If you think your commute is bad now…
The lunar night is 14 days long. During this time you don’t get any sunlight for generating solar power. If you want a permanent base in the moon you need a continuous power source. Oh and also to power that mass driver they’re going to use to threaten the entire world with destruction.
A lot of people believe we can, yes. However there are a few technologies that still need to be developed, such as a reliable power source that can work during a long lunar night
- solar won’t work, because night is too long
- RTGs can’t scale up enough to power a base
- Fission reactors as we have them so far generally rely on a liquid coolant and a lot of maintenance attention
- Even assuming we’ll be able to mine ice, it’s not something we can rely on to power a base, and we haven’t yet figured out how
So, if we can develop a small fission reactor that never needs any attention, can work in lower gravity, no atmosphere, huge range of temperatures , and doesn’t have anything that can leak, boil, or freeze, that would be perfect
My personal favourite is orbital solar. With no atmosphere, it should be doable. But of course it’s just as hypothetical as all the other options at this point.
