Space colonies

Blogs about colonies in space: on planets, moons, in orbit.

Artist's concept of the Moon base (Image NASA)

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Yesterday, NASA held its Ignition event, featuring a series of announcements regarding its space program. Announcements were expected from new Administrator Jared Isaacman and other agency managers in connection with the Artemis program, to clarify the agency’s intentions regarding the return of astronauts to the Moon. From this perspective, the intention that was announced is to accelerate the pace of missions, also in order to build a permanent base on the Moon. In this new vision, the Lunar Gateway project might be abandoned, although officially, it remains relevant in the long term.

The program for missions to Mars was also part of the event. In this case, the Space Reactor-1 Freedom (SR-1 Freedom) mission was introduced, to be conducted using a spacecraft that will use nuclear electric propulsion, scheduled for launch in December 2028. A fleet of Skyfall helicopters is programmed to be on board, intended to continue exploration of the red planet.

The Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft during its descent (Image NASA TV)

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A few hours ago, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft concluded its Crew-6, or SpaceX Crew-6, mission for NASA by landing without problems. On board were astronauts Sultan Alneyadi, Woody Hoburg, and Stephen Bowen and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, who had reached the International Space Station on March 3, 2023, and were part of Expedition 68/69. The four of them finished the sixth regular crewed mission of SpaceX in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast east of Jacksonville, Florida. The Crew Dragon departed the Station about seventeen hours earlier.

A lunar pit in the Mare Tranquillitatis on the Moon

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An article published in the journal “Geophysical Research Letters” reports a study on some lunar pits where temperatures are stable at around 17° Celsius (about 290 Kelvin). A team of researchers led by UCLA’s Tyler Horvath used detections conducted with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) space probe’s Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment, or simply Diviner, instrument and computer simulations to assess the conditions that exist in particular in lunar pits. The discoveries are interesting in the search for the best places on the Moon to build human habitats.

Artist's concept of a spaceship near Jupiter (Image courtesy SpaceX. All rights reserved)

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Yesterday at the International Astronautical Congress just started in Guadalajara, Mexico, SpaceX founder Elon Musk explained his plans for manned interplanetary space missions that could also transport colonists. Despite recent problems caused by the explosion of one of his rockets his ambitions haven’t been affected, on the contrary he showed the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS) project to transport human beings around the solar system.

Journey To Mars (Image NASA)

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NASA announced Journey to Mars, a challenge in which the public was invited to submit ideas to develop the elements needed to establish a permanent presence of humans on the planet Mars. There are the basic elements to sustain human life, meaning shelter, food, water, breathable air but also communications, exercise, social interaction, and medicine. Other elements can be considered as well because a true colony must be able to go beyond basic needs to thrive.