The NASA have now plans to build a colony on the moon. This colony would be built in a permanent structure. The colony will serve as shelter and laboratory for scientist that will live and work for the extended time periods.

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

The concept of this colony includes a living quarters built in a high strength multiple layer fabric. A framework will support the fabric and forms a dome with a diameter of 15 meters.

The oxygen in the colony will be extracted from the moon’s rocks and soils. The oxygen will be use for breathing purposes and to produce water with the combination of hydrogen. The foods in the colony could be grown and produced in lunar soil which are enclosed under protecting dums.

Building a colony in the moon provides scientists with several advantages. It allows up close studies among scientist with regards to the features and characteristics of the moon itself. The colony will also provide opportunity to study long term exposure to a space environment as scientist needs to know how they would react to long periods of missions. The moon by then would be make an excellent location from which to study the entire Universe.

Image via Wikipedia

The brightness of the moon’s sky is almost as bright as the darkest sky on earth and the night time is two weeks long. These factors make it a good place to study different objects in space.

As far as exploration is concern, there are usable resources on the moon that may not be usable on earth but could supply many needs in space exploration. Oxygen could also be extracted from the rocks which might be use in space craft  propellants.

There are also dis-advantages that should be considered in  building a moon colony. The expenses of a colony on the moon would be in billion of dollars. This money might rather be used practically in Earth based research.

Image by Abby Lanes via Flickr

Another problem is that it would be dangerous for the astronauts to live and work in the moon. Scientist or astronauts would suffer the risk of having a long period of time exposed to the dangers of possible radiation and non-natural breathable atmosphere.