La Jornada: NASA promotes project to establish permanent lunar base

NASA’s future lunar base seeks to become a scientific laboratory to test human missions to Mars, create technologies to survive in extreme environments and study materials that disappeared billions of years ago on Earth, said Carlos García-Galán, director of the program.

“If you are thinking about climbing Everest you need prior preparation in much easier places: lower and closer mountains. Well, to go to Mars it is the same. We need to perfect technologies, learn about operations and logistics on the Moon as a prerequisite to go to Mars,” he explained in an interview with The Day.

Within the Artemis program, García-Galán, who has more than 27 years of experience in human space flights, is in charge of the general management and coordination of the NASA lunar base, which yesterday presented the first of three phases planned for the next two to three years.

Technical challenges

The expert identifies three technical challenges to building infrastructure on the lunar surface. The first is that the industry has the capacity to produce enough ships to go to the Moon in the coming years. The second is to design systems that withstand the extreme conditions of deep space.

In the South Pole area of ​​the Moon – where they hope to settle – the Sun remains 2 or 3 degrees above the horizon and the nights can last 14 days. In illuminated areas, temperatures can exceed 127 degrees Celsius, and in shadow regions they can drop below 200 degrees.

“Imagine having one arm that is exposed to the Sun, and another in a shaded area. It is an abysmal difference in temperature and developing systems that can survive that is very difficult. We have to create that technology,” he details.

The third challenge in this project is to generate the conditions for human life in space. “Humans need a lot, we have to design an entire logistics chain four days from Earth.”

During the conference on the project, NASA reported the awarding of contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to four private companies in the United States for the construction of landers, all-terrain vehicles and drones intended to roam the lunar surface.

García-Galán explains that NASA’s philosophy is to focus on what is “almost impossible” to do and that a private company could not do on its own, while the construction of ships and the transfer of cargo will remain in the hands of the industry. “We will continue to have the role of leading, of continuing to finance and invest in the lunar base with all the necessary logistics.”

As part of this initiative, experts foresee robotic activity 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and that in a first stage the crew can visit the lunar base twice a year.

“We will build the lunar base from robotic activity and the work carried out by humans, until we have the capacity to keep people permanently working there.”

Regarding the impact that this program could have on the daily lives of people on Earth, García-Galán believes that making something that “seems like science fiction” possible will inspire new generations. “It will lead many boys and girls to rethink engineering, physical sciences or even becoming teachers.”

Just as Apollo boosted microelectronics in the 1960s and 1970s by miniaturizing computers that took up entire rooms for incorporation into spacecraft – which led to mobile telephony, for example – NASA hopes this new mission will generate similar advances.

“Building a nuclear reactor on the Moon will have an impact on the Earth, which could lead us to supply electrical energy in areas that do not have it now,” he emphasizes.

García-Galán considers that the beginning of permanent human presence outside the Earth will occur when the first astronaut missions reach the lunar surface and can interact with previously installed infrastructure, such as robots or autonomous vehicles.

“When there are several components working together, I will say: these are the first stages of the lunar base,” he maintains.

Regarding how this program could transform humanity’s cultural and emotional relationship with the Moon, the NASA engineer – who speaks with certainty about the technological evolution of the mission – admits that he cannot anticipate it.

“I know it’s going to change, but I can’t tell you how. I knew all the details of the Artemis II mission, we lived it, and it totally changed the way I think about the Moon. So I can’t imagine what will happen when we have people there permanently or even on short-term missions. It will surely change our perspective.”