The news is full of it, excitement seems high, and I really don't get it. I'm not against space-related research, but why suddenly the moon? And why send people there? Can someone fill me in on what's to be gained or why one might be excited about it?
Allow me to use the linked article for my questions.
There have been three primary drivers of renewed interest in the Moon. The first was the discovery and confirmation in the 1990s and early 2000s that water ice is likely to exist at the lunar poles in permanently shadowed craters. The presence of abundant water, providing oxygen and hydrogen resources, has given space agencies a new reason to explore the poles.
Yea but so what? Hydrogen is literally the most common thing in the universe, no fucking way there is also some on the moon ๐คฏ. Then what's so spectacular about moon ice, water, or even oxygen? And why does it need people to explore it?
A second factor has been the rise of China's space program, which has sent a series of ambitious robotic missions to the Moon that have both landed on the far side and returned samples from the lunar surface. China has made no secret of its interest in sending astronauts to the Moon, leading to competing efforts between NASA's Artemis Program and China's lunar station goals.
Again why? Is this some repetition of the Cold War Soviet-US competition?
Finally, there has been some interest from private companies in the commercial development of the lunar surface, both to exploit resources there but also for other purposes. This has stimulated investment in private companies to provide transportation to the lunar surface, including ispace, Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines, and Firefly.
Exploiting resources has to be a joke, right? Do they want to sell us the newly found moon water? The only point I get is the tourism aspect. Because, of course, I always encourage billionaires to pursue dangerous hobbies ๐
Moon is very attractive as a staging area for missions further into the solar system. Since it has low gravity and no atmosphere, it's much easier to launch stuff from the moon. It would also be possible to build a space elevator on the moon even using current level of technology.
The moon is also a great test for building a space colony. It's a much more realistic prospect than trying to build one on Mars. At some point humanity will become a spacefaring species unless we make ourselves go extinct. Exploration of the Moon is the first step towards that.
It's also worth noting that such large scale projects necessarily result in a lot of technological development that has lots of practical applications here on Earth.
Finally, I personally think that it's good to have an ambitious vision that humanity can work towards. Space exploration is inspiring and it's a positive vision for our future. This is something that's sorely lacking in our world today.
Part of the Moon being a staging area is that it may end up being feasible to source material from the Moon instead of Earth. This allows for shipping materials at a much lower energy cost since we don't need to lift off from Earth's gravity well.
And for the space elevator, the reason why a space elevator on the far side of the Moon is valuable is because making the elevator longer than necessary could make it a good launch point for other missions. This will act as a slingshot to others entities.
Yeah, I think that creating a local mining industry on the moon will be necessary to start doing any serious projects like building a space elevator. The whole idea should be to bootstrap a colony that's as self sufficient as possible.