth orbit during their 10-day mission, testing out procedures to dock their command module with the lunar module that would be critical for landing on the moon.
Apollo 10 — May 18, 1969. Astronauts Thomas Stafford, John Young, and Eugene Cernan got extremely close to landing on the moon. Their mission involved flying to our natural satellite and bringing the lunar module to within about 50,000 feet (15,000 meters) of the moon's surface, a mission that served as a dress rehearsal for Apollo 11.
Apollo 11 — July 16, 1969. Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin, and Michael Collins did what no humans had ever done before: reach the moon and have two people walk over its surface. Armstrong and Aldrin left historic boot-prints that still remain in the lunar regolith.
Apollo 12 — Nov. 14, 1969. Astronauts Charles "Pete" Conrad, Alan Bean, and Richard Gordon survived two lightning strikes during liftoff and reached a different spot on the moon than Apollo 11, touching down in a place called the Ocean of Storms. Moonwalkers Conrad and Bean visited NASA's Surveyor 3 probe, which had landed on the moon two years prior.
Apollo 13 — April 11, 1970. Astronauts James Lovell, Fred Haise, and John Swigert suffered after an oxygen tank exploded 56 hours into their flight to the moon, crippling the mission. The crew was forced to scramble into the lunar module and use it as a lifeboat, circling the moon without landing and then returning safely to Earth. This was Lovell's second time around the moon, the first being on Apollo 8.
Apollo 14 — Jan. 31, 1971. Astronauts Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, and Stuart Roosa are best remembered for having hit golf balls on the moon. Shepard was the first American in space but he and his co-pilots collectively had some of the least flight experience of all the Apollo astronauts, leading them to be lovingly dubbed "the three rookies."
Apollo 15 — July 26, 1971. Astronauts David Scott, James Irwin, and Alfred Worden were part of the mission that carried the lunar roving vehicle, often known as the moon buggy, for the first time to the moon. Their mission emphasized geological work, and the crew was trained to identify different rocks and formations that would help scientists on Earth piece together the history of our planet and its natural satellite.
Apollo 16 — April 16, 1972. Astronauts John Young, Charles M. Duke, and Thomas Mattingly landed at the Descartes Highlands and searched for volcanic rocks during their mission. Confounding scientists' expectations, they found few volcanic samples, indicating that the area had not been formed through volcanic action.
Apollo 17 — Dec. 7, 1972. Astronauts Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt, and Ronald Evans became the final people yet to ever reach the moon. Their mission continued the focus on science, with the astronauts spending the most time on the lunar surface and picking up the largest samples of any in the program.
Apollo 15 "Moon Buggy"
Apollo 17 Harrison Schmitt

Additional Apollo Resources

Buzz Aldrin Apollo 11
Earthrise Christmas Morning 1968 Apollo 8

Part Three: Artemis

(As of 2023) The Artemis program is a robotic and human Moon exploration program led by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) along with five major partner agencies— the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Israel Space Agency (ISA) and the Australian Space Agency (ASA). The Artemis program is intended to reestablish a human presence on the Moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. The main parts of the program are the Space Launch System (SLS), the Orion spacecraft, the Lunar Gateway space station, and the commercial Human Landing Systems. The program's long-term goal is to establish a permanent base on the Moon to facilitate the feasibility of human missions to Mars. The Artemis program is a collaboration of government space agencies and private spaceflight companies, bound together by the Artemis Accords and supporting contracts. As of June 2024, 43 countries and one territory had signed the accords, including traditional U.S. space partners (such as the European Space Agency and agencies from Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom) and emerging space powers (such as Brazil, South Korea, India, and the United Arab Emirates). The Artemis program was formally established in 2017. Many of its parts, such as the Orion spacecraft, were developed during the previous Constellation program (2005–2010), and after its cancellation. Orion's first launch, and the first use of the Space Launch System, was originally set for 2016 but was rescheduled and launched on 16 November 2022 as the Artemis 1 mission, with robots and mannequins aboard. According to the plan, the crewed Artemis 2 launch will take place in 2025, the Artemis 3 crewed lunar landing in 2026, the Artemis 4 docking with the Lunar Gateway in 2028, and future yearly landings on the Moon thereafter. Excerpted from © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program
