Grey Havoc

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http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Momentum_builds_for_creation_of_moon_villages_999.html

http://news.yahoo.com/european-space-boss-crazy-moon-village-plan-151401886.html
 
Not first time ESA propose something like that
in 1990s they proposed Manned Lunar Program
it was ignored by Europeans Minister
and this proposal will be also ignored by them again...
 
Quite possible, though the fact that the European aerospace industry, along with the EU's economy as a whole (not to mention the bloc's public morale) is currently facing a skydive into the sub-basement might make a difference in the political calculations this time around. Then again it might not.

Should have added this to the opening post: http://www.space.com/31488-european-moon-base-2030s.html

moon-2.jpg
 
What it requires is money, and ESA's budget is tight right now.

I've talked to a few ESA people and the general consensus seems to be that this is his pet project but that it's not going anywhere. I wish it had some momentum.
 
An excerpt from the article:

Momentum Builds For International Moon Base
Dec 14, 2016 Frank Morring, Jr. | Aviation Week & Space Technology

Technical and political developments have given Jan Woerner’s “lunar village” a boost this year, to the point that the ambitious European Space Agency (ESA) chief sees its development already underway. The member-states’ science ministers endorsed Woerner’s “Space 4.0” concept this month to underpin the idea; three teams in the $30 million Google Lunar X-Prize competition secured launch contracts to keep the robotic space race alive, and Donald Trump’s election as the next U.S. president raises the chances that NASA will refocus its relatively deep pockets on Earth’s natural satellite.

Naval Research Lab concept for giant radio telescope on the far side of the Moon.
Naval Research Lab concept for giant radio telescope on the far side of the Moon. Credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

“Somebody was asking me, ‘When do you do it, and how much money do you need?’ ” Woerner told the Space Transportation Association (STA) in a Capitol Hill year-ender on Dec. 9. “I said it’s already progressing, as a village on Earth. The village starts with the first actor, and we have several actors right now, so it’s already on its way.”

Three Lunar X-Prize teams have rides to the Moon’s surface, meeting an end-of-year deadline set by Google to keep the contest going. A fourth, Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic, has signed deals with Europe’s Airbus Defense and Space to help engineer its robotic lander, and with DHL to handle logistics services for commercial customers.

Mexican space agency AEM has bought a ride from Astrobotic for a payload developed by that nation’s scientists, as a “sovereign customer” that cannot afford to build its own lander but wants to get in on the game. That is right up Woerner’s alley.

“I call it Moon village,” he says. “It is free and open access through the different players. It is not a limited plan.”


SNIP


“What we can do over there is Moon science, cosmology, especially from the far side of the Moon; fundamental research; lunar resource [exploitation]; technology development; transportation; communication and logistics; resource management and planetary defense,” Woerner says. “It’s a stepping stone to go farther in our universe, and I’m quite sure that humans will go farther.”

Woerner notes that his concept has been “well received” in the U.S. Senior NASA managers already say the agency is able to “pivot” to a lunar focus, and it certainly could make a significant contribution to planting an outpost on the Moon. It has been there six times with humans, and is building the Saturn V-class Space Launch System and Orion crew capsule—“Apollo on steroids”—as long-term human-exploration infrastructure.

NASA also is opening up the “critical path” for access to lunar orbit and other deep-space destinations by allowing ESA to develop the service module that will move Orion through space.

“It’s hard for us to put others in the critical path,” adds Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot, who shared the STA podium with Woerner. “That is a cultural thing for us, is control. We lose control. But those guys have been a great partner, and I think we’re going to see a pretty awesome flight of [Orion].”
 

More:

 
Latest study. It's easy to dismiss it as 'just' another study but you'd be missing the point that if you have enough studies, you can print them out and climb the stack of paper to the moon.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t0kO-mFLfQ


The concept aims to address problems that might arise from having people on the lunar surface for extended periods. This includes protecting astronauts from the harsh environment, such as radiation and dust, and dealing with extreme temperatures, lack of water, oxygen and power.

The habitat is designed around a series of inflatable pods that would make minimal contact with the surface, reducing issues with abrasive dust. These would then be protected by a shell made of blocks, 3D printed using lunar soil, known as regolith, that can be interlocked into place over the pods to absorb radiation. We might also be able to get water or oxygen from the regolith. And to mitigate temperature fluctuations, and maximise solar power efficiency, the base would be built on the edge of Shackleton crater at the moon's south pole where it would face the sun for longer.




An earlier NASA-sponsored Martian habitat study:

As reported elsewhere:



 
Frankly, I don't understand the need for a lunar colony. For me it doesn't make any sense to make the enormous expenditure of resources that would mean supplying a colony with EVERYTHING necessary to live by launching it from rockets that must overcome the Earth's gravity. What can the colonists do that an autonomous or ground-controlled robot can't? In addition, there is the problem of the accumulation of radiation in bodies and the pernicious consequences of low gravity. These two dangers would be enough to make conventional colonization unfeasible, instead the colonists would have to be periodically evacuated to Earth to recover. The Lunar Colony was fine for the well-paid illustrators of the twentieth century, but with what we now know about space... It's silly.
 
Just having eyes in the field is worth it...a new perspective.
The problem I have with ISS is that every moment is preplanned.

Spontaneity in the field is its own reward.
 
What can the colonists do that an autonomous or ground-controlled robot can't? In addition, there is the problem of the accumulation of radiation in bodies and the pernicious consequences of low gravity. These two dangers would be enough to make conventional colonization unfeasible, instead the colonists would have to be periodically evacuated to Earth to recover.
Teleoperated robots are dramatically less flexible than a human being; all of our robots, and reasonable projections for future robots, demonstrate they're much less mobile than a person, they're sharply limited in what instruments they have available, and they can only do whatever they're programmed to do. I wish I could find the source for this, but I read somewhere that humans were ten to one hundred times as productive as robots, and would be for much of this century. For a real-life example of the productivity difference, the Apollo samples (brought back by astronauts, including one trained geologist) have resulted in many thousands more of scientific papers than those brought back by Soviet lunar landers. We only use robots because they don't need life support, which is driven by the high cost of launch. Once launch costs drop dramatically - and more, once we can produce even simple items offworld, such as oxygen and basic food crops - that no longer applies. Also, if a robot breaks, it's done. The level of sophistication to have another robot there that could fix it is beyond our capabilities. With a human, you have that possibility. It's not an either/or, it's a both/and.
 

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