But it would require a stable power supply – which only a nuclear reactor can provide, as the Moon’s lengthy lunar nights make solar energy unreliable.
The trouble with solar on the moon is that the day-night cycle is a month long. You have to figure out what to do during the 2 Earth weeks worth of night.
I suppose with a polar base, you could have several solar farms strategically placed so that at least one of them is operational at any given time, but that’s a lot of infrastructure and this is early days.
For what purpose??? Solar power makes the most sense on the moon. No atmosphere.
And batteries are heavy. It would take a lot of lifts to get enough capacity up there.
Just put 4 solar stations equidistant around the moon and wire them together. Boom, stable solar power!
Boom thousands of kilometer of cable to install and loss of power on transmission.
They would need lots of power to run life support, produce air and fuel from water. Solved problems on nuclear subs.
Just put them at the poles??
The trouble with solar on the moon is that the day-night cycle is a month long. You have to figure out what to do during the 2 Earth weeks worth of night.
I suppose with a polar base, you could have several solar farms strategically placed so that at least one of them is operational at any given time, but that’s a lot of infrastructure and this is early days.