Artemis 1 was an uncrewed Moon-orbiting mission. As the first major spaceflight of NASA's Artemis program, Artemis 1 marked the agency's return to lunar exploration after the conclusion of the Apollo program five decades earlier. It was the first integrated flight test of the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and its main objective was to test the Orion spacecraft, especially its heat shield, in preparation for subsequent Artemis missions. These missions seek to reestablish a human presence on the Moon and demonstrate technologies and business approaches needed for future scientific studies, including the exploration of Mars. The Orion spacecraft for Artemis 1 was stacked on October 20, 2021, and on August 17, 2022, the fully stacked vehicle was rolled out for launch after a series of delays caused by difficulties in pre-flight testing. The first two launch attempts were canceled due to a faulty engine temperature reading on August 29, 2022, and a hydrogen leak during fueling on September 3, 2022. Artemis 1 was launched on November 16, 2022, at 06:47:44 UTC (01:47:44 EST). Artemis 1 launched from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center. After reaching Earth orbit, the upper stage carrying the Orion spacecraft separated and performed a trans-lunar injection before releasing Orion and deploying ten CubeSat satellites. Orion completed one flyby of the Moon on November 21, entered a distant retrograde orbit for six days, and completed a second flyby of the Moon on December 5. The Orion spacecraft then returned and reentered the Earth's atmosphere with the protection of its heat shield, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on December 11. The mission aims to certify Orion and the Space Launch System for crewed flights beginning with Artemis 2, which is scheduled to perform a crewed lunar flyby in 2024. After Artemis 2, Artemis 3 will involve a crewed lunar landing, the first in five decades since Apollo 17. Excerpted from © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_1
Artemis II Crew: Christina Hammock Koch (left), Mission Specialist; Victor Glover, Pilot (middle top); Reid Wiseman, Commander (middle bottom); Jeremy Hansen, Mission Specialist (right)
(As of 2024) The Artemis program is a series of ongoing lunar missions run by NASA.One Artemis mission has already been completed: in late 2022 Artemis 1, an uncrewed test flight, orbited and flew beyond the Moon. The next missions are currently in preparation: Artemis 2 will be a crewed flight beyond the Moon which will take humans the farthest they’ve ever been in space. Artemis 3 will be the first crewed Moon landing mission since Apollo 17 in 1972. NASA aims to land the first female astronaut and first astronaut of color on the lunar surface. They will spend a week on the Moon performing scientific studies, before returning to Earth. Artemis 4 will deliver a core part of a new lunar space station (named 'Gateway') into orbit around the Moon, and land another two astronauts on the Moon's surface. Artemis 5 will add another important module to Gateway and involve a third crewed lunar landing to undertake further surface science.NASA's long-term goals are even more ambitious: using the technology and research developed during the Artemis flights, the space agency intends to launch a future crewed mission to Mars. This 'Moon to Mars' plan involves building a new space station in lunar orbit and, eventually, establishing a habitable Moon base. Excerpted from © https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/nasa-moon-mission-artemis-program-launch-date
Additional Resources (as of July 2024): FIRST MANNED ARTEMIS CREW: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/here-are-the-four-astronauts-who-will-fly-around-the-moon-during-nasas-artemis-ii-missionNASA: https://www.nasa.gov/artemisprogram NASA (with video): https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis/FIRST FIVE MISSIONS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_programPLANETARY SOCIETY OVERVIEW: https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/artemis ARTEMIS I: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_1 ARTEMIS II: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_2ARTEMIS III: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_3ARTEMIS IV: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_4LUNAR GATEWAY: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_GatewayARTEMIS V: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_5ESPRIT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_System_Providing_Refueling,_Infrastructure_and_Telecommunications

Part Four: Other Nations & Treaties

As of mid-2023, besides the United States, nearly a dozen other nations--from tiny Luxembourg to China--have carried out lunar missions with varying degrees of success. To date, the "big players" are India, China, Russia, and the United States.
