WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.120 --> 00:00:04.240 Welcome. This is Marsha for Radio I, and today I 2 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:08.599 will be reading National Geographic magazine dated September twenty twenty five, 3 00:00:09.080 --> 00:00:12.759 which is donated by the publisher. As a reminder, RADIOI 4 00:00:13.160 --> 00:00:15.679 is a reading service intended for people who are blind 5 00:00:16.280 --> 00:00:18.920 or have other disabilities that make a difficult to read 6 00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:22.800 printed material. Please join me now for the first article 7 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:28.920 entitled the Great Moon Rush. As NASA prepares to return 8 00:00:29.640 --> 00:00:33.640 explorers to the Moon, big plans are already taking shape 9 00:00:33.960 --> 00:00:37.439 to develop this virtually untouched realm to suit human needs. 10 00:00:38.119 --> 00:00:41.200 Here's what the lunar surface could become if we're lucky, 11 00:00:41.759 --> 00:00:45.920 and what it might turn into if we're not. This 12 00:00:46.079 --> 00:00:50.600 article by Charles Fishman, halfway through a conversation about the 13 00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:55.479 state of modern astrophysics and space science, Joseph Silk says 14 00:00:55.520 --> 00:00:59.880 something that makes you sputter in disbelief before realizing he's no. 15 00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:04.840 Silk is one of the pillars of cosmology now eighty two. 16 00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:09.200 He's been an astrophysicist since before the Apollo Moon landings. 17 00:01:09.760 --> 00:01:13.120 He has made foundational discoveries about the origin of the 18 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:17.400 universe and about its central mystery, dark matter. He's not 19 00:01:17.480 --> 00:01:21.040 prone to wild exaggerations he's talking about one of his 20 00:01:21.079 --> 00:01:25.879 strong professional interests, the often overlooked potential of our own moon. 21 00:01:26.680 --> 00:01:29.120 A few decades from now, Silk says, we'll have the 22 00:01:29.159 --> 00:01:32.640 ability to place a telescope on the lunar surface that 23 00:01:32.719 --> 00:01:35.920 will be so powerful that it could, for instance, photograph 24 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:39.879 a planet within the trappest Ie System about forty light 25 00:01:39.959 --> 00:01:42.920 years away with the same detail we can look at Mars. 26 00:01:43.519 --> 00:01:45.920 We will be able to see the forests, the mountaintops, 27 00:01:46.239 --> 00:01:49.120 the glistening of the light of the oceans. He says, 28 00:01:49.480 --> 00:01:53.799 it's unbelievable. Silk is talking about using a telescope to 29 00:01:53.879 --> 00:01:58.200 take snapshots of life on another planet. If there were 30 00:01:58.239 --> 00:02:05.079 cities there, we'd see the lights. The magic isn't in 31 00:02:05.120 --> 00:02:07.959 the telescope. The magic is on the Moon. The Moon 32 00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:11.520 turns out to be a unique place to do space science, 33 00:02:12.159 --> 00:02:15.120 far better than Earth or even out in space itself, 34 00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:18.639 because the far side is radio silent, and because the 35 00:02:18.680 --> 00:02:24.319 Moon has essentially no atmosphere, giving optical telescopes nearly unlimited resolution. 36 00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:28.319 The telescope that could photograph life in the trappist Ie 37 00:02:28.400 --> 00:02:31.840 System would actually be a circular array of about thirty 38 00:02:31.919 --> 00:02:37.199 interconnected telescopes, creating a single virtual mirror twelve miles in diameter. 39 00:02:37.840 --> 00:02:41.639 The technology isn't hard. There are already studies and papers 40 00:02:41.680 --> 00:02:45.000 describing how to design and operate it. The project has 41 00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:49.599 several other imagined versions, including one built inside a Moon crater, 42 00:02:50.039 --> 00:02:55.680 and it has a nickname, the Lunar hyper Telescope. What 43 00:02:55.719 --> 00:02:58.479 the project lacks is the infrastructure on the Moon to 44 00:02:58.520 --> 00:03:02.960 make it real. Deploying a hyper telescope will require rockets 45 00:03:03.240 --> 00:03:06.599 to deliver all those small telescopes to land safely. The 46 00:03:06.680 --> 00:03:09.719 rockets will call from lunar landing pads and a fleet 47 00:03:09.719 --> 00:03:13.639 of robots to unlock the cargo. Each individual telescope of 48 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:17.439 the array will need to be positioned with absolute precision. 