The illustration released by ESA on Thursday shows a vision of a future lunar settlement made up of semi-buried inflatable rings. Mirrors above each ring would reflect sunlight into the greenhouses Photo: Thomas Herzig/dpa
From BZ/dpa
Like big hills with giant mirrors: this is what a space station on the moon could possibly look like.
The European space agency Esa, based in Paris, published a corresponding picture of a study on Thursday.
According to the idea, the partly buried inflatable ring elements should contain greenhouses that are connected by tunnels. Large movable mirrors are said to direct sunlight into craters. From there it should be passed on to the greenhouses with the help of additional mirrors. Work and living areas made of two-layer, inflatable foil are also planned.
The conception comes from the Austrian company Pneumocell and is not the first proposal for a lunar station that has been submitted to ESA. Ex-ESA boss Jan Wörner had advertised internationally with his vision of the so-called “Moon Village”, a kind of common base on the moon.
With the “Artemis” program of the US space agency Nasa, a kind of space station on the moon is now being targeted. In the distant future, it will also serve as a base for manned flights to Mars.
