NASA Announces Plans to Colonize the Moon By 2030
NASA has committed to putting humans on the moon by 2024 and human settlements by 2030, but what will it take to achieve this lofty goal?
Under NASA’s Artemis program the space agency announced the priority of going back to the moon with settlements on the lunar surface by 2030 that would act as a launch point for future missions to Mars. The program has many goals, chief among them to learn how to live on the surface of another planet.
But the moon’s surface is a harsh and hostile environment. Micrometeorites pelting the surface like missiles, 400-degree temperature swings, and the constant risk of radiation exposure from the sun create many obstacles for putting long-term settlements on the lunar surface. On the moon, we will have to supply the same foundations of human survival as we do on Earth including water, shelter, food, and oxygen. NASA is partnering with public and private partners to solve these problems.
So how will astronauts access these vital resources needed for survival? NASA won’t be able to bring sufficient life-sustaining resources from Earth, so they’ll have to make it upon arrival.
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Upcoming Shift in Lunar Cycle May Cause Major Flooding
A shift in the moon’s orbit may lead to massive flooding in the future. What’s really going on with the moon’s upcoming wobble?
In a new report from the NASA Sea Level Change Science Team at the University of Hawaii, scientists warn that an upcoming natural phenomenon in the moon’s orbit, combined with rising sea levels, could cause record flooding along coastal regions. NASA administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement, “[l]ow lying areas near sea level are increasingly at risk and suffering due to the increased flooding and it will only get worse.”
The moon affects tides on Earth every day, so why is the cause for alarm now?
Astronomer and Gaia News contributor Marc Dantonio said, “Every 18.6 years, the moon reaches a point where it’s the highest in its declination, and that’s the point where it’s going to also be above the Earth’s equator. When the moon is actually also at a point where it’s closest to the Earth because of the elliptical orbit, if all those things correspond and combine to be at one point like this, then that’s where the researchers at the University of Hawaii says that we’re looking at potential flooding.”