49 00:03:18.080 --> 00:03:21.680 To operate. The hyper telescope will demand always on electricity 50 00:03:21.800 --> 00:03:24.800 right there on the Moon, even during the Moon's fourteen 51 00:03:24.879 --> 00:03:29.159 day night, and serious communication bandwidth to get to its 52 00:03:29.199 --> 00:03:33.520 extraordinary images back to Earth. It will need maintenance and repairs, 53 00:03:33.919 --> 00:03:39.000 perhaps from astronauts stationed on the Moon. Despite the unbelievable 54 00:03:39.080 --> 00:03:43.280 scientific and meta physical charisma of a telescope that can 55 00:03:43.319 --> 00:03:46.439 take pictures of individual planets two hundred thirty five trillion 56 00:03:46.479 --> 00:03:49.599 miles away, we're not going to build and install all 57 00:03:49.639 --> 00:03:53.560 those infrastructure just for a telescope, not even the coolest, 58 00:03:53.599 --> 00:03:57.680 most important telescope ever created. Indeed, it's just the opposite. 59 00:03:58.199 --> 00:04:02.240 The hyper telescope, along with some equally astonishing science projects, 60 00:04:02.639 --> 00:04:04.919 is likely to be the bonus of a new space race, 61 00:04:05.240 --> 00:04:09.039 which is gathering momentum with the aim of at least 62 00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:13.199 establishing a permanent, functioning human presence on the Moon. There 63 00:04:13.199 --> 00:04:15.599 are now more missions scheduled to land on the Moon 64 00:04:15.639 --> 00:04:18.680 in the next six years than in the past six decades. 65 00:04:19.360 --> 00:04:21.959 NASA is sending astronauts back to the Moon in the 66 00:04:22.079 --> 00:04:25.959 Artemis program, first with a lunar flyby with Artemis III 67 00:04:26.439 --> 00:04:30.000 scheduled for twenty twenty six, and then the first new 68 00:04:30.040 --> 00:04:33.480 landing of people, now scheduled for mid twenty twenty seven. 69 00:04:34.120 --> 00:04:37.959 China's Space Agency aims to put that nation's first astronauts 70 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:41.480 on the Moon in twenty thirty. India, which first put 71 00:04:41.480 --> 00:04:44.120 a lander on the Moon in twenty twenty three, is 72 00:04:44.160 --> 00:04:48.360 designing a mission to return lunar soil there. Those are 73 00:04:48.519 --> 00:04:53.720 just some of the nations with lunar ambitions. Independent missions 74 00:04:53.720 --> 00:04:56.720 from a dozen or more private companies are aiming robotic 75 00:04:56.759 --> 00:05:00.319 missions at the Moon including a Japanese company's craft that 76 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:04.079 crash landed this past June. Here on Earth, thousands of 77 00:05:04.079 --> 00:05:07.399 people go to work every day laying the foundations of 78 00:05:07.439 --> 00:05:12.319 the Moon's new future, designing lunar landing pads, construction robots, 79 00:05:12.759 --> 00:05:17.319 human habitats, a power grid, communication, satellites, even a robotic 80 00:05:17.439 --> 00:05:21.000 mining operation. In trying to imagine the future of the Moon, 81 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:24.399 I spoke with dozens of people immersed in lunar development 82 00:05:24.839 --> 00:05:28.920 from Nassau and Blue Origin, from Lockheed Martin and Harvard 83 00:05:28.920 --> 00:05:35.319 Business School, and interlun CEOs and engineers, economists and scientists, 84 00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:38.720 people who work at companies with one hundred thousand employees 85 00:05:39.160 --> 00:05:42.240 and adventure capital back to startups with just a dozen. 86 00:05:43.160 --> 00:05:46.959 Their ambition and their energy are expansive, even inspiring, for 87 00:05:47.040 --> 00:05:51.279 both commercial development and scientific discovery. Success, they say will 88 00:05:51.319 --> 00:05:55.720 depend on money, determination, and what surprises the Moon has 89 00:05:55.759 --> 00:06:00.439 in store for us when we go back to explore it, speaking, 90 00:06:00.560 --> 00:06:03.639 two paths are possible. If things go according to the 91 00:06:03.639 --> 00:06:06.519 best laid plans. By the end of the century, the 92 00:06:06.519 --> 00:06:09.879 Moon will be home to a bustling lunar economy, which 93 00:06:09.879 --> 00:06:14.240 will provide jobs, profit and also the resources for ambitious 94 00:06:14.319 --> 00:06:19.600 science like the hypertelescope. But if science teaches one lesson clearly, 95 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:22.920 it's that human settlement and development rarely go to plan 96 00:06:23.399 --> 00:06:27.759 and often veer unexpectedly, sometimes into a ditch or a crater. 