Related papers: Six Hypotheses for Accelerating the Lunar Economy
There is growing interest in the possibility that the resource base of the Solar System might in future be used to supplement the economic resources of our own planet. As the Earth's closest celestial neighbour, the Moon is sure to feature…
As humankind prepares to establish outposts and infrastructure on the Moon, the ability to manufacture parts and buildings on-site is crucial. While transporting raw materials from Earth can be costly and time-consuming, in-situ resource…
Several lunar missions are planned ahead and there is an increasing demand for efficient photovoltaic power generation in the moon. The knowledge of solar cell operation in the lunar surface obtained during early seventies need to be…
Issues for transport facilities on the lunar surface related to science, engineering, architecture, and human-factors are discussed. Logistic decisions made in the next decade may be crucial to financial success. In addition to outlining…
The lunar surface is extremely harsh and current mineral processing and metal extraction technologies are not adequately equipped to address this environment. In this paper we review the metals available for extraction and conditions at the…
Numerous missions planned for the next decade are likely to target a handful of smal sites of interest on the Moon's surface, creating risks of crowding and interference at these locations. The Moon presents finite and scarce areas with…
Utilisation of the material and energy resources of the Solar System will be essential for the development of a sustainable space economy and associated infrastructure. Science will be a major beneficiary of a space economy, even if its…
The Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) experiment has accumulated 50 years of range data of improving accuracy from ground stations to the laser retroreflector arrays (LRAs) on the lunar surface. The upcoming decade offers several opportunities to…
A human-robotic "Moon Village" would offer significant scientific opportunities by providing an infrastructure on the lunar surface. An analogy would be the way in which human outposts in Antarctica facilitate research activities across…
The lunar geological record has much to tell us about the earliest history of the Solar System, the origin and evolution of the Earth-Moon system, the geological evolution of rocky planets, and the near-Earth cosmic environment throughout…
The resurgent era of lunar exploration is defined by a strategic shift from temporary visits to a sustained international and commercial presence, resulting in an unprecedented demand for a robust and continuously available communication…
Carbon is one of the most essential elements to support a sustained human presence in space, and more immediately, several large-scale methalox-based transport systems will begin operating in the near future. This raises the question of…
In recent years, the Moon has emerged as an unparalleled extraterrestrial testbed for advancing cuttingedge technological and scientific research critical to enabling sustained human presence on its surface and supporting future…
In Papers II and III we show that Transient Lunar Phenomena (TLPs) are likely related to lunar outgassing, albeit in ways not fully understood. Here we propose a path forward, in which current and forthcoming technologies provide a more…
Three principal concepts regarding lunar formation have been examined: the accretion hypothesis, the mega-impact theory, and the multi-impact model. The multi-impact model amalgamates the salient facets of the mega-impact theory and the…
Future Moon bases will likely be constructed using resources mined from the surface of the Moon. The difficulty of maintaining a human workforce on the Moon and communications lag with Earth means that mining will need to be conducted using…
Advances in robotics and additive manufacturing have become game-changing for the prospects of space industry. It has become feasible to bootstrap a self-sustaining, self-expanding industry at reasonably low cost. Simple modeling was…
Motivated by efforts to return humanity to the Moon, three cases are reviewed for X-ray astronomy from the lunar surface: (1) Facilitation of ambitious engineering designs including high throughput telescopes, long focal length optics and…
Economic parameters are identified for an in-space industry where the capital is made on one planet, it is transported to and teleoperated on a second planet, and the product is transported off the second planet for consumption. This…
Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) measurements are crucial for advanced exploration of the laws of fundamental gravitational physics and geophysics. Current LLR technology allows us to measure distances to the Moon with a precision approaching 1…