ChangE-4 China
European Space Agency Argonaut lander
The Outer Space Treaty, formally the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, is a multilateral treaty that forms the basis of international space law. Negotiated and drafted under the auspices of the United Nations, it was opened for signature in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union on 27 January 1967, entering into force on 10 October 1967. As of March 2023, 113 countries are parties to the treaty—including all major spacefaring nations—and another 23 are signatories. The Outer Space Treaty was spurred by the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in the 1950s, which could reach targets through outer space. The Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, in October 1957, followed by a subsequent arms race with the United States, hastened proposals to prohibit the use of outer space for military purposes. On 17 October 1963, the U.N. General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution prohibiting the introduction of weapons of mass destruction in outer space. Various proposals for an arms control treaty governing outer space were debated during a General Assembly session in December 1966, culminating in the drafting and adoption of the Outer Space Treaty the following January. Key provisions of the Outer Space Treaty include prohibiting nuclear weapons in space; limiting the use of the Moon and all other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes; establishing that space shall be freely explored and used by all nations; and precluding any country from claiming sovereignty over outer space or any celestial body. Although it forbids establishing military bases, testing weapons, and conducting military maneuvers on celestial bodies, the treaty does not expressly ban all military activities in space, nor the establishment of military space forces or the placement of conventional weapons in space. From 1968 to 1984, the OST birthed four additional agreements: rules for activities on the Moon; liability for damages caused by spacecraft; the safe return of fallen astronauts; and the registration of space vehicles. OST provided many practical uses and was the most important link in the chain of international legal arrangements for space from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s. OST was at the heart of a 'network' of inter-state treaties and strategic power negotiations to achieve the best available conditions for nuclear weapons world security. The OST also declares that space is an area for free use and exploration by all and "shall be the province of all mankind". Drawing heavily from the Antarctic Treaty of 1961, the Outer Space Treaty likewise focuses on regulating certain activities and preventing unrestricted competition that could lead to conflict. Consequently, it is largely silent or ambiguous on newly developed space activities such as lunar and asteroid mining. Nevertheless, the Outer Space Treaty is the first and most foundational legal instrument of space law, and its broader principles of promoting the civil and peaceful use of space continue to underpin multilateral initiatives in space, such as the International Space Station and the Artemis Program. Excerpted from © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty
Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover India
Luna-25 Russia
Additional Resources: NATIONS WITH MISSIONS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missions_to_the_MoonRUSSIA: https://www.space.com/russia-luna-25-moon-probe-failure-consequences INDIA: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66402526 INDIA (2023): https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/23/science/chandrayaan-3-india-moon-landing.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShareEUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY (with video): https://www.esa.int/Education/Teach_with_the_Moon/Lunar_Exploration_ESA_s_missionsCHINA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Lunar_Exploration_ProgramCHINA: https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/13/china/china-crewed-moon-landing-2030-intl-hnk-scn/index.htmlCHINA: https://spacenews.com/china-unveils-lunar-lander-to-put-astronauts-on-the-moon/CHINA BRINGS BACK MOON ROCKS: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/25/science/change-6-china-earth-moon.html? As of August 2023: SPACE X (and DEAR MOON FLIGHT): https://www.spacex.com/human-spaceflight/moon/

Part Five: Lunar Mining, Moon Bases, & Colonization

The Moon bears substantial natural resources which could be exploited in the future. Potential lunar resources may encompass processable materials such as volatiles and minerals, along with geologic structures such as lava tubes that, together, might enable lunar habitation. The use of resources on the Moon may provide a means of reducing the cost and risk of lunar exploration and beyond. Insights about lunar resources gained from orbit and sample-return missions have greatly enhanced the understanding of the potential for in situ resource utilization (ISRU) at the Moon, but that knowledge is not yet sufficient to fully justify the commitment of large financial resources to implement an ISRU-based campaign. The determination of resource availability will drive the selection of sites for human settlement. Lunar materials could facilitate continued exploration of the Moon itself, facilitate scientific and economic activity in the vicinity of both Earth and Moon (so-called cislunar space), or they could be imported to the Earth's surface where they would contribute directly to the global economy. Regolith (lunar soil) is the easiest product to obtain; it can provide radiation and micrometeoroid protection as well as construction and paving material by melting. Oxygen from lunar regolith oxides can be a source for metabolic oxygen and rocket propellant oxidizer. Water ice can provide water for radiation shielding, life-support, oxygen and rocket propellant feedstock. Volatiles from permanently shadowed craters may provide methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3), carbon dioxide (CO2) and carbon monoxide (CO). Metals and other elements for