A NEW MOON

A New Moon: Analyzing the Past to Predict the Future

Benjamin D Alkire, Ross P Batchelder, and Brian A Coventry Stark State College of Technology

A NEW MOON Humans have a tendency to explore the unknown, whether it be unknown concepts, or unknown lands. This curiosity can be seen in mans exploration of early America and of the moon. Similarities can be drawn between the timeline of the colonization of America and the

future colonization of the moon. Our task will be to look at the difficulties of colonizing the New World and to compare them with the challenges of building a human colony on the moon. Through this research, we will analyze the similarities and differences between these two endeavors and draw an estimation for the year that the moon will be colonized. The similarities between the Age of Exploration, generally considered to be from the early 15th century to the early 17th century, and the Space Age, 1957 to now, will allow us to analyze the past to predict the future. Both of these eras started with a large population deflation followed by the population increasing to a larger figure. The Black Plague, ending around the 14th century, killed a large portion of Europes population. This led to economic changes and the emergence of capitalism and the rise of nation-states in Europe. These changes expanded markets for the new capitalistic middle-class, thus creating a need to find more goods and products (Europe). The significant changes in Europe also caused important technological improvements in navigation and shipbuilding. These changes made it possible for mariners to not only explore their destinations more accurately, but to embark with enough supplies to last the voyage. The compass was one of the instruments that allowed for safer travel. While it was used before the 15th century, it was not accurate in determining direction, especially on a ship that was constantly swaying with the unstable ocean. Exploration was very much focused on showing the strength of the newly formed monarchies, which in turn caused tension among the countries funding the explorers. Two of the

A NEW MOON dominant exploring nations that emerged were England and Spain. Due to Englands separation

from the Catholic Church, religious tension had already existed with Catholic Spain. This tension grew during the Age of Exploration with a fierce struggle to discover and control new wealth in these untapped lands (Europe). In order to analyze the relationship between the challenges in the New World colonist and what we will think will be similar challenges on the moon; we should take a look at an early English colony, Jamestown. In the early 1600s, The Virgina Company of London sponsored a crew to develop a colony in the New World to make a profit. English settlers chose the location of Jamestown based on the following factors: defense from the other European nations and Native Americans, the fertility of the land, and the accessibility by ship. These early settlers had many problems to overcome after the picked the spot on a tributary in the Chesapeake Bay. The most important being food; most of the settlers were not farmers, thus making it difficult to farm during the drought that occurred in the early 1600s. They were not aware of the harsh winters that occurred in the Americas, so they were not able to prepare enough crops to last the winter; the poor trade with the Native Americans, and the lack of supplies from the motherland caused for a food shortage in Jamestown (Jamestown). This factor, among many others, cause for the first major colony to fail. By analyzing the past and seeing that these time periods are similar, we will be able to predict the future. In relation to the Age of Exploration, the Space Age encountered similar a population deflation as America faced the epidemic of the Great Depression and also took part in World War II. During the 1930s, unemployment soared as the stock market crashed, bringing along the decline of birth rates. Birth rates dropped as families adjusted their focus onto their finances rather than expanding their family. With little time to recover, the population took

A NEW MOON

another hit when the United States opted to fight in World War II. Joining the allies in 1941, over sixteen million American soldiers were involved in this war through 1946 (Numbers). While the soldiers were deployed overseas and around the country, wives and families were left to fend for themselves without their fathers. By the end of World War II, the generation known as the baby boomers began. Men returned to their families after long their terms, sending birth rates to record highs for the U.S. After the Russian launch of Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, in late 1957, America rushed into its own space research. By January 1958 the United States launched Explorer 1 into the atmosphere, marking the beginning of our Space Age. Space and aeronautic technology became a major focus when the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) was created in July 1958 and began operation in early October. NASA was created to advance flight technology and to develop major space missions that dealt with human spaceflight and satellite launches (Launius). Equipment like the bio-reactor, infrared camera, and video stabilization software were all created by NASA to further benefit space missions. With the development of many technologies, the United States has been able to increase our knowledge of space and aeronautics, in turn also furthering our ability to travel space and possibly inhabit the moon. This new technological tension between Russia and the United States was dubbed The Space Race. This race consisted of a back-and-forth battle between the United States and Russia where one country would make an advance, and the other country would quickly follow. Ironically, even though Russia was actively creating new satellites, they were slow to admit that they were even competing in such a race. By 1969, however, the U.S. was the first country to land men on the moon, claiming unofficial victory over the Russians. Although the Space Race did continue years after 1969, the major goal of landing men on the moon had already been

