Next time NASA goes to the moon, it plans to stay. Under the Artemis program, the US space agency plans to support human presence on a celestial body other than Earth for the first time. But building a moon base is no small feat. It will need power generators, vehicles and habitats, and the space industry is in a rush to tackle the technological challenges.

“This is the Super Bowl of engineering,” Neil Davis, chief systems engineer for the Dynetics space company Lunar Rover, told AFP.

At the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs last month, Dynetics showcased the lunar rover design prototype. However, NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free said, “This probably won’t happen until the 7th and subsequent Artemis missions, where we’ll start adding permanent surface habitats.”

The first planned landing, Artemis 3, won’t happen until this decade, so habitat construction won’t begin until the 2030s. He added that the base will likely consist of multiple locations to diversify research objectives and offer more flexibility for landing.

Energy and communication

Despite this long term, companies are already moving forward step by step.

“Zero step is communication,” Joe Landon, CEO of Crescent Space, Lockheed Martin’s new moon services subsidiary, told AFP.

“When you move into a new flat, think about having to connect the phone and the internet first.”

Starting with a pair of satellites, the company wants to be a monthly internet and GPS provider. This will reduce the load on NASA’s deep space network, which risks overheating before all future missions, including private ones.

Landon estimates the monthly market will be worth “$100 billion over the next 10 years.” With 220 employees, Astrobotic is one of three companies selected by NASA to develop solar panels. They need to be placed vertically because at the moon’s south pole—the intended destination as there is water in the form of ice—the Sun is barely visible above the horizon. The company’s director of lunar surface systems, Mike Provenzano, said Astrobotic’s nearly 60 feet (18 meters) high panels will be connected by cables several miles (kilometers) long.

Solar panels will be mounted on vehicles that can launch them in various locations.

Vehicles

NASA has commissioned the industry for scientific expeditions to develop an unpressurized, open-top, two-person rover that will be ready by 2028. Unlike the Apollo rovers, it will also need to operate autonomously for astronaut-free voyages. This means withstanding cold lunar nights that can last for two weeks, when temperatures drop to around -280 degrees Fahrenheit (-170 degrees Celsius).

Many companies started.

Lockheed Martin is collaborating with General Motors, drawing on the auto giant’s experience in electric vehicles and SUVs. Dynetics, a subsidiary of engineering giant Leidos, has joined forces with Nascar.

Its prototype, which will reach a top speed of nine miles per hour (15 kilometers per hour), includes a robot arm and metal wheels woven like textiles to maximize grip on sandy surface and overcome rocks it bumps into.

“But at the same time, they actually have a lot of openings to the outside, so they don’t collect that sand and carry it with us,” Davis said.

Lunar dust or regolith poses a serious problem because it is not corroded by water or wind, it is almost as abrasive as glass. NASA has not yet announced the selected company or companies. In the long run, NASA is working with Japanese space agency JAXA on a closed vehicle that won’t require astronauts to wear suits.

habitats

Finally, the crew will need a place to hang their helmets and call home. NASA has signed a $57.2 million contract with Texas-based 3D printing company Icon to develop the technology needed to build roads, landing strips and ultimately housing on the moon. The idea is to use lunar soil as material. Other companies, such as Lockheed Martin, are developing inflatable living space concepts.

“The great thing is you can put it on the moon and inflate it and now there’s a much larger volume for the crew to live and work in,” Kirk Shireman, Lockheed Martin’s vice president of lunar exploration campaign, told AFP.

Inside, bedrooms, kitchen, space for scientific instruments, etc. and they will all be mounted on a frame so that the living space will be portable. The main concept behind the Artemis-led lunar return is to help NASA prepare for missions much further to Mars.

“No matter how much money we spend developing these systems on the Moon, we want the same systems to be applicable to Mars,” Shearman said.