blog.Jelmer Oosthoek.nl

By Kirk Jones (2044)

When we came to the Moon, two decades ago, everything had to be brought from Earth. Now we make our own stuff here. Its crazy to think how fast everything has changed. Even when I came here, two years ago, some of the things we take for granted nowadays, like a railway system linking all the major international and national bases, wasn’t available yet. I feel privileged to be in this time of change. I wake up, watch the technews and many mornings some new development in engineering, material design or nanotechnology is announced. Just yesterday I saw a story about a new type of intelligent radiation shield, made from ordinary moondust.
When I watch the normal political terrestrial news however this is another story. There it is always the same; on Earth people are fighting and killing each other. It hasn’t happened on the Moon, yet. The Moon has all these different nationalities and religions around, so whats going on? There are people on the Moon in all sizes and shapes. But there is one thing we all have in common, we are on an alien world. A world which could kill. And therefore we have to work together. We also have to cooperate to become more self sufficient, more disconnected from Earth. This lunacentric thinking is cropping up all around the Moon.
The first base on the Moon was a joint NASA/ESA mission. Its nominal mission was from 2021 tot 2023. It was build on the lunar north pole because of the water ice there. There is enough ice there to sustain all of us on the Moon, that is at least until 2050, taking into account the estimated and expected lunar population rise. Then we have to start harvesting somewhere else. Perhaps we can trap a comet into a lunar orbit. The terries would love that, I know for sure!
Another reason to build on the pole was the fact that there are some mountain peaks which receive sunlight all the time, called peaks of eternal light. After the NASA/ESA base the Chinese soon followed and then came the Russians. Currently the list includes the South American Union, South Africa, Iran, India, Australia and Japan. And then I haven’t spoken yet about all the mine sites cropping out, although they are run mostly by Australians and South Africans. These are rough guys, and some girls, doing a rough job. I guess only mining asteroids is higher in the roughness scale. They are mining for crater related ores. And there are a lot of craters on the Moon, so the prospects are high.

The place where I live is the only true international base. Its becoming bigger and soon it will become a city, the first city of the Moon. Should we call it Lunar City? Perhaps Lunapolis? Someone know a good name? Currently we are referring to it as New Apollo Station. It was build near the Apollo 11 landing site, you know the one of the first manned Moon mission in the 1960’s. They want to keep the site in its pre lunar settlement condition which is difficult because a year ago an ore body was found directly underneath. Poor miners… They’re talking about subsurface mining, not open pit, using automatic drilling and excavation devices which use radar and spectral imaging devices to look for the ore. Strange idea that this will happen underneath my door step. Waking up each morning feeling a distinct humming noise underneath.
I like to live in New Apollo Station, its becoming the main port for the Moon. Rich terrie tourists start off their holiday here after which they disperse to whatever the Moon has to offer. Sorry for them that isn’t much, yet. There are no lunar holiday centers where you can swim, sunbath or strap on a birdsuit and fly in the low gravity. There are a lot of plans of course and I know for sure the Moon will soon open for commercialism. But now its still science, engineering and mining. Although I heard some rumors about secret military bases by the US and China where they train space soldiers and develop all sorts of military space hardware. I hope they won’t wage war against each other on the Moon. I guess the terries would love that too, fireworks on the Moon! As long as the fighting takes place far away from you, who cares?
I live in the Armstrong quarters of New Apollo Station, its completely subsurface so I’m used to artificial lighting. I go out now and then, I work for a lunar based company which designs the new generation of space suits. The newest prototypes we test outside with robots inside. No live testing in this vacuum around, we don’t want a fatality on our hands. It has happened of course. A lot of people have been killed, but thats part of the job, and part of living on the Moon. We knew it when we came here, the Moon is dangerous! Most people killed were brought back to Earth for a decent funeral. But I hear a lot of the people nowadays saying they want to be cremated and their ashes mixed with moondust on the surface. In a biological perspective its a strange thing, because it means that your ashes are disconnected from the lifecycle. I guess in a true self sufficient lunar society everything needs to be recycled so perhaps I will end up as food for the plants in the greenhouse.
I started working on spacesuits back on Earth. Then it was all about the international space station and the first space hotels. Tourists wanted to make spacewalks and they didn’t like the bulky spacesuits astronauts used. So the company, called AstroSuits, I work for was started to try to make the thinnest suit possible. There are competitors but the spacesuits I help to design are still the most widely used.

Living on the Moon means getting used to the lunar day, which we call lunasol, of around 14 days of sunshine and 14 days of darkness with only the occasional earthshine. For the rest we use the same seven day week as the terries do. Because the lunasol is not exactly 28 days we have leap days now and then. This darkness outside for 14 days is really difficult for a lot of people. People get claustrophobic easily here on the Moon. You need to have a tough stomach. I’m okay with it, there is enough artificial lighting around anyway, even outside.
I heard some talking on the news about putting a sunmirror in one of the Earth-Moon Lagrangian points, but that was just a proposal. That would help the farsiders I guess, they don’t even see the occasional earthshine during the dark days. The far side of the Moon isn’t so populated anyway. People want to remain in touch with the Earth, even when it isn’t any bigger then their thumb. The far side is science country. And perhaps some black op. military operations flourish there, I don’t know. Concerning science, they’ve build a nice array telescope there. Some of these scientists are even as crazy to say one day we can see pictures of the big bang itself! Thats just too mind boggling for me to understand.

