Lunar water ice has been
observed in the polar regions of the
Moon which can provide water for human
consumption, farming, and even rocket
fuel. Plus, valuable metals such as
platinum, gold, and palladium are
dispersed throughout the surface from
meteorites. Helium 3 has also been discovered on
the Moon which can possibly pave the
way for successful nuclear fusion. Mining
operations can collect these valuable
materials for more funding of future
missions to the Moon and further.
Lunar Space Elevator
Perhaps the biggest reason to inhabit
the moon, however, is to provide a
refueling station for other deep space
exploration and to be better prepared
for the colonization of Mars. However,
one of the hardest parts of space
colonization is the cost of achieving
escape velocity while carrying heavy
payloads. The idea of a space elevator
first appeared in 1895, but has never
been tested at a large scale. While
many are trying to make an elevator
from Earth, the Moon might be a much
better initial testing location due to
the much lower gravitational pull
compared to Earth. The escape
velocity of the Moon can be calculated
as follows:
Achieving
this velocity becomes more difficult the
more mass that is added. With a fully
functional Moon outpost, spaceships on
the way to Mars can refuel at the Lunar
station and continue on their way.
Rockets would have to burn valuable fuel
to touch down on the Moon, refuel, and
then launch back into orbit. With a
space elevator, spaceships can stay in
the Moon’s orbit and simply refuel from
there without making the engineers
design a rocket capable of multiple
touch downs and take offs. Also, low
thrust rockets, like ion drives, are not
able to touch down on a high gravity
surface.
The lunar space elevator
can provide a reusable and reliable
means of moving both people and supplies
to and from the surface of the Moon. It
is proposed to have a tether connecting
an area in orbit to the equator and
south pole. The docking port could
remain stable in the lunar-synchronous
position which are the lagrange points
called L1 and L2 int the figure. L1 is
56,000km away from the Earth facing side
of the Moon (the Moon is tidally
locked), and L2 is in the opposite
direction 67,000km away from the center
of the Moon’s far side.
