Luna City
A permanent human settlement on the Moon has been a staple of science fiction for almost as long as the genre has existed. It’s been a dream of NASA’s since the 1960s, though the projects were abandoned at the time for being FAR too costly. The current vision for lunar colonization proposed by NASA is somewhat less ambitious, at least in the establishment phase. One wonders though, why?
NASA is sensitive to critics who do more than wonder why heaps and gobs of taxpayer money should be spent on such an endeavor. To that effect, they released a laundry list of ideas why it’s such a good idea for the human race as a whole and the United States specifically. They have identified (and made movies about) six basic themes that have emerged as the officially stated reasons for revisiting the moon.
1. Under the nebulous title “Human Civilization” the case is made for an eventual large-scale settlement of our nearest neighbor. In other words, just in case the Earth gets wiped out for some reason, we could save the human race by having a small band of folks on the Moon. Just in case….
2. There are plenty of questions about the solar system that have come up in the last 40-odd years since Apollo. We do have quite a few moon rocks, but they’re all from the equatorial regions — that’s like studying the Earth from the tropics alone. The Moon has the advantage of being a place where nearly the whole history of the Solar System is laid bare on its un-weathered surface. There’s still plenty of science to be done.
3. While Earth’s deserts may seem a lot like Mars, they’re not. The Moon would be far better practice, and let’s face it: we only have one chance to get a Martian landing right. As they say, “practice makes perfect.”
4. Once the International Space Station (ISS) is complete, it would be nice to continue on with the spirit of global scientific cooperation that we have collectively paid so much for. The moon might be a good way to do that, with the US firmly in the lead position.
5. Under the title “Economic Expansion” we have mining. While there is talk of space tourism, and there definitely is a market, initial benefits would come from mining operations, the most likely first export being “platinum-group” metals.
6. Get people excited about space exploration again. With the exception of the stunning images from Hubble, space research has become somewhat esoteric for the average citizen — too specialized to be easily explainable. Everyone understands what a moon base is. An engaged public doesn’t mind funding the next phase if the last one was something to be proud of.
What NASA does not mention, though it seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue is the potential for a military base or weapons systems on the moon. Of course, if that were in the works John Q. Public would be the last to hear about it. Until there’s concrete evidence for such a mission, speculation about it remains the domain of conspiracy theorists and other folks who don’t get taken very seriously by most, right or wrong.
With the stated mission of the Constellation program being eventual manned missions to Mars, a future Luna City will initially be Earth’s first spaceport, where ships can refuel and crews can stop to use the facilities before getting underway for the next destination. Starting in 2020, we’ll have a better idea of the from our first baby-steps into the larger solar system will take.
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 1st, 2007 at 2:00 am and is filed under Mission Objectives, Public Relations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