Today its saturday, which means weekend! I think I will go outside, rent a mooncar and drive around a bit. The nice thing about these mooncars, and the low gravity of the Moon, is the fact that you can make nice jumps. All mooncars are of the ‘outdoor’ type and they are very strong and have a powerful suspension system. Its a great place for stunt drivers. The latest James Bond movie will be shot here I read. When I was young I saw the movie Moonraker and was was then depicted is now as normal as my morning cup of tea, except for that guy jaws of course, haven’t seen him around.
I go mostly outside on drives with a good friend, Daisy Summers. Yeay, shut up about her name, she can’t help it, her parents must have been neohippies or something. Daisy also works for AstroSuits, in the client satisfaction section. She organizes the yearly AstroSuit Conference where people all over the Moon gather to talk about living on the Moon, walking outside, that sort of things. The conference summary gives a good idea how it is to live on the Moon. AstroSuit uses the outcome of the conference to better the product line.
Daisy is a lovely person and we have fun during our drives. I’m used to it now, but driving the first time was so strange! Greyness everywhere and all those craters around, in all sizes. Driving to the rim of one of the big ones and looking inside the crater. This big bowl formed by completely unimaginable cosmic forces. Daisy and me awed, looked at each other which resulted in us making love. That wasn’t planned or something, we were just colleagues who met during a company introduction weekend some days before. We now know, also from other accounts that the Moon can do these things to people. Which is nice. And me and Daisy? Well, we are in a so called lunar relationship. Its normal here to not attach so much before you are 50 or something, I’m 45.

You know, the Moon has helped Earth a lot, especially in the field of sustainable development. The Moon needs to be self sufficient so sustainability is a must. A lot of the nice solutions we lunatics have realized are used on Earth. Think about our water recycling system. It is used in poor countries on Earth where water is scarce. When the technology becomes cheaper I guess it will become more widespread. And what about energy? We are engineering better solar arrays which can also be used all over Earth. Its all about humans trying to survive you know and on the Moon we have entered the most harsh and human unfriendly place around. Mars is much more friendly! Talking about Mars and lunacentric thinking, there are some advocates of a lunar base on Mars! Crazy idea isn’t it, but why the hell not?
So are we becoming a nation? A Lunation? Its all in the peoples minds of course and most things are run officially by people on Earth, company CEO’s and government officials who haven’t set a foot on the Moon. They only know the Moon from images, videos and holographs. Luckily it only takes somewhat more then 2 to 3 seconds to transmit a message and receive an answer from the Earth to the Moon and vice versa.

I meet a lot of interesting people in New Apollo Station. As I said it is the port of the Moon. I recently met a Dutch scientist and part time artist. His name is Henk Verschoor and one of his artistic endeavors is really nice, although I think it will cost a lot. He wants to say hello to Earth, from the Moon. His idea is to build a number of mirrors which mirror the sunlight from the Moon to Earth. The mirrors will form the word HELLO. People on Earth should be able to see it. He has gathered a lot of sponsors back on Earth. A lot of people would love such a stunt. I hope he succeeds.
A year ago I met this lunar geologist – they all refer to themselves as selenologist nowadays – who is working for the Lunar Science Institute. This guy told me they are going to drill very deep into the mare basalts to see if they can artificially erupt a new volcano. I met him at one of the pubs in the station center commercial district, which we refer to as downtown. I go there a lot, drinking homegrown lunar beer and listening to all the conversations around me. Its one of my favorite pass time activities.
I could go on for some time, the Moon is filled with great people. I also met a scientist who was heading for Mars. There is a launch site on the Moon for Mars and Asteroid Belt travelers. He was here to embark one of the Mars bound spacecraft but went to the Moon a couple of days before the launch date to have a look around. They recently discovered billion years old fossils on Mars and he was one of the coauthors of the publication. You know they also found fossils on the Moon? They were discovered inside meteorites which were found on the lunar surface. These rocks were originally from Earth but were blown into space due to a major impact on Earth. I think they found some microorganism fossils, not fossil dinosaurs or something. Would love to find a dinosaur bone, walking on the Moon!
Talking about bones, my company also makes suits for dogs, and they love bones. Tomorrow I’m going for a trip outside with one of our trained dogs. It isn’t the first time a dog has walked on the Moon and the specific dog has a lot of experience in walking outside. But the suit we are testing tomorrow is much more comfortable so I guess the dog will be able to run. He will need to be on a leash – company regulations – but I guess I can allow it just this time. I just throw a bone and let him run after it. The suit should be strong enough anyway. But will he come back?…

To be continued…