A LUNAR BASE IN THE NEXT DECADE?

I am currently reading Andy Weir's latest, Artemis, and while so far I'm finding it a lesser opus than The Martian (I'm not the only one, it seems), it's doable. The story is set in Earth's first Moon base, called, you guess it, Artemis. More on the book later, when and if I get through it. But the story fired up my imagination, so I checked out how far actual plans to build such a base stand.

Turns out, relatively promising.

Last year, The Daily Mail had a rather jubilant piece on the possibility of there being a Moon Base quite soon, possibly from 2022 on. I don't believe a word of that, but the article is at least convincing in making the case that the technologies envisaged are already there.


Here's a glimpse of what such a base might look like, courtesy the European Space Agency (ESA) and architectural firm Foster + Partners. Inflatable habitats to be covered by robots capable of 3D-printing, with the bulk of the printed stuff actually made out of the Moon's regolith. The capsules transporting the habitats would then serve as airlocks:





And here's a fascinating video of how the building would/could take place:





Also, check out this article. Now, if a certain brand of politicans could just make their imagination work instead of focusing on evolutionary dead enders ....


MFBB.