(ORDO NEWS) — In twenty years, the Moon will turn into a promising place, and research will gain momentum, the author of Nautilus believes. It will be the starting point before the exploration of other planets.
The question is answered by Johns Hopkins University astrophysicist Joseph Silk.
Why not? If one day we decide to leave the Earth, we will have to start somewhere. And the only real option is the Moon, where researchers, businessmen and scientists will go first.
This will be the starting point before the exploration of other planets, because thanks to low gravity, the lunar environment is more convenient than the earth’s in terms of sending spaceships.
If your interest is commercial, then you will probably focus on mining, because the Earth is running out of some rare earth elements that are critical for the production of computer equipment.
There are extremely many of them on the Moon thanks to billions of years of meteor bombardments. Do not forget about space tourism.
Tickets are already on sale – not cheap, of course – for a trip around the moon, and people like Elon Musk will make it possible in the next five years.
Also, everyone knows that at the bottom of deep and dark lunar craters there is a huge amount of water ice, which will give us not only the main resource for life, but also separately oxygen and hydrogen.
Liquefying them using solar energy will give us rocket fuel to travel throughout the solar system and beyond.
Personally, the Moon attracts me as a place for building telescopes to see the stars really clearly, without dimming.
Water vapor in Earth’s atmosphere masks much of the infrared radiation from stars, which contains a wealth of information about what they are made of.
In addition, the Earth’s ionosphere interferes with the reception of low-frequency radio waves in space, and on the Moon we can see the Universe in a completely different light.
The only way to capture these objects is with a huge telescope, much larger than the six-meter James Webb.
The most suitable place for these purposes is the craters on the far side of the Moon, where you can install one mega-telescope or many small ones that work coherently.
The size of the telescope determines the degree of concentration of light rays, and on the Moon this possibility is hundreds of times higher.
What will give us a telescope with a diameter of several kilometers? This is the most amazing thing that I can imagine, thanks to both the concentration of light rays and the resolution.
It will be possible to imagine the closest exoplanets to us as accurately as possible and find out if they have oceans or, say, forests – the main factors for the study of distant, alien life.
I highly doubt that life is found anywhere in our solar system. You need to look much further, many light years away. And giant lunar telescopes will help us with this.
People who will work on the moon will have to first understand how to create a biosphere.
Alternatively, it can be placed inside some artificial structure on the surface of the satellite, but the dimensions will be limited.
Much more promising is the option of using some kind of giant lava tube, which, again, can really be implemented in the coming decades.
These caves, remnants of ancient volcanic activity, are large enough to contain an entire city.
Imagine that they will be sealed and create an atmosphere inside for life, work and research, which cannot be carried out on Earth.
This optimistic scenario implies the participation of a large number of people living and working on the Moon – not millions, of course, but at least thousands.
First of all, the international community will need to recognize that cooperation is the only way forward, and only then will it be necessary to establish lunar laws to control real estate and stop criminal activity in case people begin to dispute territories.
I really hope that we have the corresponding legal base. At the moment it seems that we are still far from all of the above, but sooner or later it will happen.
In 10-20 years, the Moon will turn into a promising place, and research will gain momentum.
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