97 00:06:28.439 --> 00:06:32.720 Today's bright vision could fade fifty years, hence to nothing 98 00:06:32.720 --> 00:06:35.839 more than a threadbeer encampment left over from the optimism 99 00:06:35.879 --> 00:06:40.199 of earlier decades, grudgingly sustained like a rough, isolated supply 100 00:06:40.360 --> 00:06:44.160 stop for stagecoaches in the Old West. Without the right 101 00:06:44.360 --> 00:06:47.800 conservation protections in place, the Moon could end up a 102 00:06:47.879 --> 00:06:51.839 junk yard of billionaire's dreams, with abandoned robots, rovers and 103 00:06:51.920 --> 00:06:55.800 landers glittering the landscape, and the world having moved on 104 00:06:56.279 --> 00:07:00.120 from a whirlwind mid century lunar infatuation. Right now now, 105 00:07:00.199 --> 00:07:03.199 it's clear that this is the most exciting, most creative 106 00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:05.759 moment in the world of space since the nineteen sixties, 107 00:07:06.120 --> 00:07:09.000 and Apollo filled with a promise and risk, the Moon 108 00:07:09.120 --> 00:07:13.439 is the next space frontier Again. The road to a 109 00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:16.720 successful lunar economy will be built on one thing. Dirt. 110 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:21.800 Moon Dirt. Lunar dirt called regolith is everywhere, blanketing the 111 00:07:21.839 --> 00:07:26.000 surface to the horizon in all directions. Regolith is unappealing 112 00:07:26.040 --> 00:07:32.519 in almost every way. It is dull, gray, gritty, sharp, dingy, electrostatic, abrasive, 113 00:07:32.639 --> 00:07:36.439 damaging to equipment, and dangerous to people. It's also the 114 00:07:36.519 --> 00:07:39.240 resource on which everything else on the Moon will depend. 115 00:07:39.800 --> 00:07:42.920 Delivering equipment and supplies to the Moon is so expensive 116 00:07:43.279 --> 00:07:45.639 when gallon of water rocketed from the Earth to the 117 00:07:45.639 --> 00:07:48.720 Moon will cost anywhere from one hundred thousand dollars to 118 00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:52.879 more than a million dollars to transport that the only 119 00:07:53.319 --> 00:07:56.519 economically practically way to develop the Moon will be to 120 00:07:56.639 --> 00:08:00.680 use what's there. As unpromising as it looks, rega is 121 00:08:00.759 --> 00:08:03.160 loaded with what you'd want if you were thinking about 122 00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:08.319 setting up a moon base. Aluminium, iron, titanium, silicon, oxygen. 123 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:11.959 If you heat regolith to twenty nine hundred degrees fahrenheit 124 00:08:12.079 --> 00:08:16.319 so it melts, magical things start to happen. Once regolith 125 00:08:16.439 --> 00:08:19.199 is molten, you can skim off its components and make 126 00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:24.959 things with them. Melted regolith fortuitously canned from the basis 127 00:08:24.959 --> 00:08:28.480 of landing pads. The first thing is a successful lunar 128 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:32.559 outpost will need NASA plans to land humans back on 129 00:08:32.600 --> 00:08:37.600 the Moon with space X's Starship HLS Human Landing System 130 00:08:37.879 --> 00:08:40.720 which will also be used to deliver cargo payloads to 131 00:08:40.759 --> 00:08:44.200 the Moon. At one hundred sixty four feet tall, the 132 00:08:44.279 --> 00:08:47.360 rocket is the height of a fifteen story building. Curing 133 00:08:47.360 --> 00:08:51.519 one hundred tons landing tail down tipping over on landing 134 00:08:51.559 --> 00:08:54.600 would be a disaster. During the Artemis missions, it will 135 00:08:54.639 --> 00:08:57.600 have to make do with finding a smooth, safe landing 136 00:08:57.639 --> 00:09:02.039 spot on the Moon's natural terrain for that first landing, 137 00:09:02.360 --> 00:09:05.960 but future missions would be greatly aided by a landing pad. 138 00:09:06.759 --> 00:09:10.000 Several companies are already working on engineering them. They are 139 00:09:10.039 --> 00:09:13.879 prototyping robots that can crawl along the Moon's surface level 140 00:09:13.919 --> 00:09:18.080 It then scoop up regolith, melt it shape paving bricks 141 00:09:18.159 --> 00:09:21.759 or solid surfaces, and position them, sealing each to the 142 00:09:21.799 --> 00:09:24.960 next in line to form a steam free landing apron. 