10 reasons why people should go to the moon again

1. Harmful industries can be transferred to the moon

Heavy industry causes great damage to the environment. Hazardous emissions, toxic waste, combustion products and other side effects from the operation of factories and factories do not add health to us, people, or nature in general. Global warming is also happening due to human actions, and none of us will like its consequences.

The moon is not threatened by any environmental disasters. There is no atmosphere that can be polluted, there are no oceans to poison, there are no plants and animals that can die from the toxic waste of hazardous industries. The moon is an empty and dead stone, which absolutely does not care what we do with it.

If in the future humanity will build its factories only on the Moon, our home planet will only say thank you.

Billionaire Jeff Bezos, for example, statesJeff Bezos plans to build and launch a 'large lunar lander' in his quest to colonize space / Insider

that the main goal of his company Blue Origin is to move heavy industry from Earth to the Moon. Then the pollution of the planet will come to an end, and the catastrophic climate change will finally stop.

2. Helium-3 can be mined there

It is a stable isotope of helium that can be used, for example, as a fuel in thermonuclear fusion. It is extremely rare on Earth, and it is difficult and economically unprofitable to produce it artificially.

On the moon, this substance is simply in excess: its amount there is estimated 1. Fusion heating gets a boost / MIT News
2. E. N. Slyuta, A. M. Abdrakhimov. The estimation of Helium-3 probable reserves in lunar regolith / Lunar and Planetary Science in about 2.5 million tons, which will be enough for humanity for the next several millennia. It is a safe and environmentally friendly source of energy - much more efficient than oil and gas.

In addition to being used in nuclear power, helium-3 is also useful in medicine for magnetic resonance tomography of the lungs, in cryogenic chambers and refrigerators, as well as when creating detectors of ionizing radiation. In general, a very useful thing.

3. The moon is full of minerals

In addition to such an exotic resource as helium-3, the satellite of our planet can boast of more familiar, but no less valuable riches. For example, there are abundantI. Crawford. Lunar Resources: A Review / Progress in Physical Geography there is iron, titanium, aluminum, silicon, calcium, magnesium and many rare earth minerals. The extraction of metals on the Moon will save mankind from a shortage of raw materials for centuries to come.

Again, mining ore in an airless space is much more environmentally friendly than drilling endless mines in the long-suffering Earth.

Another useful substance 1. Want to Mine the Solar System? Start With the Moon / Space.com
2. It’s Official: Water Found on the Moon / Space.com on the Moon, it is good old water, present there frozen. She can not only provide lunar colonies with drink, but also give them oxygen for breathing, and also serve as fuel for spaceships.

Extract water, produce hydrogen from it by hydrolysis, and then refuel rockets for flight to other planets will be much more profitable than transporting entire tankers from Earth.

4. And lots of free solar energy

Solar panels are an environmentally friendly and cheap source of energy. However, there are several problems associated with their use on Earth.

First, as you might guess, they work only during daylight hours and in clear weather. If the day turns out to be rainy, the owner of such a panel will sit without electricity. Secondly, they take up a lot of space, and if they are built only in some kind of Sahara, then you still need to be able to transfer the extracted energy from there to the cities. Third, the panels get dirty quickly and it takes a lot of time and money to clean them.

And finally, the construction of batteries requires a lot of resources, in particular - silicon, which still needs to be mined, and this is harmful to the environment. In addition, some of the substances used in their production, for example cadmium, are in themselves toxic.

But University of Houston physicist David Criswell suggested 1. The solar discs that could power Earth / Future Planet
2. Physicist Wants To Beam Solar Energy Back From Moon's Surface / Forbes a way to avoid all these troubles.

You need to build farms with solar panels not on Earth, but on the Moon - and that's the end of it.

There is no atmosphere and no wind, which means that neither air, nor dust, nor weather will affect the efficiency of photocells on its surface. On The moon an excess of silicon (in fact, it is mainly made of it) and other minerals from which solar panels could be built. In addition, a day there lasts 15 days, so it is easy to understand that there is much more sunlight there than on our own globe.

And you won't have to pull the wire to the Moon: energy can be transmitted in the form of microwaves by directed beams to collectors located on Earth. No harm to the environment and a lot of free electricity.

5. Astronomical observations can be made on the moon

For the most part, the atmosphere of our planet benefits us. It protects from periodically falling on our heads meteorites, insulates from the excess of solar study, conserves heat, without which the Earth's surface would quickly freeze - in short, some solid pluses. But there is one small but: the atmosphere interferes with astronomical observations.

