As most of us are struggling to find just a couple of square meters to rent nowadays (blame the soaring levels of inflation for that), American space agency NASA seems to have found the answer to a lot of our problems by suggesting that humans will soon be able to live full-time on the moon.
According to a recent announcement made by the world’s leading agency specialized in aeronautics and space, the United States are currently working on building and developing its first permanent sub-division on the Earth’s only natural satellite, which would allegedly be able to host both astronauts and civilians at the same time in less than two decades from now— as long as it continues to hit its benchmarks as it is right now.
Once deemed impossible, NASA is relentlessly working on making the dream of a fair few a tangible reality by 2040. For the great leap to be able to take place in safe and sound conditions, scientists working on the project recently uncovered details on how they intend to make the endeavor happen. In a series of interviews with The New York Times, it was reported that a 3D printer would be sent to the moon that would build the inhabitable structures one layer after the next out of “a specialized lunar concrete created from the rock chips, mineral fragments, and dust that sits on the top layer of the moon’s cratered surface.”
“We’re at a pivotal moment, and in some ways, it feels like a dream sequence,” Niki Werkheiser, NASA’s director of technology maturation, told the publication. “We’ve got all the right people together at the right time with a common goal, which is why I think we’ll get there,” she added. “Everyone is ready to take this step together, so if we get our core capabilities developed, there’s no reason it’s not possible.”
Working alongside a few esteemed and specialized universities as well as a certain number of private companies, it has also been revealed that prototypes for space furniture and interior design are already in the works. What’s more, NASA’s AMES Research Center and Stanford University have already managed to separate minerals found on lunar soils to create tiles of different shades and colors which currently span from green and grey to black and white.
Far from wanting to get ahead of themselves, scientists at NASA are claiming that it is too soon to start pricing lunar cribs or drafting moon property deeds despite being fully aware of the groundbreaking nature of the project as it could reshape humanity’s destiny given the well of resources that could be found and the interest from other nations that will trickle in afterwards.