143 00:09:25.480 --> 00:09:28.759 Imagine inventing a machine to scoop up dirt in Ohio 144 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:33.799 and turn it into an interstate highway. A veteran of 145 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:39.200 aerospace giants Grumman and L three, Sam Hemenaise is the 146 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:43.759 founder and CEO of Astroport's Space Technologies, a San Antonio 147 00:09:43.879 --> 00:09:47.559 based start up that aims to build moonports then operate 148 00:09:47.639 --> 00:09:50.000 them as you would the port of Houston or the 149 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:54.519 airport in Memphis. Astroport wants to build the landing pads, 150 00:09:54.600 --> 00:09:58.480 build roads to connect them to nearby bases, build storage 151 00:09:58.519 --> 00:10:02.039 buildings to hold off loaded cargo, and charge for all 152 00:10:02.039 --> 00:10:07.639 those surfaces. Emenes says his company's paving robot, the Lunatron, 153 00:10:07.919 --> 00:10:12.039 is in testing. Astroport is connecting a fifty acre test 154 00:10:12.080 --> 00:10:16.240 bed in Midland, Texas and filling it with simulated lunar regolith. 155 00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:19.559 This is the foundation, Hemenes says. We can make a 156 00:10:19.600 --> 00:10:24.240 business out of melted regolith. That's what's different about this 157 00:10:24.360 --> 00:10:27.039 moon race. It's one thing to go someplace the moon 158 00:10:27.279 --> 00:10:31.639 Mars touched down and retrieve some samples. It's quite another 159 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:36.440 to arrive there to create a future that sustains itself. 160 00:10:36.840 --> 00:10:39.720 The first is an expedition paid for by a government. 161 00:10:40.039 --> 00:10:43.440 The second is an economy which generates value and profit 162 00:10:43.519 --> 00:10:47.039 and builds on itself. The rocket people need the landing 163 00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:50.639 pad people. The landing pad people need the rover people, 164 00:10:50.799 --> 00:10:54.200 and also the rocket people. Everyone needs the power people. 165 00:10:54.480 --> 00:10:57.679 They all need each other. They need customers, they need suppliers. 166 00:10:58.240 --> 00:11:02.080 Nothing makes much sense with the out everything else here 167 00:11:02.120 --> 00:11:05.480 on Earth, This lunar economy is already weaving itself together. 168 00:11:05.919 --> 00:11:10.799 Imenez Astroport is working with another Moon tech company, Astrolab, 169 00:11:10.919 --> 00:11:14.639 on the actual rover that will move the lunatron paper around. 170 00:11:14.720 --> 00:11:19.080 Astrolab is designing and building a compact Moon surface truck 171 00:11:19.399 --> 00:11:23.240 called the flex Rover, which can transport two thousand pounds. 172 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:27.159 Astrolab has a reservation to ship the flex Rover on 173 00:11:27.279 --> 00:11:30.799 an early SpaceX cargo mission. The idea of a lunar 174 00:11:30.840 --> 00:11:33.399 economy built on dirt is so potent that one of 175 00:11:33.480 --> 00:11:37.519 the largest companies in the new space economy, Jeff Bezos's 176 00:11:38.039 --> 00:11:41.600 Blue Origin, has created an entire division devoted to turning 177 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:46.240 lunar regulis into useful products on the Moon. The sixty 178 00:11:46.279 --> 00:11:50.120 person group, based in North Hollywood, California, is called the 179 00:11:50.159 --> 00:11:56.440 Space Resources Program, and senior director Vlada Stemenkovich, a planetary 180 00:11:56.480 --> 00:12:01.039 scientist who formerly worked at mit D and Nassau's Jet 181 00:12:01.039 --> 00:12:03.960 propulsion Laboratory, says their job is to learn how to 182 00:12:03.960 --> 00:12:07.960 make almost everything out of nothing. Their first target is electricity, 183 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:12.399 the most important element of Moon infrastructure after the rockets themselves. 184 00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:16.039 Since twenty twenty one, Blue Origin says the group has 185 00:12:16.120 --> 00:12:20.519 been using simulated lunar regolith to make wire and solar 186 00:12:20.679 --> 00:12:26.000 cells relying on nothing but solar power and robotic technology. 187 00:12:26.279 --> 00:12:28.240 The Moon is about to be a very busy place, 188 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:32.639 with eighty four announced national and commercial missions just between 189 00:12:32.679 --> 00:12:35.759 now and twenty thirty. To start, they mixed up the 190 00:12:35.799 --> 00:12:40.360 simulated lunar regolith not just with the right proportions of minerals, 191 00:12:40.360 --> 00:12:43.840 but also with a realistic blend of grit size and texture. 192 00:12:43.919 --> 00:12:48.399 Based on sample's retrieve during the Apollo missions, the company 193 00:12:48.440 --> 00:12:52.919 developed a solar poward process to melt the regolith into thick, 194 00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:56.840 bright molden liquid. Without providing much detail, the company says 195 00:12:56.879 --> 00:13:00.639 it separated out silicon, iron, and aluminium and that blues 196 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:05.320 robotic system turn to those raw materials into working cellular cells. 