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ESA hopes to build permanent human base on Moon

Sunday, 28 February 2016 2:31 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 28 February 2016 2:57 AM ]

An artistic view of the Moon Village to be built by the European Space Agency (ESA) and other global space agencies

It has almost been half a century since the last astronaut stepped off the lunar surface and left behind our nearest celestial neighbor void of further human presence. Disappointed by the barren world of Moon, man found interest in other planets, including Mars, in the hope of finding tiniest signatures of life. What was once considered to be “one giant leap for mankind” in space exploration in the heydays of Space Race of the Cold War era soon lost its appeal given the excitement of the significant discoveries that followed. However, it seems that our next door desolate space rock has again gained an appeal not for life discovery but for a permanent base.

Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), Jan Wörner, recently pictured this bold vision in an interview with the Euronews, calling the Moon Village, an igloo-like dwelling, not just a mere fantasy, but a possible project to be realized in years to come.

“My intention is to build up a permanent base station on the Moon. Meaning that it’s an open station, for different member states, for different states around the globe,” he explained, adding that the Moon base would follow the International Space Station (ISS) as a global project.

“So it will be the Americans, it will be the Russians, it will be the Chinese, it will be the Indians, the Japanese, and even more countries with smaller contributions,” he further said.

The Village will be founded first by erecting an inflatable dome, carried there from the Earth, and then, its exterior will be boosted by employing rovers and through using extracted lunar metals and minerals, a process that might last for around three Earth months.

“The Moon is full of resources. We have found ices at the lunar poles, and we have found areas that are in almost constant daylight. And these places can offer us resources that we can use for construction and to support the lives of the astronauts on this Moon base,” said Bernard Foing, the head of ESA’s Smart-1 Moon mission.