Lunar Living: The Sunday Times Bestseller

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The Russian plan to colonise Malapert Mountain is also being led by a private company – Lin Industrial. John Shannon believes things are now looking up. “We’ve been through the hard part: the qualification and design of the hardware,” he says. “We’re at a great point right now, the factory is humming, we’ve got our first vehicle, it will roll out of the door by the end of this year.” Space company Astrobotic says it's building a "railroad" to the Moon. It's one of a number of companies that want to transport items to the lunar surface. The scientific attraction is clear. The lunar samples returned to Earth by the Apollo astronauts have been an invaluable resource in understanding the inner workings and history of our celestial companion.

We’d need to test out the effects of altered gravity on our biology too. “Zero gravity is totally devastating to the human body in terms of muscle wastage and the demineralisation of the skeleton,” says Dartnell. As it is now, we demand more when you're looking at functional performance of an astronaut, than we ever have in history,” says Michael Barratt, a Nasa astronaut and honorary professor at the University of Exeter Medical School, UK. In addition to the LTV, a pressurized rover will greatly expand lunar surface exploration capabilities to the next level. Pressurization means that astronauts can be in the vehicle in their regular clothing as opposed to wearing their spacesuit inside too. This will provide more comfort to work as they cross the lunar terrain in their mobile habitat and explore large areas. When they’re ready to go outside to collect samples or set up experiments, they would need to put their spacesuits on again. Woerner’s idea is to start building on the far side of the Moon – the face that always points away from Earth. China also thinks this would be the best location. The Sun on the cusp of Cancer is moving out of the square to Neptune in Pisces. Great time to journal for the next few months, so that we can reflect on current events with more clarity.

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That may be about to change, at least if Johann-Dietrich Woerner, the Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), gets his way – he wants to build a village on the Moon! As it falls towards the ground, Orion will deploy a total of 11 different parachutes – most of which are made from a hybrid of Kevlar and Nylon - to slow the vehicle down to the speed of 27 km/h (17mph) required to safely splash down in the Pacific Ocean. This challenge has inspired architects and designers from all over the world to create innovative and novel ideas for lunar living. One of these is the Lunar Lantern, a base concept developed by ICON (an advanced construction company based in Austin, Texas) as part of a NASA-supported project to build a sustainable outpost on the moon. This proposal is currently being showcased as part of the 17th International Architecture Exhibition at the La Biennale di Venezia museum in Venice, Italy. The other upside to the south pole is the climate. The Moon is a very different place to the Earth, taking nearly a month to complete one rotation on its axis. So on most parts of the Moon, periods of day and night both last around two weeks.

By providing end-to-end delivery services for private customers and Nasa, companies like Astrobotic could make the first steps towards building a sustainable lunar economy. It remains to be seen how the regolith would be collected in sufficient quantities and delivered to the printer, and Pambaguian warns of the need for an initial robotic mission to ensure the system works in the Moon’s reduced gravitational field. The New Moon is the beginning of your lunar journey. This is the time to get clear on what you want to create, manifest, and put into motion in the coming lunar cycle. Use the energies of the new moon to set your dreams, goals and intentions for the lunar month ahead. Do you have days when you feel exhausted, close to burn out and like you want to hide away from the world? Then there are the externally mounted tension cables, which apply compressive stress to the habitats 3D printed walls. The outermost component, the Whipple Shield, is a double shell made up of an interior lattice and external shield panels. This provides protection against ballistic impact from micrometeorites and ejecta (caused by impacts nearby) while also shielding the interior structure from the extreme heat caused by direct exposure to the sun.

Multibuys

These ordinary words have an extraordinary significance: they are thought to be the last words spoken by a human being on the Moon. In her lab at the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, PhD student Hannah Sargeant is working on a way to do just this, using a mineral called ilmenite that’s abundant on the Moon.

In other words, use what’s already there as much as possible to keep the costs down. Therefore, local resources will govern where the base should be located. Scenarios like this are fantasy, for now. But it’s one possible way humans could live and work on the Moon.Then there’s the issue of dust from the lunar surface. The Apollo astronauts experienced episodes of coughing and, in some cases, breathing problems when dust became airborne inside their spacecraft. A way to control that will need to be found. This is the time of the lunar cycle to rest, pause, and take your awareness inwards. It’s really important at this part of the cycle that you take note of your emotions and what they are trying to show and signpost you to, as this will help set your intentions for the next lunar month.