197 00:13:05.879 --> 00:13:09.240 Blue Origin released an image of a circular solar cell 198 00:13:09.320 --> 00:13:11.919 about the size of your palm, with the company's feather 199 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:15.879 logo on it. The company calls the process Blue Alchemist 200 00:13:16.240 --> 00:13:18.919 and says without a shred of modesty, that it is 201 00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:23.240 a breakthrough process that will bootstrap unlimited electricity and power 202 00:13:23.519 --> 00:13:28.960 transmission cables anywhere on the surface of the Moon. Unlimited 203 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:32.840 power anywhere on the Moon using just sunlight and silicon 204 00:13:33.960 --> 00:13:37.480 a bonus. The process produces oxygen as a by product, 205 00:13:37.919 --> 00:13:41.240 as almost any process that melts regolith will, because the 206 00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:44.840 lunar dirt is almost half oxygen by weight. One of 207 00:13:44.919 --> 00:13:49.720 Blue's video clips shows oxygen bubbling up through the molten regolith. 208 00:13:50.480 --> 00:13:53.960 The oxygen, of course, could provide breathable air to astronauts. 209 00:13:54.320 --> 00:13:57.679 Even more significant in economic terms, it can be used 210 00:13:57.720 --> 00:14:01.559 as a critical component in rocket fuel to refuel spaceships 211 00:14:01.759 --> 00:14:03.720 that have landed on the Moon and need to turn 212 00:14:03.759 --> 00:14:07.200 around and head home, or to lunar orbit or off 213 00:14:07.279 --> 00:14:10.559 two points beyond. We don't know the economics of this. 214 00:14:11.159 --> 00:14:14.840 What's blues capital investment? What will the process cost on 215 00:14:14.879 --> 00:14:18.519 the moon? What can you charge for lunar electricity? But 216 00:14:18.600 --> 00:14:22.440 we do know this Bezos's Blue Origin isn't a charity, 217 00:14:22.840 --> 00:14:25.840 and it intends to make money from regolith. We are 218 00:14:25.879 --> 00:14:31.720 not playing around, says Stemenkovitch. Solar panels manufactured on the 219 00:14:31.720 --> 00:14:34.759 Moon will be crucio to keep keeping the robots and 220 00:14:34.840 --> 00:14:39.360 habitats of any Moon economy running, but they might evolve 221 00:14:39.480 --> 00:14:43.120 to beam energy back to Earth. With the right infrastructure 222 00:14:43.120 --> 00:14:46.840 in place, Engineers say it will be possible to collect 223 00:14:46.919 --> 00:14:49.519 regolith on the Moon heat it to form bricks of 224 00:14:49.600 --> 00:14:52.600 raw material and launch those off the Moon using a 225 00:14:52.679 --> 00:14:57.039 catapult a rail gun that will hurl the bricks into orbit. There, 226 00:14:57.120 --> 00:14:59.960 the bricks will be collected and towed to a space factory. 227 00:15:00.720 --> 00:15:04.080 The space factory could turn the regolith, packed with silicon 228 00:15:04.159 --> 00:15:08.679 and aluminum into vast solar arrays, a megavit version of 229 00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:13.600 blue alchemists for deployment in Earth orbit. Because they avoid 230 00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:17.159 the problems of night time and cloudy skies, orbital solar 231 00:15:17.279 --> 00:15:21.039 arrays are seven times more productive than solar arrays on 232 00:15:21.080 --> 00:15:25.639 the ground. They could generate essentially unlimited electricity with zero 233 00:15:25.759 --> 00:15:30.480 climate impact without having to erect huge terrestrial solar farms 234 00:15:30.840 --> 00:15:35.159 or nuclear power plants. It's possible to safely microwave that 235 00:15:35.440 --> 00:15:39.120 electricity down to Earth and provide power even to places 236 00:15:39.159 --> 00:15:44.159 currently under served, more easily than building typical power infrastructure, 237 00:15:45.080 --> 00:15:48.080 and you could make money doing it. The whole operation 238 00:15:48.200 --> 00:15:53.000 could be tendered by a small human staff working in 239 00:15:53.000 --> 00:15:56.039 the orbital factory and watching over things on the surface 240 00:15:56.080 --> 00:15:59.919 of the Moon. Other companies could make good money supply 241 00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:03.519 moon powered ink. Think for a moment about the vast 242 00:16:03.559 --> 00:16:06.759 oil infrastructure in the Ocean off the Gulf coast of 243 00:16:06.840 --> 00:16:10.840 the United States. Fifty offshore platforms operate in deep water, 244 00:16:11.240 --> 00:16:13.600 staffed by a small army of workers who come and 245 00:16:13.639 --> 00:16:18.000 go on squadrons of helicopters, supplied by fleets of boats, 246 00:16:18.399 --> 00:16:21.120 turning out fourteen percent of the oil produced by the 247 00:16:21.200 --> 00:16:25.799 United States. If the Moon develops with imagination, persistence, and 248 00:16:25.879 --> 00:16:29.600 money by twenty twenty one hundred, it could look like 249 00:16:29.639 --> 00:16:33.000 the Gulf, a busy, if remote place where important and 250 00:16:33.039 --> 00:16:37.519 demanding work gets dung for big profit. The sweep at 251 00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:40.000 the Moon when you're standing on its surface is majestic 252 00:16:40.039 --> 00:16:43.399 and arresting. During daylight, the Moon's surface is bright, though 253 00:16:43.399 --> 00:16:46.639 way a snow covered Colorado mountain side is on a 254 00:16:46.679 --> 00:16:51.399 sunny winter day. The landscape is plains and ridges, mountains 255 00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:56.399 and valleys and craters, all gray dust without a perceptible atmosphere, 256 00:16:56.440 --> 00:16:59.240 without the weathering effects of wind and rain and foliage. 257 00:16:59.559 --> 00:17:02.200 The jackrophy is vivid and crisp. You can see a 258 00:17:02.200 --> 00:17:05.119 long way the Earth floats in the black lunar sky, 259 00:17:05.240 --> 00:17:09.319 gleaming blue, surprisingly large, four times as big as the 260 00:17:09.319 --> 00:17:13.440 Moon looks on Earth. What you don't see is the 261 00:17:13.480 --> 00:17:17.799 one substance that powers all life on Earth water Without water, 262 00:17:17.960 --> 00:17:21.200 this vision of a booming twenty one hundred lunar economy 263 00:17:21.240 --> 00:17:24.880 grows hazier. The promise of unlimited energy to Earth and 264 00:17:24.960 --> 00:17:29.119 a telescope to spy on extra solar worlds less assured. 265 00:17:30.400 --> 00:17:32.119 We know there is some water on the Moon that 266 00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:35.440 was first detected by a Nassau instrument flying on the 267 00:17:35.519 --> 00:17:40.160 Indian shell dry On one probe in two thousand eight, 268 00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:43.079 and confirmed by a second Nassau probe the next year. 269 00:17:43.720 --> 00:17:47.400 The early chantalizing data suggested there might be iceberg size 270 00:17:47.480 --> 00:17:51.359 qualities quantities of water in the craters of the Moon's 271 00:17:51.400 --> 00:17:55.039 north and south poles. The swirl of today's Moon activities 272 00:17:55.079 --> 00:18:00.519 stems in part from the excitement generated by the discovery. 273 00:18:01.119 --> 00:18:03.720 The indispensable appeal of water on the Moon is easy 274 00:18:03.720 --> 00:18:07.119 to understand. Flying hundreds of gallons of water in from 275 00:18:07.160 --> 00:18:10.799 the Earth brief and modest bases would cost millions of dollars. 276 00:18:11.160 --> 00:18:13.240 But the real leverage for water is that it can 277 00:18:13.279 --> 00:18:17.279 be easily separated into hydrogen and oxygen. If the Moon 278 00:18:17.359 --> 00:18:20.000 has usable water, you have oxygen for breathing, and the 279 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:23.559 most important, you have hydrogen and oxygen with which to 280 00:18:23.599 --> 00:18:26.559 make rocket fuel if there is ice in the cold, 281 00:18:26.880 --> 00:18:30.359 permanently shadowed craters at the South Pole that can be 282 00:18:30.400 --> 00:18:35.119 harvested and purified into usable water. It's a little like regolith. 283 00:18:35.519 --> 00:18:38.039 It looks simple, but it's a single resource that makes 284 00:18:38.119 --> 00:18:41.359 many things possible. No one has yet been able to 285 00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:44.240 land a water prospecting probe in a crater of the 286 00:18:44.279 --> 00:18:46.720 South Pole and see how much water is near the 287 00:18:46.759 --> 00:18:50.720 surface and in what form. But orbital probe scanning the 288 00:18:50.720 --> 00:18:56.119 Moon's surface since Chandryon one in two thousand eight, another 289 00:18:56.160 --> 00:19:00.519 analysis increasingly suggests that the easy availability of water on 290 00:19:00.559 --> 00:19:05.640 the Moon is illusory, if not fantastical. Chunks of iceberg 291 00:19:05.720 --> 00:19:09.720 size accumulations are ruled out, says Kevin Cannon, a planetary 292 00:19:09.759 --> 00:19:12.160 scientist who is one of the world's leading experts on 293 00:19:12.279 --> 00:19:16.359 lunar water and now works for the space start up Ethos. 294 00:19:18.200 --> 00:19:21.880 Cannon says that since twenty ten, the enthusiasm Moon water 295 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:25.839 has run away with itself, understandably given its value, but 296 00:19:25.960 --> 00:19:29.359 it odds with a slowly accumulating science. What the decade 297 00:19:29.359 --> 00:19:33.119 of continued analysis shows is that whatever water exists in 298 00:19:33.200 --> 00:19:36.640 polar craters may be more in the forms of frost 299 00:19:37.039 --> 00:19:40.240 frozen grains mixed into the Moon's dirt the way bits 300 00:19:40.279 --> 00:19:42.559 of seashell are mixed into the sand at the beach. 