After the end of NASA's Apollo program, the Moon was, so to speak, “forgotten” for several decades. Space agencies no longer tried to send people to the surface of the Earth's natural satellite, and for a long time they did not even send unmanned landing modules to it. However, in the last decade, the situation has changed, and now we are witnessing the second wave of the lunar race. Of course, landing people on the Moon is not expected in the near future, but scientists are already working on ambitious lunar projects. One of them is the installation of “street lighting” on the surface of the satellite.
Jeff Bezos' company is working on a project to install “street lighting” on the Moon. Photo source: daily.afisha.ru
Why are there “lighthouses” with spotlights on the Moon
The Moon will most likely become the first construction zone of humanity outside of Earth in the near future. The main goal of such construction is to create permanent human settlements. This does not mean that people will be able to live on the surface of the satellite as they do on Earth, but at least they will be there permanently, like, for example, on the ISS. Let us recall that the first project for the construction of a habitable base appeared in the USSR during the first lunar race, but it was not destined to come true. Perhaps in the future it will still be possible to implement such a project.
But before the first astronauts can stay on the Moon, a certain infrastructure needs to be prepared. The main problem is the long and frosty lunar nights, which last for two Earth weeks. Many landing modules that rely on solar energy have not been able to survive these nights. For example, the Indian Chandrayaan-3 was unable to “wake up” after a lunar night. But lunar nights will pose an even greater danger to human explorers.
Landing modules rarely “survive” the lunar night. Photo source: lookintothe.space
To solve this problem, Honeybee Robotics (part of Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin) is working on a project to install huge solar-powered “street beacons” on the Moon. It may seem like another crazy, impossible idea, but the Lunar Utility Navigation with Advanced Remote Sensing and Autonomous Beaming for Energy Redistribution, or LUNARSABER, project is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as DARPA. Scientists say the project will kickstart a new era of lunar exploration.
What will the lunar lanterns be like?
As Honeybee Robotics itself reports, each LUNARSABER lantern will be much taller than the lanterns that are installed on the streets along the roads. According to the project, their height will be about 100 meters, that is, they are taller than the Statue of Liberty, which is only 93 meters high, and taller than the Trinity Tower of the Kremlin, which is 80 meters high.
The purpose of the massive light sources is to accumulate solar energy during the lunar day. Then, when the lunar night comes, they will illuminate the surrounding area with powerful spotlights.
Why do we need such tall towers? The higher the spotlights are, the more territory they will be able to illuminate. But that is not the only reason. Researchers want to use the towers to install scientific equipment, such as communication devices, cameras for observing craters, etc.
If scientists manage to install several towers in different parts of the Moon, LUNARSABER will become the first lunar energy grid, as well as the first “street” lunar lighting.
It is also reported that the towers will serve as charging stations for lunar rovers. For this purpose, power adapters will be provided at their base. It will also be possible to recharge other lunar infrastructure from the towers. Accordingly, they will solve the problem mentioned above – the landing modules will be able to work on the Moon much longer than one lunar day. Accordingly, scientists will be able to conduct much more research on the surface of the Moon, since they will not be limited to one lunar daylight.
LUNARSABER towers will be 100 meters high. Photo source: livescience.com
How giant towers will be installed on the Moon
Installing 100-meter towers on the Moon along with scientific equipment is not an easy task. However, Honeybee engineers have already figured out how to solve it – they will create an automated system with which each LUNARSABER tower will be able to rise from its own base, like a collapsible tourist cup. Therefore, the spacecraft will only need to deliver the base to the Moon, inside which the self-deployment system is “packed”. Of course, the project is still in the early stages of development. However, it was selected by DARPA as one of a dozen that will be worked on over the next 10 years as part of a larger DARPA project – “LunA-10”. Most likely, in the coming decades we will indeed see a new era of lunar exploration, if, of course, scientists manage to implement projects like LUNARSABER.
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Finally, we note that Chinese scientists have meanwhile solved the problem of protecting people on the Moon from solar radiation. They propose building bases in giant lunar caves. They will serve as a natural shelter, which will greatly simplify the task of arranging lunar bases.