Should we build a village on the Moon?

Professor Johann-Dietrich Woerner has been in
his new job as Director General of the European
Space Agency (Esa) for a week. In charge of a
€4.4 billion annual budget, the former Chair of the
German space agency is ultimately responsible
for everything at Esa. Europe’s new observation,
weather, communication and navigation satellites;
astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS)
; missions to Mars, Mercury and Jupiter; and a
sleepy lander on a duck-shaped comet all
come under his remit.
When I ask him about his intentions for Esa, I
expect a predictable and politically nuanced
answer about the economic and social benefits of
space or maybe the importance for science of
exploring the unknown Universe. Instead,
Woerner surprises me with a vision for a future
of space exploration that is both ambitious and
audacious.
“We should look to the future beyond the
International Space Station,” he tells me. “We
should look for a smaller spacecraft in low-Earth
orbit for microgravity research and I propose a
Moon village on the far side of the Moon.”
Yes, a village on the Moon.
A Moon village shouldn’t just mean some
houses, a church and a town hall – Johann-
Dietrich Woerner
Just the sort of daring vision that took Nasa from
a standing start to the Moon in the 1960s, but
today – possibly constrained by its political
masters – the US space agency appears to be
lacking ambition.
“A Moon village shouldn’t just mean some
houses, a church and a town hall,” says
Woerner. “This Moon village should mean
partners from all over the world contributing to
this community with robotic and astronaut
missions and support communication satellites.”
3D printer
There are good reasons, he says, for going back
to the Moon for science as well as using it a
stepping-stone to further human exploration of
the Solar System.
“The far side of the Moon is very interesting
because we could have telescopes looking deep
into the Universe, we could do lunar science on
the Moon and the international aspect is very
special,” he explains. “The Americans are looking
to go to Mars very soon – and I don’t see how
we can do that – before going to Mars we should
test what we could do on Mars on the Moon.”
For example, Woerner suggests, the technology
being investigated by Nasa to construct a Mars
base using a giant 3D printer would be better
tried out on the Moon first. Learning to live on an
alien world is going to be tough – but the
challenge would be a lot easier, particularly in an
emergency, if the extraterrestrial community is
only four days away from Earth rather than six
months.
Woerner envisages his Moon village as a
multinational settlement involving astronauts,
Russian cosmonauts and maybe even Chinese
taikonauts. This would considerably extend the
relatively limited number of nations involved in
the ISS.
“We should have international cooperation,
without any limitations, with any countries of the
world,” says Woerner. “We have enough Earthly
problems between different nations – space can
bridge these Earthly problems and the Moon
seems to be to be a good proposal.
Experience shows that there is no wall
between exploration and practical
applications
“Isolating a country is not the right way, a much
better solution is to find ways to cooperate in
space to strengthen ties between humans on
Earth,” he adds, in what could be taken as a veiled
criticism of America’s refusal to engage with the
Chinese space programme. “If you think about an
alien visiting the Earth and seeing what we are
doing here, I’m not sure whether they would
land.”
Moon in vogue?
Woerner has a robust response for those who
criticise money spent on space exploration and
astronomical research.
“Experience shows that there is no wall between
exploration and practical applications,” he says.
“Look at the greenhouse effect – everyone knows
what it is and we use satellites to investigate it –
but this was not discovered on Earth, it was
discovered by an exploration mission to Venus.”
Right now the Moon village idea is just that; an
idea, a proposal. No nation or agency has
committed any money or mapped out the
concept in any detail.
There is, however, growing interest in returning
to the Moon. When, for instance, BBC Future
recently asked experts to predict the next
decade of space exploration they all cited the
Moon as a destination of choice.
Woerner says he is voicing the idea of a Moon
village to encourage discussion about the future
of space research, exploration and the
applications of space technology. “I will be very
happy if someone else has a better idea,” he tells
me.
Nevertheless, as one of the world’s most senior
and powerful space figures, Woerner’s proposal
will be taken seriously. Nasa is still vague about
where it plans to fly its new Orion spacecraft –
fitted incidentally with an Esa service module –
and the Moon would seem to be a suitably
inspirational destination.
“In our genes there is something beyond just
practical applications,” Woerner says. “We like to
discover, to pioneer – this is humankind and this
is what brings us into the future.”