Preparations are in full swing for long-term human stay on the moon. In one of the intensive researches going on, scientists have proposed that a long wall on the moon would be helpful in multiple tasks at once and have suggested using an autonomous, hydraulic excavator robot to build it.
This robotic excavator will use materials found on the moon itself and rocks from the lunar surface will be deposited to build a ring wall, the radius of which will be between 50 and 100 meters. Scientists are not planning to adopt the costly practice of transporting construction material from Earth to the moon.
Jonas Walther, lead author of the study, told Space.com, “The robot will be used to collect boulders as well as build a wall.” Walther did this research for his master’s thesis at ETH Zurich. Walther is now working with Swiss company Venturi Lab, which is working with other companies on lunar rover designs.
To build the wall, only a special kind of robot needs to be sent to the moon. (Photo: ETH Zurich/Marc Schneider)
According to scientists, if humans ever settle permanently on the Moon, they will need lunar infrastructure to protect them from the emissions and debris of rockets landing or taking off, because there is no atmosphere on the Moon. In such a situation, the gases and substances emitted from the rockets can be harmful to things far and wide.
Gases, small particles and dust released from rocket emissions can be dangerous. This was discovered when the Apollo 12 crew began recovering the Surveyor 3 probe from Oceanus Procellarum and scientists found that dust from the lunar module Intrepid had damaged it.
Scientists also fear that the rocket emissions from SpaceX’s huge Starship vehicle, through which astronauts will be sent on NASA’s Artemis 3 mission, will damage the lunar environment over an area of hundreds of meters and extend it to kilometers. Therefore, they feel there is a need to install blast shields to protect any ground infrastructure in the future.
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FIRST PUBLISHED : August 2, 2024, 20:32 IST
