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Moon Exploration: Manned Missions & Moon Bases

RTGs have been launched into space for decades. One was on a rocket that blew up. It not only survived, it was recovered, refurbished, and put into another probe. Nuclear fuel doesn't go boom without a lot of complicated engineering.
It is also the only practical source of power in space in places where the sun don't shine all the time.
 
A joint Japanese-Arab commercial moon adventure was to put a moon lander on the surface today .

Launched last December 11, the moon lander approached the moon surface never to be heard from again.

What happened ?
 
A project which wouldn't go off the rails.

A maglev system on the moon could make lunar logistics a breeze


Artist's depiction of a FLOAT system being deployed. Credit: Schaler et al.

Maglevs are one of those technologies that still look like magic, even years after they were initially rolled out.

While they have long been a workhorse of the transportation systems of some major cities, they don't often impact the day-to-day lives of people who don't use them to commute. But, they might be invaluable in another setting—lunar exploration. There's an ongoing debate about the best way to shuttle stuff around on the moon's surface, and a team from JPL and a company called SRI International think they have a solution—deploy a maglev track on the moon.

The project, known as the Flexible Levitation on a Track (FLOAT) system, is simple in concept. It is based on a concept developed at SRI that showcases the ability to float small robots over a platform and precisely control their movements using a form of magnetic levitation. Scale-wise, as seen in the video below, the technology so far is still small. However, the FLOAT team received a NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) grant to research how scaling up the technology would work on the moon.

Arguably the most crucial part of the technology is the track. It consists of two necessary and a third optional layer. The base layer is graphite, allowing robots to use a force called diamagnetic levitation to float above the track. A second layer is a series of circuits that control the magnetic fields around the track, allowing users to push or stop carts that are moving along it. The optional third layer is a series of solar panels that can collect solar energy while daylight is on that side of the moon.

An important point is that the carts don't have to have any brains themselves. The power and control for the carts both come from the track itself—there are no batteries, logic, or anything else on the carts themselves. That lessens the actual cart's weight, allowing it to have more carrying capacity.

https://phys.org/news/2023-08-maglev-moon-lunar-logistics-breeze.html
 
Would it be manufactured on Earth, or made on the Moon using local resources? The latter should be practical relatively soon, mining ore and 3d printing it there. But micrometeroites might wreck it, or cover it with Moon dust, which is rather clingy and can be nasty.
 
It depends on what India does next. They might delay indefinitely further development of moon exploration.
There's a lot of international recognition that goes with such a feat - technically, very few have achieved this. It demonstrates a high technical level and thus acts as evidence in support of trade deals, information exchange and so on.
 
Delay in return to the Moon

Artemis: Nasa delays crewed return to the Moon's surface
Published
9 hours ago

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Artemis
Orion journey
IMAGE SOURCE,NASA
Image caption,
Artemis I in 2022 demonstrated the rocket and capsule to get astronauts to the vicinity of the Moon
Jonathan Amos, Science correspondent
By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent
@BBCAmos
US space agency astronauts won't get to walk on the Moon again until September 2026 at the earliest.

It represents a slip of a year in the previously targeted date for the return of humans to the lunar surface that was last achieved in 1972.

Nasa says the delay to what's known as its Artemis III mission will enable further technology development.

Fundamentally, the agency still doesn't have a craft to put astronauts on the Moon or spacesuits they can wear.

Announcing the delay, agency administrator Bill Nelson said safety drove all timing considerations. "We won't fly until we're ready," he told reporters.
Click to expand...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-67928687
 
A nuclear reactor on the Moon.

What's the most important thing you need to live and work on the Moon? Power. For NASA's upcoming Artemis program, getting power to lunar bases is a top priority.

That's why the agency created its Fission Surface Power Project. The idea is to develop concepts for a small nuclear fission reactor to generate electricity on the lunar surface. The project just finished its initial phase (which began in 2022), which consisted of three $5 million contracts to commercial partners to develop fission reactor designs. NASA selected Lockheed Martin in Bethesda, MD, Westinghouse of Cranberry, PA, and IX of Houston, TX each for a 12-month Phase 1 award to further develop preliminary designs.

Each partner was tasked to offer a design of the reactor and systems for power conversion, heat rejection, and power management and distribution. Of course, the partners needed to provide estimated costs for their systems and development plans. The ultimate goal was to create a system that could support lunar bases for a decade. The designs would also serve as pathways to plan and build similar systems on Mars.

Power systems spell the difference between success and failure in any mission. For the Moon and Mars, it's the difference between life and death. Nuclear power is the most likely route to service long-term power needs.

"A demonstration of a nuclear power source on the Moon is required to show that it is a safe, clean, reliable option," said Trudy Kortes, program director, Technology Demonstration Missions within NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

"The lunar night is challenging from a technical perspective, so having a source of power such as this nuclear reactor, which operates independent of the Sun, is an enabling option for long-term exploration and science efforts on the Moon." ...

https://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-plan-to-put-a-nuclear-reactor-on-the-moon-edges-closer-to-reality
 
It's long been posited that a 'mini' reactor, such as you get on submarines, is a working and proven technology. It's just getting the kit up there.
 
NASA is working with 36 other countries to establish a standard moon time called coordinated lunar time.

NASA claims this is a must for anyone who would stay on the moon any length of moon stay.

The moon has to have its own time.
 
Don’t laugh !

NASA did consider Daylight Savings Time for the moon.

Because of less mass and gravity, the time on the moon ticks 58.2 milliseconds faster.

One moon day equals 29.5 earth days.

Having a constant time on the moon will take some thought.
 
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