301 00:19:43.079 --> 00:19:46.000 It could also be buried well below the surface, all 302 00:19:46.119 --> 00:19:49.400 much less sexy and also much less successible than some 303 00:19:49.480 --> 00:19:53.319 had hoped. At best, it appears really wet Moon dirt 304 00:19:53.480 --> 00:19:56.640 might contain five percent water by weight. To get one 305 00:19:56.680 --> 00:19:59.039 hundred gallons of water, you need to dig up and 306 00:19:59.079 --> 00:20:04.079 process eight ns of regolith. In practice, the water trapped 307 00:20:04.119 --> 00:20:07.640 in the permanently dark South Pole craters will be insanely 308 00:20:07.640 --> 00:20:11.480 difficult to mine, blocked from radio contact, with steep sides 309 00:20:11.519 --> 00:20:15.799 and uneven bottoms, and interior temperatures of twenty degrees kelvin 310 00:20:16.279 --> 00:20:20.640 minus four hundred twenty four degrees fahrenheit, impossible for astronauts 311 00:20:20.640 --> 00:20:24.039 to explore safely, but also impossible for the moment for 312 00:20:24.160 --> 00:20:27.319 robots to explore, let alone mine and bring up to 313 00:20:27.400 --> 00:20:31.759 human baisies. A thriving lunar economy will rely on water 314 00:20:31.839 --> 00:20:34.559 as much as regolith. It could well be the privet 315 00:20:34.640 --> 00:20:37.799 on which the lunar future turns. The question of lunar 316 00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:41.279 water is on the agenda of every company in space agency, 317 00:20:41.960 --> 00:20:44.920 every Moon mission involving people is aimed at the south Pole, 318 00:20:45.079 --> 00:20:49.359 including Artemis three, Nassau's first efforts since nineteen seventy two 319 00:20:49.799 --> 00:20:53.640 to land people on the Moon. Most of the uncrude 320 00:20:53.640 --> 00:20:58.000 missions to test out rovers and solar panels and robots 321 00:20:58.039 --> 00:21:00.759 are also aimed at the South Pole. Many will be 322 00:21:00.759 --> 00:21:03.000 looking for evidence of water as part of their work. 323 00:21:03.599 --> 00:21:06.039 Finding it or not will be a powerful indicator of 324 00:21:06.079 --> 00:21:11.799 what lunar future were likely to get. In March nineteen 325 00:21:11.839 --> 00:21:15.079 sixty six, three years before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin 326 00:21:15.359 --> 00:21:18.960 would land on the Moon, Nassau received a sobering report 327 00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:24.680 from engineers and scientists at the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, 328 00:21:25.240 --> 00:21:28.599 which was building the Apollo lunar module, and colleagues at 329 00:21:28.680 --> 00:21:33.519 Arthur D. Little, a Cambridge, Massachusetts consulting firm. The engineers 330 00:21:33.880 --> 00:21:36.160 had been asked a simple question, how much would the 331 00:21:36.200 --> 00:21:40.519 Apollo missions pollute the Moon just by landing there. The 332 00:21:40.559 --> 00:21:44.359 two hundred six page scientific analysis contains an astonishing revelation. 333 00:21:44.559 --> 00:21:47.119 Right at the start the Moon it turns out as 334 00:21:47.160 --> 00:21:50.920 a naturally occurring atmosphere. It's very thin, but lunar gravity 335 00:21:50.960 --> 00:21:54.079 is strong enough to attract and hold a tenuous veil 336 00:21:54.240 --> 00:21:58.880 of gas molecules. The Apollo eleven lunar module when it 337 00:21:58.960 --> 00:22:03.279 settled into tranquilquility base atop a plume of rocket exhaust, 338 00:22:03.640 --> 00:22:06.759 would deliver almost as many gas molecules to the Moon 339 00:22:07.160 --> 00:22:12.079 as the lunar atmosphere already contained. Indeed, it would turn 340 00:22:12.119 --> 00:22:14.559 out that each time we sent a lunar module, we 341 00:22:14.680 --> 00:22:18.000 delivered nearly an entire new atmosphere of gas molecules to 342 00:22:18.039 --> 00:22:21.000 the Moon from the rocket plume of landing, along with 343 00:22:21.079 --> 00:22:24.839 gases vented from the cabin and even farts vented from 344 00:22:24.880 --> 00:22:28.680 the astronauts spacesuits, which is to say, the very active 345 00:22:28.799 --> 00:22:32.160 exploring the Moon pollutes it. The Moon is fourteen point 346 00:22:32.200 --> 00:22:35.480 six million square miles, or about twice the land area 347 00:22:35.559 --> 00:22:38.480 of the United States and Canada. All that land is 348 00:22:38.519 --> 00:22:41.799 empty now and almost completely untouched. As we know from 349 00:22:41.839 --> 00:22:45.920 earthly experience, the time to plant for its protection as 350 00:22:45.920 --> 00:22:50.160 a natural resource is now, or our most ambitious science 351 00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:53.799 plans for the Moon may be thwarted. That's exactly the 352 00:22:53.839 --> 00:22:59.759 problem that Caltech astrophysicists Nivedita Mahesh is worried about. But 353 00:23:00.079 --> 00:23:03.640 the pollution she most worries about isn't the typical sort. 354 00:23:03.759 --> 00:23:08.000 Mahsh studies star formation at the earliest moments of the universe. 