A NEW MOON

accomplished. This new phase of the race did not have as clear of a goal and primarily dealt with the development of new technology. Since the moon is essentially a new land, just as America was, the challenges facing future explorers will be similar, but at the same time, very different. The obvious problem with colonizing the moon is the fact that it is 250,000 miles away. This is much farther than the 4,500 miles from America to Europe and means that only limited resources can actually be taken to the moon. With this in mind, new challenges arise when man decides to colonize the moon. The central challenge in travelling to the moon is the sheer cost of transporting things there. Every pound transported to the moon costs $50,000 dollars. This means that a gallon of water at eight pounds costs $400,000 dollars to transport to the moon (Brain). Although money is not strictly a limiting factor, the fact that transportation costs so much means that the engineers will have to be clever in their resource management. Once money is out of the way, the first and foremost challenge to human survival on the moon is air. We often forget that although earth is spacious, it is actually filled with air. Humans use this air, along with the pressure it provides to us, to go about our normal activities. We use oxygen at all times of every day to carry out bodily processes and we need the atmosphere to press on our bodies to keep them from expanding. On the moon, we will not have this luxury. Space is a vacuum and the moons gravity is not strong enough to hold the air close to the surface. This means that the moon colony will have to be a pressurized system where the air is constantly recycled to turn carbon dioxide back into oxygen. Fortunately for our future travelers, scientists have already figured this problem out. They have been able to create pressurized structures and they have developed ways to convert carbon dioxide back into oxygen with the help of a little sunlight. For the colonization of the moon, air will not be a major problem.

A NEW MOON The first significant problems will be water. Humans can only live about three days

without water, so clearly we will have to have water on the moon. The obvious choice for getting water to the moon would just be to fly it up in the rocket that takes the people, but water takes $400,000 per gallon to transport to the moon, thus, not making for an economical choice. There are essentially two different ways that water could be acquired on the moon. The first way would be to travel to the poles of the moon and harvest water from the ice stored in craters. Flybys of the moon indicate that there are between 50 million and 300 million tons of water just waiting to be melted and used by the space crew (lunar2). The other option for water would be to transport liquid hydrogen to the moon and react it with oxygen extracted from the soil. Not only does this process create water, but the reaction would also provide energy to power the station similar to hydrogen cars (Brain). The last of the basic human challenges in travelling to the moon is the need for food. An astronaut in space requires 435 pounds of dehydrated food per year to survive (Brain). If we use the $50,000 per pound figure here, we see that this much food would cost $22,000,000 per person per year. Although one might think that the moon inhabitants should just grow their own food like the colonists did, there is a problem with that: the moon soil is not fertile. This means that in order to grow plants on the moon, soil would have to be transported there and kept in greenhouses. What makes this a good option is that once we get the nutrients in the soil to the moon, they are essentially there for good. The reason for this is that the human waste can be turned back into soil which can be used to grow more food in a never ending cycle powered by the sun (Brain). This cycle could even create enough oxygen to provide for the humans if the greenhouses become large enough.