local industry may be obtained from the various minerals found in regolith. The Moon is known to be poor in carbon and nitrogen, and rich in metals and in atomic oxygen, but their distribution and concentrations are still unknown. Further lunar exploration will reveal additional concentrations of economically useful materials, and whether or not these will be economically exploitable will depend on the value placed on them and on the energy and infrastructure available to support their extraction. For in situ resource utilization (ISRU) to be applied successfully on the Moon, landing site selection is imperative, as well as identifying suitable surface operations and technologies. Solar power, oxygen, and metals are abundant resources on the Moon. Elements known to be present on the lunar surface include, among others, hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), silicon (Si), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), aluminum (Al), manganese (Mn) and titanium (Ti). Among the more abundant are oxygen, iron, and silicon. The atomic oxygen content in the regolith is estimated at 45% by weight. Studies from Apollo 17's Lunar Atmospheric Composition Experiment (LACE) show that the lunar exosphere contains trace amounts of hydrogen (H2), helium (He), argon (Ar), and possibly ammonia (NH3), carbon dioxide (CO2), and methane (CH4). Several processes can explain the presence of trace gases on the Moon: high energy photons or solar winds reacting with materials on the lunar surface, evaporation of lunar regolith, material deposits from comets and meteoroids, and out-gassing from inside the Moon. However, these are trace gases in very low concentrations. The total mass of the Moon's exosphere is roughly 25,000 kilograms (55,000 lb) with a surface pressure of 3×10−15 bar (2×10−12 torr). Trace gas amounts are unlikely to be useful for in situ resource utilization. Excerpted from © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_resources
A moonbase is a facility on or below the surface of the Moon, enabling human activity on the Moon. As such, it is different from a lunar space station in orbit around the Moon, like the planned Lunar Gateway of the Artemis program. Moonbases can be for robotic or human use, in both cases not necessarily including lunar habitation facilities. A base might be a step towards colonization. Missions to the Moon have so far realized only temporary single-mission bases, (Tranquility Base being the first), as well as some small permanent installations. Plans for establishing facilities on the Moon that could enable sustained human activity at the Moon have been proposed and are actively pursued nationally and increasingly internationally by space agencies. Excerpted from © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonbase
Setting up structures on a natural body would provide ample sources of material for their construction, particularly for purposes such as shielding from cosmic radiation. The energy required to send objects from the Moon to space is much less than from Earth to space. This could allow the Moon to serve as a source of construction materials within cis-lunar space. Rockets launched from the Moon would require less locally produced propellant than rockets launched from Earth. Some proposals include using electric acceleration devices (mass drivers) to propel objects off the Moon without building rockets. Others have proposed momentum exchange tethers (see below). Furthermore, the Moon does have some gravity, which experience to date indicates may be vital for fetal development and long-term human health. Whether the Moon's gravity (roughly one-sixth of Earth's) is adequate for this purpose is uncertain. In addition, the Moon is the closest large body in the Solar System to Earth. While some Earth-crosser asteroids occasionally pass closer, the Moon's distance is consistently within a small range close to 384,400 km. This proximity has several advantages: Building observatory facilities on the Moon from lunar materials allows many of the benefits of space-based facilities without the need to launch these into space. The lunar soil, although it poses a problem for any moving parts of telescopes, can be mixed with carbon nanotubes and epoxies in the construction of mirrors up to 50 meters in diameter. It is relatively nearby; astronomical seeing is not a concern; certain craters near the poles are permanently dark and cold, and thus especially useful for infrared telescopes; and radio telescopes on the far side would be shielded from the radio chatter of Earth. A lunar zenith telescope can be made cheaply with ionic liquid. A farm at the lunar north pole could provide eight hours of sunlight per day during the local summer by rotating crops in and out of the sunlight which is continuous for the entire summer. A beneficial temperature, radiation protection, insects for pollination, and all other plant needs could be artificially provided during the local summer for a cost. One estimate suggested a 0.5-hectare space farm could feed 100 people. There are several disadvantages and/or problems to the Moon as a site: The long lunar night would impede reliance on solar power and require that a facility exposed to the sunlit equatorial surface be designed to withstand large temperature extremes (about 95 K (−178.2 °C) to about 400 K (127 °C)). An exception to this restriction are the so-called "peaks of eternal light" located at the lunar north pole that are constantly bathed in sunlight. The rim of Shackleton Crater, towards the lunar south pole, also has a near-constant solar illumination. Other areas near the poles that get light most of the time could be linked in a power grid. The temperature 1 meter below the surface of the Moon is estimated to be near constant over the period of a month varying with latitude from near 220 K (−53 °C) at the equator to near 150 K (−123 °C) at the poles. This could be used as a heat reservoir. The Moon is highly depleted in volatile elements, such as nitrogen and hydrogen. Carbon, which forms volatile oxides, is also depleted. A number of robot probes including Lunar Prospector gathered evidence of hydrogen generally in the Moon's crust consistent with what