Let’s move on with my know-how gained at me convention 2019 in Frankfurt during Frankfurt Motor Show. This draft has been sitting unpublished way too long, undoubtly. After Frank Ahearn, the second speech of the day I attended was called “Return to the moon: answering the lunar allure”. A talk between British science-fiction novelist Ian McDonald and Glenn Zorpette, executive editor of IEEE Spectrum magazine.

The race to space

Currently, the race to space is on. NASA, the us-American space agency, is spending billions of dollars for their Artemis mission, which is aimed to return humans to the moon by 2024. But also the EU and Russia, with their space agencies ESA and Roscosmos, spend large amounts of funds to return to the moon as well. Not only national backed space agencies plan to return humans to space, but also billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, with their companies SpaceX and Blue Origin, have definite plans. Elon Musk wants to establish human colonies on Mars, whilst Jeff Bezos intends to shift air polluting industries to the surface of the moon, to transfer the emissions from earth to the moon. If that’s such a good idea, it‘s definitely doubtful. As, sure, you can temporarily move the pollution, but it‘s still no solution for a permanent loss of any pollution.

But, all those nations and companies aren‘t returning to the moon just to take a few selfies of astronauts in a better photo and video quality than 50 years ago, just imagine a slofie from the lunar surface, no, there are more significant causes and intentions behind those missions. It‘s about searching for new inhabitable regions. Climate change is real. Hopefully, everyone will understand this sooner than later, and inexcusably we have to restrict ourselves. Or, we continue to continue our polluting lifestyle with huge carbon footprints but will have to move to new planets to survive as our current planet will boil up fast.

„The moon is a dark, nasty place, as there are a thousand ways to kill you if you do something wrong“.

Life on the Moon needs invention

While all the discussions about inhabiting other planets, such as the moon or even mars, there are still a few things we cannot forget to discuss about. It‘s the laws, and the circumstances human bodies will react to. Even though Ian McDonald is a science fiction writer of many decades, and Glenn Zorpette „only“ writes about space and technology, they are great experts of their field. One of the upcoming challenges of starting colonies on other planets is how we humans behave with each other.

It‘s a cultural abortion, and we can start completely new. A completely new human culture, with no pre-written rules or established rights. But in case, there aren‘t, yet, any laws regarding crimes or injustice. As those laws are different from country to country here on earth, on what kind of regulations will we manifest and determine together? Some countries still punish their people by killing them, some by stoning a human on the streets, some by injecting chemicals into veins. However, others don’t extinct their population at all. Which will be the case for space? Will you simply push someone out into space where his body will burst up within seconds? Before setting up colonies, we will definitely have to talk about Lunar Law.

Planet B: You’ll die after 2 years in space colonies

Another exciting fact learnt at me convention in Frankfurt 2019 is the following: human bodies will only be able to live on the moon for up to two years. For years and decades, astronauts have lived on the ISS in space, and now you doubt this sentence? Well, let‘s get some physics into this thought. The thickness on the surface of the moon is a 6th as of on earth. This means that your organs will swell. Your heart will become bigger, your eyes, your brain,… (just imagine the constant headaches from a swelled brain, or swollen eyeballs – ouch!) However, after two years on the moon, your organs will be transformed to a degree you won‘t be able to return to earth anymore.

But a transformed body won‘t be the only problem in a moon colony. It‘s the supply of water, oxygen, food and so on. You will, as of current thoughts and developments, have to pay „earth money“ for supplies of those vital elements. Eventually, everyone’s money will run out, or due to upcoming wars for water and food on earth, supply flights to the moon will be discontinued? Yet there needs to be developments and inventions how to produce water and breathable oxygen on the moon, besides actually building airtight housing solutions.

Inhabiting other planets is still a difficult task, as of 2022. It‘s up to us humans if it‘s a worthwhile decision and development. Or if reducing our carbon footprint and decreasing pollution on earth is a better solution…