Space colonies

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

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.