355 00:23:08.359 --> 00:23:11.559 It's an epoch we call the cosmic dawn, she says, 356 00:23:11.839 --> 00:23:16.559 when the very first stars turned on. To understand how 357 00:23:16.599 --> 00:23:19.319 the very first stars formed, scientists have to listen to 358 00:23:19.359 --> 00:23:21.880 the signals from the universe when it was only one 359 00:23:21.960 --> 00:23:25.440 hundred million or two hundred million years old, the equivalent 360 00:23:25.480 --> 00:23:28.160 of understanding the life of a hundred year old by 361 00:23:28.200 --> 00:23:30.599 looking back to when that person was nine months old. 362 00:23:31.160 --> 00:23:34.039 In astrophysics, the only way to listen that far back 363 00:23:34.119 --> 00:23:37.799 is to use advanced radio telescopes. On Earth, you can't 364 00:23:38.279 --> 00:23:41.559 between the atmosphere and the noise all our own electromagnetic 365 00:23:41.640 --> 00:23:45.400 emissions make. It's just too noisy. The quietest place in 366 00:23:45.440 --> 00:23:47.720 the Solar System turns out to be the far side 367 00:23:47.799 --> 00:23:51.279 of the Moon. Mahesh's part of a group of scientists 368 00:23:51.279 --> 00:23:55.200 and engineers working on the design of Farview, an extraordinary 369 00:23:55.279 --> 00:23:58.799 radio telescope that would take advantage of the Moon's radio 370 00:23:58.920 --> 00:24:03.559 quiet with a high hundred thousand interlinked individual antennas to 371 00:24:03.680 --> 00:24:06.559 listen to the birth of the universe. The project aims 372 00:24:06.599 --> 00:24:09.960 to rely on the technology currently under development on the 373 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:13.519 commercial side to have Farview build itself on the Moon, 374 00:24:14.039 --> 00:24:19.160 using robotic rovers to melt regolith and extrude antenna wires. 375 00:24:20.400 --> 00:24:23.279 Like our colleagues at rocket and mining companies, she talks 376 00:24:23.279 --> 00:24:27.400 with excitement and a sense of momentum, even inevitability. But 377 00:24:27.480 --> 00:24:30.000 a vibrant commercial economy on the Moon is both the 378 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:32.559 good news and the bad news for science. It could 379 00:24:32.640 --> 00:24:36.519 lay the foundation for Farview or make it impossible. Nokia 380 00:24:37.039 --> 00:24:40.160 sent a rover to the Moon in early twenty twenty 381 00:24:40.160 --> 00:24:43.200 five to test out how lunar's cell phone transmissions work. 382 00:24:43.759 --> 00:24:48.039 That's great, says Mahesh. Improving communications is critical, but lunar 383 00:24:48.079 --> 00:24:52.839 cell service could interfere with studying those faint primordial radio signals. 384 00:24:53.079 --> 00:24:57.039 If not properly shielded, there's a danger. Mahesh says that 385 00:24:57.119 --> 00:25:01.119 the radio transmissions of routine Moon up rations will spoil 386 00:25:01.240 --> 00:25:05.759 or contaminate the radio quiet environment. The time to safeguard 387 00:25:05.880 --> 00:25:09.880 that quiet is now. A hash speaks from experience. Elon 388 00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.359 Musk's Starlanc Version two satellites, launched into Earth orbit in 389 00:25:14.400 --> 00:25:18.559 twenty twenty three to beam internet service from space, have 390 00:25:18.680 --> 00:25:22.000 blotted out the ability to listen to some signals from space, 391 00:25:22.359 --> 00:25:27.920 literally blinding some key earth side radio telescopes. Currently there 392 00:25:27.960 --> 00:25:31.599 are no binding international agreements for conservation on the Moon, 393 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:35.000 but new ideas are percolating to start safeguarding the Moon 394 00:25:35.079 --> 00:25:39.759 against this type of degradation scientifically and culturally. The British 395 00:25:39.759 --> 00:25:44.559 planetary scientist Ian Crawford has suggested an international agreement right 396 00:25:44.599 --> 00:25:48.319 now to set aside the Moon's north pole permanently as 397 00:25:48.519 --> 00:25:52.880 an area protected from human activity, a Yellowstone Park for 398 00:25:52.960 --> 00:25:55.720 the Moon, so we can always return to an unspoiled 399 00:25:55.799 --> 00:25:59.720 lunar region if we need to for science or spirituality 400 00:26:00.079 --> 00:26:05.160 for that matter. Another idea of international rules that would 401 00:26:05.200 --> 00:26:10.319