The European Space Agency (ESA) released new images showing how home might look like for the first astronauts living on the moon.
NASA has said that it wants to send a woman and a man to the moon by 2024, and from the moon to Mars by the 2030s, The Times reported.
The space agency recently released the names of the 18 astronauts eligible for early missions to the moon.
One of the missions involves building a sustainable lunar colony, allowing engineers to learn how to use lunar resources including water from ice in the craters.
They also hope to study unexplored areas and provide a base from where astronauts could take off to Mars.
ESA adviser Aidan Cowley told The Times that it was “no longer a question of if this will happen.”
“It has to happen because if we’re really serious about the exploration of the moon, or Mars, or anywhere beyond that, this is technology we need to master very soon.”
Cowley believes that the construction of the buildings astronauts can live in will start within the decade.
Jan Wörner, the Director General of the European Space Agency, described the new settlement the ‘Moon Village.’
“My intention is to build up a permanent base station on the Moon.
“Meaning that it’s an open station, for different member states, for different states around the globe.”
Mr. Cowley is leading the plans to use regolith, the soil on the moon, to build protective bricks.
Scientists think regolith roofs and walks will help protect the buildings against radiation and also the moon’s freezing temperatures, which can drop to -190C at night.
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