What?

What is the Luna Project?

The Luna Project is a cooperative effort, directed toward the foundation of a permanent human settlement on Terra's planetary companion, with the objective that the first party of settlers should depart no later than 31 July 2012.

No, seriously, what is this all about?

Just what it says — going to the Moon, soon and to stay, with your help. No joke, no catch, no ifs, ands, or buts.

What about the pressing problems we need to solve on Earth?

War, poverty, and all the rest have been around for a long time now, and people have sunk immense resources in trying to do something about them. Diverting the relatively modest effort required for lunar settlement to such purposes could hardly make much difference, and time may show that new horizons and new wealth from new worlds will do more to solve those problems than "putting Earth first" ever could.

Why?

Why go to the Moon?

The Moon is our best first step towards space development. It provides us a readily-accessible source of supply and base of operations to support all kinds of space activity, & it is accessible with existing capabilities.

So why develop space?

There are many reasons for space development, and the most urgent are economic and cultural. The growing industries of Earth require energy and raw materials which can no longer be easily supplied from Earth's own resources. At the same time, civilization needs new horizons and a sense of possibility, in order to escape turning inward on itself and becoming moribund.

Why begin with settlement?

Fundamentally, if we intend to settle eventually, there is no strong reason for not doing it immediately. The logistical problem of supplying a party of settlers as they set up their facilities is simpler than that of performing the same work using rotating crews. Furthermore, a settlement is committed to permanence from the outset, and is more difficult to abandon halfway.

Why are you doing this yourselves?

Because nobody is doing it for us. In the thirty-five years since Apollo 17, we have waited for others to build our roads to the stars, and told anyone who would listen that space development was inevitable. And maybe we believed that — why else would we have acted as though we need do nothing to ensure it?

How?

How will you get there?

Rockets. Since we are committed to settlement and to a long-term effort, we do not need the ability to get to the Moon and back to Earth in a single launch. Thus, we can get by without the great Saturn V rockets used for Apollo. Also, because we can use lunar resources, our payload requirement is much smaller than for any other large-scale space project, and we do not need to wait for the development of radically cheaper launch systems such as space-planes. Current rocket engines, and even some current launch vehicles, already have the capabilities we need.

How can you survive on the Moon, where there's no air?

We will build pressurized, sealed shelters to live in, and on the surface we will wear space-suits. Our breathing-air can mostly be supplied locally : the rocks of the Moon, like those of Earth, are composed mostly of the oxides of silicon and iron, aluminum, and other metals, making them about half oxygen by mass. Extracting oxygen from rocks is a major industry on Earth (under the name of metal smelting), and we know that we can apply the plentiful solar heat and electricity to produce oxygen on the Moon.

And what about water? I heard there might be ice…

There is some evidence of ice in one or two locations, but no proof as yet. Whether there is water as such to be found or not, we can produce oxygen in any quantity desired, and that is eight-ninths of the mass of water. Even if the hydrogen had to be imported, the logistical problem is much smaller, and in fact there is some hydrogen in the lunar soil (along with carbon and nitrogen, which are also needed for life). In any case, the human metabolism actually produces (from the hydrogen in food) more water than it consumes, and with recycling environmental systems the main difficulty tends to be dealing with accumulations of water, not shortages.

Isn't there deadly radiation?

Not all the time, any more than there are deadly thunderstorms all the time in the American Midwest. Except during a solar flare, the background of cosmic rays is not strong enough to be dangerous over a period of less than several months' uninterrupted exposure. A few meters of rock and soil will absorb the radiation of even the worst flare, and by burying our habitats, limiting time spent on the surface, and consuming plenty of antioxidants, we will be in no more danger from radiation than we would be in Denver or Mexico City.

What about the intense heat and cold?

The same layer of rock and soil which shields our habitat from radiation will furnish an insulating blanket — the lunar soil, or regolith, is very like Styrofoam in texture — and protect against meteorites for good measure. Meanwhile, we will be at an advantage regarding the many industrial processes which require extreme temperatures, especially since we will not have to deal with air moving the heat around inconveniently.

Who?

Who is this "we" you keep referring to?

The Luna Project is less a body than an action, and one that anyone is welcome to participate in. By design, it is one action which advances practically any objective in space, and any space enthusiast has a reason to to adopt it ; and there will be phases of the work which appeal even to those with no strong interest in space.

I would love to be involved, but where would I find the money?

While it is true that accomplishing our goals will require a great deal of money, we can make a great deal of progress on limited funds by substituting work and other equivalent economic effort. For example, if we can get aerospace engineers to adopt the design of our spacecraft as a hobby activity, we can develop them more easily and in less time than if we had to raise money and then use it to hire the same services.

But what can I do? I'm not an engineer!

And you don't have to be. Even the technical work of planning and design demands many specialties, including horticulturists, physicians, and sociologists as well as engineers. Since we actually plan to go, and not merely talk about it, there is plenty of work for everyone. There are promotional materials to be written and drawn, organizations to be set up and managed, contracts to be negotiated, funds to be raised, meetings to be arranged, rockets to be assembled, concrete to be poured, welds to be inspected, machines to be maintained, meals to be cooked, floors to be waxed. It is hard to imagine a skill set which the Project might not require at some juncture.

When?

When do you plan to leave?

The process of settlement will proceed by stages, requiring several years before Luna City can be considered properly established. Our intention is that the first pioneers should depart before the end of July, 2012, with launches of unmanned cargo capsules beginning at least three months before that.

Isn't that rather soon?

When President Kennedy declared the goal of a manned lunar expedition, the United States had not even put a human being into orbit of the Earth. The Apollo Project achieved the first manned lunar landing in only eight years, despite having to prove all the concepts and invent all the technology. What we propose is in some ways easier, and we can apply "off-the-shelf" solutions to many of the problems. The uncomfortably close deadline should help to ensure that we actually do something.

Why now?

The demand for raw materials and energy increases constantly, even as terrestrial resources draw closer to exhaustion. Meanwhile, political and economic structures grow daily less flexible and well adapted to the dynamics of society. The need for new sources of supply, and the need for the safety valve of a new frontier, grow ever more urgent.
The present moment presents us with an opportunity we would be fools not to seize. The generation which grew up with Apollo has succeeded to wealth and power, and there is uneasiness in some quarters over the unfulfilled dreams of youth. The rise of the Internet has furnished powerful new tools for organization and collaboration. If we miss this chance, it is hard to see when we will get another.

Doesn't it make more sense to wait until the advance of technology makes things easier?

Technology doesn't develop itself. In 1972, four men walked on the Moon. After thirty-five years of not going, the flight hardware which made that possible has been replaced, not by something better, but by nothing at all. To suppose that the trend will reverse itself, and that our goal will become easier to reach as long as we avoid trying it, is to fly in the face of the evidence as well as common sense.