Lunar Living: The Sunday Times Bestseller

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Orion was originally part of President George W Bush’s plan to return to the Moon, which was announced in 2004. When that programme was cancelled in 2010 under the Obama administration, it was the only element to survive.

A prototype lunar greenhouse has already been developed at a University of Arizona facility in Tucson. Vegetables such as lettuce, tomatoes and sweet potato are grown under LED lights. It’s more or less a closed loop, where water is recycled. The plants contribute to life support systems because they scrub carbon dioxide from the air and produce oxygen. Do you find yourself feeling impacted by the full moon? Kirsty Gallagher, moon mentor and author, explores the power of the lunar cycle and how we can utilise this to make positive change

There are also a few Easter eggs in the video, which commercial space and space exploration aficionados will not fail to notice. In both videos posted above (particularly the one produced by SEArch+), some familiar vehicles can be seen on the landing pads. This includes the SpaceX Starship, which Musk has promised will be ready to transport cargo and crews to the moon in a few years, and Blue Origin's Blue moon lander—possibly the Human Landing System (HLS) variant specifically designed for NASA's Artemis Program. On each new trip, astronauts are going to have an increasing level of comfort with the capabilities to explore and study more of the Moon than ever before,” said Kathy Lueders, associate administrator for human spaceflight at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “With more demand for access to the Moon, we are developing the technologies to achieve an unprecedented human and robotic presence 240,000 miles from home. Our experience on the Moon this decade will prepare us for an even greater adventure in the universe – human exploration of Mars.” Where to stay In 2017, Donald Trump signed a space policy directive to return American astronauts to the Moon, and on to “other destinations”. Nasa said it would aim to do this by 2028. But recently the administration directed the space agency to bring that forward to 2024, citing Chinese lunar ambitions. It hasn't gone unnoticed, however, that the date would coincide with the end of Trump's second term, should he be re-elected. Gateway will be higher up, in an oval-shaped path around the Moon called a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO), giving Nasa the ability to land wherever it wants. The lander, which for 2024 hasn't been built, perhaps sums up better than any element the anxiety felt around the accelerated timeline. There’s no hardware to speak of yet, and it remains unclear how it will be tested before 2024.

Harvesting lunar resources could lead to safer, more efficient operations with less dependence on supplies delivered from Earth. NASA plans to send the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover ( VIPER) to the lunar South Pole before crew. Arriving via a commercial Moon delivery, mobile robot will get a close-up view of the distribution and concentration of ice that could eventually be harvested to support human exploration farther into the solar system. We will learn how to spend more time on the lunar surface as well as prepare to future trips to Mars by conducting life science research and learning to mitigate hazards associated with space exploration. What to knowBefore water can be extracted, there will be some prospecting to do. Once promising deposits have been identified, robots could be used to dig them up. The simplest way to begin weaving lunar living into your life is to work with the new and full moon.