That is why the Hubble telescope, dangling in orbit, sees much more interesting things in the depths of the Universe than ground-based observatories.

There is no air on the moon. This is unpleasant, but nothing there will obscure the view of telescopes and spectrometers. And if you arrange themJ. Silk. Put telescopes on the far side of the Moon / Nature on the back side of the satellite, we also shield the equipment from the Earth's magnetic field, excluding its influence on the received radio waves.

This means that radio astronomy will be able to take a big step forward: we will be able to look further into space and better study the structure of the Universe.

6. Returning to the Moon will give us many new technologies

Ignorant people often believe that space exploration does not bring any practical benefit and that ordinary inhabitants of the Earth are neither hot nor cold from it. But in fact, many inventionsHow landing on the moon changed our daily life / BBC Newsthat humanity uses every day, we owe space.

For example, Nike Air sneakers, sunglasses and welding helmets from Eagle Eyes, memory foam for shoes, furniture and motorcycle helmets, freeze-dried products and modern baby food, NanoCeram two-level water filtration, and even ThrustMaster game manipulators - all of these things appeared thanks to the space program.

Judging by the dataSpinoff / NASA NASA Spinoff magazine, all space exploration has given man more than 2,000 practical inventions that have become widespread. This is not counting the patents that are just waiting in the wings.

If we build a colony on the Moon, there is no doubt that many discoveries will be made during this mission and many new technologies will be created that will ultimately make our life better. As a result, we will have not only theoretical knowledge, but also quite practical use.

7. The moon can serve as a staging post for long-distance flights

Our satellite has one important feature. The gravity on it is six times less than that of the Earth, which means that it is a trifle to take off from the surface.

Will not need 1. To explore deep space, an astronaut says we need to build a rocket factory on the moon / Insider
2. NASA's Exploration Plans Include Living Off the Land / NASA
3. The Case for the Moon: Why We Should Go Back Now / Space.com pile up the giant rockets and wildly powerful engines needed on Earth. A tin can tied to a firecracker is also capable of leaving the moon's gravity well.

Believe it or not, look at how small and unpretentious landing modules were used in the Apollo program. And nothing, they easily landed, and then again went into orbit.

That is why collecting and refueling space ships on the moonand then sending them flying around the solar system is much cheaper and more profitable than continuing to launch rockets from Earth.

In addition, the satellite is relatively easy to reach, notesThe Case for the Moon: Why We Should Go Back Now / Space.com Paul Spudis is a lunar geologist at the Moon and Planets Institute in Houston. You can fly there in just three days. This means that you do not have to wait for months for a suitable launch window, as is the case with the same Mars.

Therefore, our satellite will be an ideal training ground, where we can work out all the technologies we need before flying to really distant celestial bodies.

8. The colony on the moon will serve as a backup copy of humanity

Elon Musk constantly talksElon Musk Details His Vision for a Human Civilization on Mars / Universe Todaythat a settlement on Mars will become a kind of "backup" of our civilization.

After all, if something happens on Earth not good, for example nuclear war, asteroid fall, supervolcano explosion, machine uprising or commonplace a zombie apocalypse that will erase people from their native Terra, representatives of our species will remain to live on Red planet. And over time they will be able to repopulate the Earth.

However, the Moon, as we have already mentioned, is much more accessible than Mars, and the living conditions on it are not very different. The gravity is insufficient, there is no normal atmosphere, and the Sun is gamma-rayed both there and there. So what difference does it make where to build life support domes or underground cities - on Mars or on the Moon?

Again, if you have colonies all over the place, the chances of human survival will increase in proportion to their number. In the future, the lunar settlement will serve as a home for us no worse than the Martian cities.

9. Tourism can be developed on the moon

In addition to such serious goals as scientific discoveries and the extraction of useful resources, do not forget about entertainment. The moon could become a real Mecca for tourists, and in the future we will fly there just to have fun.

For example, people will be able to ride on the surface of a satellite of our planet and arrange lunar rover races, as well as collect regolith as souvenirs. And the water parks on the Moon with its low gravity will give you a completely different experience from the terrestrial ones.

This is not to mention the fact that tourists will be able to see live the landing modules of the six Apollo, which are still sticking out there.

They can be surrounded by a red ribbon, like exhibits, and set up a museum.

10. Bonus: it's just cool

After all, is there a reason to study space? Humanity has always conquered more and more new territories, mastering them for their own needs and spreading everywhere where it is possible to gain a foothold. Conquering the moon should be, if only because it is insanely cool - to build a base on a completely new celestial body.

And mankind simply needs a lunar water park, do not forget.