ESA plans to use moon dust as building materials for moon village

When the International Space Station (ISS) closes by 2024, it would be replaced by a lunar village by 2030. The village, using moon dust as building materials, would be made by robots and 3D printers.

The moon village concept, presented on Friday by the European Space Agency (ESA), would serve as a stepping stone to Mars. Besides the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), other nations such as Russia and China would also take part in the space venture, says ESA Chief Jan Woerner in Paris.

These countries and institutions could contribute technology and astronauts to help prepare for the mission to the Red Planet. They could take part with the ongoing physics and biology research that the ISS is conducting, he adds, reports The Telegraph.

Besides stressing the importance of the ISS in space exploration missions, the ESA chief points out the low cost of space travel now. Woerner shares that ESA’s space programmes costs the equivalent of 10 litres of petrol for every EU citizen annually. Satellite navigation costs EU residents one beer per person, while a human space flight has a price tag equivalent to one metro ticket per EU capita per year.

ESA enjoys a bigger €5.25 billion (AUD$8.3 billion) budget in 2016 from 2015’s €4.4 billion (AUS$7 billion) budget because of the generosity of member-states, especially Italy and the substantial hike of investment by the European Commission. The commission owns the Galileo positioning, navigation and timing network and the Copernicus Earth observation programme and its sentinel satellites, notes Spacenews.

The EC boosted its space spending by 29 percent to €1.36 billion (AUD$2.16 billion), while Italy increased its ESA payments by 55 percent to €512 million (AUD$814) because of the Vega rocket owned by Italy.