https://phys.org/news/2017-09-moon-lunar-village.html (AFP)
By 2040, a hundred people will live on the Moon, melting ice for water, 3D-printing homes and tools, eating plants grown in lunar soil, and competing in low-gravity, "flying" sports.
To those who mock such talk as science fiction, experts such as Bernard Foing, ambassador of the European Space Agency-driven "Moon Village" scheme, reply the goal is not only reasonable but feasible too.
At a European Planetary Science Congress in Riga this week, Foing spelt out how humanity could gain a permanent foothold on Earth's satellite, and then expand.
He likened it to the growth of the railways, when villages grew around train stations, followed by businesses.
By 2030, there could be an initial lunar settlement of six to 10 pioneers—scientists, technicians and engineers—which could grow to 100 by 2040, he predicted.
"In 2050, you could have a thousand and then... naturally you could envisage to have family" joining crews there, Foing told AFP .
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @08:58AM
Astronauts can last over a year in microgravity without being physically unable to ever return to Earth. Like Valeri Polyakov [wikipedia.org]:
On the Moon, you would be able to do a more useful variety of physical training than on the ISS. Fluid in your body would run downwards as expected.
The Moon is much closer than Mars. If someone needs to be sent back to Earth for medical reasons, that can be done in days instead of months or years. The proximity makes getting cargo there much easier, and all missions need less fuel compared to Mars.
The temperature extremes did not kill the Apollo astronauts. You have to be in a spacesuit at all times to run around on Mars, so there is little advantage there over the Moon.