What are the challenges in setting up a permanent manned base on the moon? On Episode 50 of The Satellite & NewSpace Matters Podcast, we spoke to Darren Charrier, the Business Development Manager at KSAT Inc, who explained the benefits and challenges of doing just that. Our conversation touched on everything from the resources that are available on the moon to the infrastructure we’d need to establish there to sustain life. Read on for Darren’s insights. 

As a self-professed lunar salesman, why the Moon?

There are a couple of strategic reasons why the Moon is interesting. Generally, when thinking about the exploration of the solar system, the moon is a good place for a quick pitstop for the rest of the solar system. It is approximately 20 times easier to get off of the moon than it is to get off of Earth. There’s about a sixth of the gravity, and there’s no atmosphere. The basic idea is that if you can get into space and head over to the moon, you can refuel there, and then the rest of the solar system is your oyster. The moon is an enabler for the rest of the solar system. 

There are some other exciting things about the moon, like water harvesting and helium three, which I still think is one of the silver bullet cases for the moon and creating a true lunar economy. Saying a lunar economy implies that there is value being extracted from the moon that is self-sustaining, and there’s an economic drive to go there. I see helium three, water and low-gravity manufacturing as those drivers. 

The other driver is geopolitical. There seems to be an increased geopolitical race to return to the moon. China plans to go to the moon and have a human presence there by 2030. NASA is planning to get there in 2028. In both cases, those nations are pulling in a cohort of other nations to support, grow, and create international cooperation for our return to the moon. It’s hard not to draw a parallel between this and the age of exploration of the 1600-1700s of the Americas and the Pacific by various European powers. 

Why do you think it’s important now to explore a greater economy or for this to develop even further?

The cost has come down significantly compared to the Apollo era when we went to the moon in the ‘70s, but it did take 10% of the annual budget of the United States to get there. That’s an incredible amount of money for the time when adjusted for inflation. Now the ambition is to go to the surface of the Moon and create a continued presence by building a base on the south pole of the moon at a 10th of that original budget. That’s 1% of the US budget. This is due to several different factors, like our computing power, which has gone up exponentially and is a fraction of the weight, size and quality. One of the facts you hear when discussing going to the moon is that the entire Saturn Five and Apollo landing module had less computing power in it than a modern cell phone does. That part is key. 

We’ve had tremendous strides forward in material science. It’s cheaper and faster to manufacture several of these different key components that go into our spacecraft. There’s a much larger supply chain to support onboard radios and star trackers that you can just buy commercially now. We’re seeing this in NASA’s posturing for returning to the moon. The Eclipse program is a great example of that, where they are using landers that are created by commercial companies as opposed to large governments. So to answer more succinctly, it’s about the cost and availability of the infrastructure to support returning to the moon. There’s a tipping point, we’re finally there.

What does it what does it mean to establish a lunar infrastructure?

There are several key elements that we need to return to the moon. Let’s start by talking about the end state of what we’re trying to do. Let’s anchor ourselves to the idea of putting a base on the south pole of the moon. Imagine something like the International Space Station, perhaps with a few smaller modules where a team of astronauts can live sustained on the surface of the moon. There are a lot of things that we need to be in place to make that work. We need space transportation; reliable ways of getting cargo to and from the moon. Also, how do we communicate with the spacecraft that are going there? Once you’re there on the surface of the moon, how do you have power? If I want to charge my iPhone, how am I going to do that on the surface of the moon? 

On Earth, we have ports where a ship can dock and reliably offload cargo in a fast and efficient manner. We need to create an equivalent on the moon. Something to consider is when you’re landing, you have rocket exhaust coming out the bottom, and it’s shooting out extremely hot gases, it will start to blow all the sand on the surface of the moon around, and there’s no air to slow it down either. These sand particles will travel at the speed of a bullet, and they can rip through the wall of a base. So, we need to put landing pads, ports and infrastructure in place before we can send people out there. These are all challenges because we’re still working through the challenge of just putting cargo safely on the surface of the moon without it tipping over or crashing along the way. There’s a lot of technology that’s going to have to go into creating a regular mode of operations on the surface. 

To hear more from Darren about creating a true lunar economy, tune into Episode 50 of The Satellite & NewSpace Matters Podcast here. 

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