The ISS Could Be Replaced by a Moon Village in the Future

The International Space Station currently holds the record for the longest inhabited satellite, but it’s not exactly clear at this point how much longer will astronauts keep on inhabiting it. On the one hand, Russia has already agreed to keep the project running until 2024 while other partners such as Europe decided not to confirm funding the ISS past 2020. The European Space Agency’s new Director General, Johann-Dietrich Woerner, has much bigger plans for the future, plans that consist in building a “Moon village” on the dark side of Earth’s natural satellite.

The village could include a large telescope that could be used to peer deep into the Universe. Furthermore, communication with Earth would be ensured by a stationary satellite that would be placed at a special spot where the Sun and Earth’s gravitational forces are balanced. The Moon village could also serve as a base for microgravity research or medical research while Americans could even use it to test their Mars-bound technologies.

Woerner also brought up the fact that there are currently several important countries that are not taking part in space missions:

“You know in the ISS we have Russia, the US, Japan, Canada, and Europe, but some spacefaring countries are out. With moon village, I would be happy if they are in.”

Furthermore, since projects such as the Moon village are mostly funded by taxpayers, the ESA’s director would like to give them a better chance at expressing their own opinions regarding mankind’s trips into outer space. His exact words were:

“This is exactly what I would like to do: to open the space sector to the public in both directions.”

What do you think about the Moon village? It certainly looks like a step in the right direction to me.

Thank you Motherboard.Vice.com for providing us with this information.