How We Could Build a Moon Base TODAY – Space Colonization 1 - video Dailymotion

In a Nutshell Animations

Did you know that we could start building a Lunar Base today?

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00:00Humans dream about leaving Earth and traveling through the galaxy, but we were born too early

00:06to be part of it, or were we?

00:10The reality is, we could begin our dream by building a moon base today.

00:15We actually do have the technology, and current estimates from NASA and the private sector

00:20say it could be done for 20 to 40 billion dollars spread out over about a decade.

00:26The price is comparable to the International Space Station or the budget surplus of Germany

00:30in 2017.

00:33Not that big an investment, really.

00:36The payoff would be immeasurable.

00:38The moon is a sandbox to develop new technologies and exploit unlimited resources.

00:44It would start a new space race and lay the foundation for us to spread out into the solar

00:48system and beyond.

00:51It would create a vast array of new technologies to benefit us on Earth.

00:55And we would all be part of it.

00:57So why aren't we doing it?

00:59Well, sadly, it's hard to get governments interested in long-term investments in the

01:04future of humanity.

01:07Let's imagine just doing it.

01:09If we start today, how would we build a moon base?

01:14Throughout history, colonization happened in phases.

01:18In the first phase of the Age of Exploration of the New World, for example, European monarchs

01:22funded expeditions to chart and discover and to stake their claims.

01:27They planted a flag and set up a camp, but they didn't stay.

01:32In the second phase, small missions set up outposts and settlements were founded, which

01:37were still very dependent on their home countries for supplies.

01:40Some failed, but others survived and established a permanent presence.

01:45Only then, in the third phase, did a true colony form to which tradesmen and laborers

01:50could emigrate, creating new wealth and opportunities for themselves and their families, sending

01:55extreme wealth back to their countries of origin.

01:59When we colonize the moon, we'll go through the same three phases.

02:03This time, without murdering millions of innocent people in the process.

02:08The moon is not a welcoming place for living things.

02:11A moon day lasts 29 Earth days, with a difference of nearly 300 degrees Celsius between sunlight

02:18and shade.

02:20There's no atmosphere to shield us from meteorites big and small, or cosmic radiation.

02:24Worse still, the lunar surface is covered in a layer of nasty, jagged dust.

02:30The moon is hard, but we're good at doing hard things.

02:34In the first phase of lunar colonization, our explorers proved it can be done, that

02:39a new world can be reached.

02:41This phase started 60 years ago with the Apollo missions.

02:45Since then, satellites like the American Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter have mapped the moon,

02:49while rovers like the Chinese Yutu have studied the composition of the lunar surface, looking

02:53for water ice and metals.

02:56Phase one is more or less complete.

02:58We know what we need to know to enter phase two.

03:01In the second phase, astronauts will build the first moon base, and this could begin

03:06today.

03:08The first small moon base could be completed in a decade.

03:11The first nation that establishes this base will be akin to the first nations building

03:16outposts in the new world 500 years ago.

03:20It's expensive to send rockets to the moon, so we will send as little as possible.

03:25The base will be light, little more than inflatable habitats for crews of no more than 12, and

03:30will be deployed somewhere with natural shelter.

03:33Options include caves, like underground lava tube tunnels, or craters near the poles, where

03:38the days are six months long.

03:41These astronauts will not stay long.

03:43The habitat is likely to be abandoned between missions, as solar panels cannot generate

03:48electricity during the lunar night.

03:50But they'll do the groundwork to enable humans to stay permanently.

03:55Our first crew will consist of scientists and engineers who will study the composition

03:59of the moon, and whose experiments will explore ways of using the available lunar material,

04:04say purifying lunar ice and turning it into water for human use.

04:09And water is important for far more than drinking.

04:12They can use it to experiment with growing plants for food.

04:16Hydrogen fuel cells will store power through the long night, extending astronauts' stays.

04:21And most importantly, it can be split into hydrogen and oxygen.

04:25Rocket fuel.

04:28By harvesting water from the moon and putting it into orbit, the moon base will supply an

04:33orbital depot, where scientific missions to Mars and the outer solar system can refuel.

04:39Compared to the Earth, it's much easier and cheaper to get things off the moon into orbit.

04:45Colonizing Mars may mean starting from the moon.

04:49But this isn't a true colony.

04:51Not yet.

04:53The base will be abandoned if funding stops.

04:56If we want our base to grow into the third phase, into a true colony, it must become

05:00self-sufficient, supporting itself via exports to Earth.

05:06Now, private contractors arrive, looking to get rich off lunar resources and support services.

05:12If it's cheaper to produce rocket fuel in space, what else can they get rich on?

05:17They could extract precious metals, abundant in impact craters, and other raw materials

05:22from the lunar regolith.

05:24One promising possibility is the mining of Helium-3, an isotope that could one day be

05:29used in nuclear fusion reactors, something the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program is currently

05:34looking into.

05:36Future colonists may export Helium-3 back to Earth, providing us with cheap and clean

05:41fusion energy.

05:43Asteroids could be pulled into the moon's orbit and mined.

05:47With commercial exports to Earth, the colony is fully in its third phase, self-sufficient

05:52and economically productive.

05:55Our base will begin using lunar material in its construction projects if it's to continue growing.

06:00Fortunately, lunar soil has all the necessary ingredients to make concrete.

06:05Robotic mining rigs can sift the lunar dust for organic molecules and could be used to

06:10build huge structures way too massive to be brought from Earth, while advances in 3D printing

06:16will make it possible to produce almost everything else the crews need.

06:22It's hard to say when exactly the colony becomes self-sustaining.

06:27Growth is gradual, experiments are replaced by industry, and the population steadily reaches

06:32the hundreds, encompassing more than just scientists.

06:35Engineers, pilots, and contractors representing countries and corporations will be present.

06:42Two of these people will make a breakthrough, not scientific, but social.

06:47They will have the first extraterrestrial child.

06:51Throughout history, the birth of the first child was celebrated as a moment where the

06:55seed of a colony finally and irreversibly took root.

06:59Here, it means that the Moon is not just a place for scientists and engineers to work,

07:03it's a place for people to live, to raise a family.

07:08Once this transition happens, the colony grows rapidly, building more habitats and schools

07:13and farms and all the things needed to support the growing population.

07:17As our colony grows, all kinds of new technologies will be invented to sustain it.

07:23They might develop crops that efficiently recycle carbon dioxide or that grow with very

07:27little water.

07:29They might find ways to recycle and reuse 100% of their waste, technologies that are

07:34extremely valuable for Earth.

07:37They could even build the first space elevator in the solar system.

07:41With a space elevator, spacecraft, astronauts, and raw materials could be brought back and

07:46forth from lunar orbit without needing to use rockets at all.

07:50The Moon may become a hub for economic activity on a scale that's hard to imagine right now.

07:57It's hard to say who will own the colony at this point.

08:00Will the first person born on the Moon take the national identity of their parents, or

08:05will a new generation melt together into a new lunar society?

08:10And when existing treaties that bar any nation from owning the Moon are inevitably rewritten,

08:15will the colonists be given a say?

08:19Will they declare independence from the Earth?

08:23However it happens, the Moon is a perfect sandbox to learn how to colonize the solar

08:27system, the perfect project to unify nations, and the only way to guarantee our survival

08:33as a species should something tragic happen on Earth.

08:37If we ever want to colonize the Milky Way, we'll have to start somewhere.

08:42So why not start there?

08:44Why not start now?

How We Could Build a Moon Base TODAY – Space Colonization 1

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