Our #Apollo50th anniversary of the Moon landing is being celebrated in a different kind of way on the International Space Station: By welcoming three new crew members on board, including NASA Astronaut Andrew Morgan. All this and more on the latest episode of NASA’s Space to Ground:
Space engineers have long considered lunar soil as locally available material for building outposts on the Moon, and now ESA researchers are considering it as a means to store energy. The Discovery & Preparation study by the agency and Azimut Space aims to determine how the lunar regolith can soak up solar energy during the day, then use it to generate electricity during the 14-day night and protect equipment against freezing.
Unlike the Apollo missions, the new era of moon exploration might be about mining, tourism or art. The reason we pick to return will define the moon’s future.
Industrial development of the moon, based on mining water ice for rocket propellant, could jumpstart new energy and material markets on Earth as it drives the human settlement of interplanetary space.
