Without the use of lunar resources, long‐term human exploration of planetary bodies will be cost prohibitive and inefficient. The lunar ice found in permanently shadowed regions of the lunar poles can clearly support life. More importantly it can create rocket fuel, allowing for larger volumes of fuel to be used during flight, thus potentially expanding the boundaries of human space exploration. Regolith can be used for building surface structures, shielding lunar infrastructure, allowing areas to be surveyed so important compounds can be extracted for creating tools and technologies used in interplanetary operations. Furthermore, sunlight can power lunar operations in support of interplanetary exploration by extracting compounds from regolith and powering rovers in permanently shadowed regions of the lunar poles. Utilizing these in situ resources will not only allow for effective and safe exploration of planetary bodies, but also enable humans to learn to live off‐Earth, progressing humanity into becoming an interplanetary species. Although the cost to create and manufacture the infrastructure needed for this resource utilization is high, the consequent savings via the use of these technologies will benefit the global population long term. However, the use of lunar resources is limited by the lack of a thorough knowledge of the lunar surface and current space law potentially restricting efforts to leverage these resources for use.
Lunar Resources in Support of Human Interplanetary Settlement and Limitations
In‐Space Manufacturing and Resources ; 223-234
2022-10-03
12 pages
Article/Chapter (Book)
Electronic Resource
English
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