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posted by martyb on Tuesday September 26 2017, @06:16AM   Printer-friendly
from the Mike-and-Manny-and-Wyo-say-"Hi!" dept.

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 .


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  • (Score: 2) by Lester on Wednesday September 27 2017, @01:34PM (1 child)

    by Lester (6231) on Wednesday September 27 2017, @01:34PM (#573786) Journal

    If you are moving from one planet to other means changing of orbit and need fuel. And I suppose that rockets will not only move from Moon to Earth

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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday September 27 2017, @07:50PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 27 2017, @07:50PM (#573987) Journal
    Ok, that's reasonable. That incidentally is a very subtle problem. Propellant can be greatly reduced by exploiting gravity assists, which can come from the Earth, Moon, and the other massive objects in the Solar System. But such low propellant trajectories [wikipedia.org] typically exchange propellant delta-v for time.