would be expected from solar wind, and higher concentrations near the poles. There had been some disagreement about whether the hydrogen must necessarily be in the form of water. The 2009 mission of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) proved that there is water on the Moon. This water exists in ice form perhaps mixed in small crystals in the regolith in a colder landscape than has ever been mined. Other volatiles containing carbon and nitrogen were found in the same cold trap as ice. If no sufficient means is found for recovering these volatiles on the Moon, they would need to be imported from some other source to support life and industrial processes. Volatiles would need to be stringently recycled. This would limit any growth and keep the habitat dependent on imports. Transport costs would be reduced by a lunar space elevator if and when one can be constructed. The 2006 announcement by the Keck Observatory that the binary Trojan asteroid 617 Patroclus, and possibly large numbers of other Trojan objects in Jupiter's orbit, are likely composed of water ice, with a layer of dust, and the hypothesized large amounts of water ice on the closer, main-belt asteroid 1 Ceres, suggest that importing volatiles from this region via the Interplanetary Transport Network may be practical in the not-so-distant future. These possibilities are dependent on complicated and expensive resource utilization from the mid to outer Solar System, which is not likely to become available for a significant period of time. The lack of a substantial atmosphere for insulation results in temperature extremes and makes the Moon's surface conditions somewhat like a deep space vacuum with surface pressure (night) of 3 × 10−15 bar. It also leaves the lunar surface exposed to half as much radiation as in interplanetary space (with the other half blocked by the Moon itself underneath the habitat), raising the issues of the health threat from cosmic rays and the risk of proton exposure from the solar wind. In 2020 scientists reported the first-ever measurements, made via China's Chang'e 4 lander, of the radiation exposure dose on the lunar surface. Lunar rubble can protect living quarters from cosmic rays. Shielding against solar flares during expeditions outside is more problematic. When the Moon passes through the magnetotail of the Earth, the plasma sheet whips across its surface. Electrons crash into the Moon and are released again by UV photons on the day side but build up voltages on the dark side. This causes a negative charge build-up from −200 V to −1000 V. Moondust is an extremely abrasive glassy substance formed by micrometeorites and unrounded due to the lack of weathering. It sticks to everything, can damage equipment, and it may be toxic. Since it is bombarded by charged particles in the solar wind, it is highly ionized, and is extremely harmful when breathed in. During the 1960s and 1970s Apollo missions, astronauts were subject to respiratory problems on return flights from the Moon, for this reason. Growing crops on the Moon faces many difficult challenges due to the long lunar night (354 hours), extreme variation in surface temperature, exposure to solar flares, soil with almost no nitrogen and little potassium, and lack of insects for pollination. Due to the lack of any atmosphere of substance on the Moon, plants would need to be grown in sealed chambers, though experiments have shown that plants can thrive at pressures much lower than those on Earth. The use of electric lighting to compensate for the 354-hour night might be difficult: a single acre (0.405 hectare) of plants on Earth enjoys a peak 4 megawatts of sunlight power at noon. Experiments conducted by the Soviet space program in the 1970s suggest it is possible to grow conventional crops with the 354-hour light, 354-hour dark cycle. A variety of concepts for lunar agriculture have been proposed, including the use of minimal artificial light to maintain plants during the night and the use of fast-growing crops that might be started as seedlings with artificial light and be harvestable at the end of one lunar day. An experiment in the Chinese Chang'e 4 lunar lander mission demonstrated that seeds could sprout and grow in protected conditions on the Moon (January 2019). The cotton seeds were able to handle the harsh conditions, at least initially, becoming the first plants ever to sprout on the surface of another world. But without a source of heat, the plants died in the cold lunar night. Lampenflora which grows in caves that have fixed artificial light sources installed shows that plants exist that need very little light to survive. Excerpted from © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_habitation
Additional Resources: PREPARING FOR LONG VISITS: https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonemelvin/2023/06/26/nasa-seals-crew-members-in-isolated-chamber-for-yearlong-test-of-mars-mission-heres-what-to-know/amp/PREPARING FOR LONG VISITS: https://www.khou.com/amp/article/tech/science/space/space-center-houston-lunar-mars-facility-nasa/285-c255330c-c797-4e84-9b8d-4d0e11cb66cdMINING: https://www.space.com/moon-mining-gains-momentumMINING: https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/mining-the-moon/MINING: https://www.reuters.com/science/nasa-sees-moon-lunar-mining-trial-within-next-decade-2023-06-28/LUNAR RESOURCES: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_resourcesCOLONIZING: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_the_MoonCOLONIZING: https://spaceimpulse.com/2023/02/23/colonizing-the-moon/COLONIZING (Britannica Pros and Cons): https://www.procon.org/headlines/space-colonization-top-3-pros-and-cons/MOON BASES (LAVA TUBES): https://www.space.com/moon-colonists-lunar-lava-tubes.htmlMOON BASES: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MoonbaseLUNAR LAVA TUBES: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_lava_tubeLUNAR CAVES: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce784r9njz0o? COLONIZATION (LAVA TUBES): https://www.astronomy.com/space-exploration/lava-tubes-natures-shelters-for-cosmic-colonization/
Using lava tubes on the Moon (and Mars) for bases and future colonization would solve the "radiation problem."