A NEW MOON With all the challenges of traveling to the moon, one might ask the question: Why

should we even go there? There are actually several reasons to go there however. One reason to create a colony on the moon would be to promote global cooperation. A colony on the moon would most likely be composed of several nations, and just like the international space station, those countries would have to work together to accomplish a common goal. Another reason to go to the moon would be to extract the precious Helium - 3 gas from the soil. Helium - 3 is a very rare form of helium and its reserves on earth are quickly running out. This shortage has caused its price to jump from $150 per liter to $5,000 per liter (Oullette, 2011). What makes Helium - 3 special though is that it could have a future in nuclear fusion, which could lead to a nearly abundant energy supply for earth. If the Helium - 3 can be extracted from the moon, there is a good chance that it would pay for the moon trips themselves. Lastly, since there is no atmosphere on the moon to absorb the sunlight, solar power is eight times more effective on the moon than it is on earth (Taylor, 2000). If a colony could be created there, sunlight could be turned into electricity which could then be beamed back to earth through microwaves. This process would also help to finance any attempt to create a colony on the moon. The question we finally arrive at is this: When will we colonize the moon? It took people around 100 years to establish a permanent settlement in America, so we must now try to see how the moon relates to that. Creating a colony on the moon is clearly harder than creating a colony in America. This can easily be seen because on the moon, any person who leaves the pressurized environment of the colony would be instantly killed. Even though the challenges are harder, technology has significantly improved since the time of the Age of Exploration. Technology is rapidly improving; this means that even though moon colonization is currently not plausible, it may be possible very soon. We feel that the new challenges of moon colonization

A NEW MOON are equally matched by our increasing technology, so therefore humans should expect to see a colony on the moon by the year 2069, exactly 100 years after the first moon landing. While this year may seem soon to us, we must remember that in 1911, the general population would have thought that a trip to the moon in 1969 would be impossible. People are already living in space, so with 58 years of technological improvements, it is plausible to see the International Space Station branched out to include the moon. When we do finally colonize the moon, it will not be an easy task. The trip to the moon will mean that we have found a more efficient way to take things to space. At the current time, the trip would just cost too much money. For a successful moon colony, this cost to fly will either have to be greatly reduced, or there will have to be significant improvements to the way astronauts intend to live. When the moon colonies are finally attempted, there is a good chance that the first few attempts will fail. We assume this because the first few attempts to colonize America failed, and if the moon colonization is going to follow that model, it would be reasonable to assume that they will not get it right on the first try. However, when that first colony does stabilize, it will be a great day for the planet earth. Not only will we have created a

home away from home, but will we have arrived at one of the greatest resources ever to be found by man. And it was in plain sight the whole time.

A NEW MOON References Brain, M. (n.d.). HowStuffWorks "What if we lived on the moon?". HowStuffWorks "Science". Retrieved November 14, 2011, from http://science.howstuffworks.com/what-if-moon-colony.htm Europe and the Impulse for Exploration. (n.d.). AP* Study Notes - Free AP Notes. Retrieved November 14, 2011, from http://www.apstudynotes.org/us-history/topics/europe-and-the-impulse-for-exploration/ Jamestown - Why There?. (n.d.). Geography of Virginia. Retrieved November 14, 2011, from http://www.virginiaplaces.org/vacities/7jamestown.html lunar2. (n.d.). Lunar Prospector. Retrieved November 14, 2011, from http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/results/ice/eureka.htm

Oulette, J. (2011, February 21). This Moon was Made for Mining (Helium-3) : Discovery News. Discovery News: Earth, Space, Tech, Animals, History, Adventure, Human, Autos. Retrieved November 14, 2011, from http://news.discovery.com/space/this-moon-was-made-for-mining-helium-3.html Taylor, J. (2000, November 21). PSRD Hot Idea: Mining the Moon, Mars, Asteriods . Planetary Science Research Discoveries | PSRD. Retrieved November 14, 2011, from http://www.psrd.hawaii.edu/Nov00/mining.html TheSpaceRace.com - Timeline of Space Exploration. (n.d.).TheSpaceRace.com. Retrieved November 14, 2011, from http://www.thespacerace.com/timeline Launius, R. D. (n.d.). Sputnik and the Origins of the Space Age. History Home. Retrieved November 14, 2011, from http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/sputori Numbers, t. (n.d.). The Great Depression Statistics. Shmoop: Homework Help, Teacher

A NEW MOON Resources, Test Prep. Retrieved November 14, 2011, from http://www.shmoop.com/great-depression/statistics.html

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