The Moon Is Not Trying To Kill You
This is important to understand from the outset.
The Moon has no malicious intent. It is not hostile. It simply exists in a state that happens to be profoundly incompatible with organic chemistry continuing to function without extensive technological mediation.
The lack of atmosphere is not a design flaw—it is a feature that results from having insufficient mass to retain volatile gases against solar wind over geological timescales.
The radiation exposure is not cruel—it is simply what happens when you remove both atmospheric shielding and a global magnetic field.
The razor-sharp dust is not malicious—it is merely what occurs when you pulverise rock through billions of years of micrometeorite impacts without the weathering effects of wind or water to round the edges.
The Moon is, by all accounts, perfectly content being the Moon.
It is humans who insist on living there anyway.
The Dust Problem: Sharp, Sticky, and Everywhere
Lunar regolith is not like terrestrial soil. It has never been weathered by wind or water. Every particle retains jagged, glass-like edges formed through impact fracturing. The finest fraction—particles smaller than twenty micrometres—carries persistent electrostatic charges from solar wind bombardment, causing it to cling tenaciously to spacesuits, visors, seals, and any surface it contacts.
During the Apollo missions, astronauts reported that lunar dust eroded spacesuit boots, clogged mechanisms, scratched helmet visors, and infiltrated habitat modules despite rigorous airlock protocols. Harrison Schmitt, the geologist-astronaut on Apollo 17, experienced what he termed “lunar hay fever”—sneezing, nasal congestion, and throat irritation from inhaling trace amounts that entered the Lunar Module.
Recent research reveals the biological threat extends deeper. When lunar regolith contacts human lung tissue, it generates hydroxyl radicals that damage DNA and disrupt mitochondrial function. The reduced iron content in space-weathered regolith appears to amplify this reactivity. Under one-sixth gravity, fine particles bypass upper airways more effectively and deposit in alveolar regions where clearance mechanisms are slower.
For permanent lunar settlements, dust mitigation is not optional. It is existential.
Current solutions include: electrostatic repelling surfaces on spacesuits, pressurised “suitports” that eliminate bringing suits inside habitats, rigorous decontamination protocols, and simply accepting that some level of dust exposure is unavoidable and monitoring lung health accordingly.
The Radiation Mathematics: Unpleasant But Solvable
Earth’s surface receives approximately 2-3 millisieverts of radiation annually from cosmic rays, solar activity, and terrestrial sources. The lunar surface, lacking both atmosphere and magnetic field, receives approximately 380 millisieverts per year—roughly seventy-six times higher.
This comes in two primary forms:
Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs): High-energy particles from supernova remnants and other astrophysical sources outside our solar system. These are continuous, unavoidable, and particularly concerning because they include HZE particles (High charge and Energy nuclei) that create dense ionisation tracks through tissue and are difficult to shield against.
Solar Particle Events (SPEs): Bursts of energetic protons from solar flares and coronal mass ejections. These are sporadic but can deliver lethal doses within hours during major events. Fortunately, they are primarily protons, which are easier to shield against than GCRs.
The mathematics are straightforward but unpleasant. Extended surface operations accumulate dose. Career limits become constraining factors for long-term lunar residents.
The solution is equally straightforward: do not spend extended time on the surface.
Live underground. Ancient lava tubes—naturally occurring tunnels formed by flowing basaltic magma billions of years ago—provide ready-made radiation shelters with metres of rock overhead. Alternatively, construct surface habitats and bury them under several metres of regolith.
Shielding works. It is heavy, logistically challenging to emplace, and requires accepting that “living on the Moon” actually means “living in the Moon.” But it works.
The Gravity Question: Unknown Territory
The Moon’s surface gravity is 1.62 m/s²—precisely one-sixth of Earth’s 9.81 m/s². This places it in unexplored physiological territory between microgravity (which we know causes bone loss, muscle atrophy, cardiovascular changes, and vision impairment) and Earth gravity (where humans evolved).
We do not know what partial gravity does to human physiology over months or years.
We have extensive data from the International Space Station about microgravity. We have complete understanding of Earth gravity. We have essentially no data about the physiological effects of sustained exposure to one-sixth g.
The Apollo astronauts spent at most three days on the surface—insufficient time for significant physiological adaptation. No subsequent missions have provided longer-duration partial gravity data.
Current countermeasure proposals centre on artificial gravity supplementation: daily sessions in centrifuges generating Earth-normal acceleration to maintain bone density and cardiovascular function. Whether this works remains speculative. Whether it is sufficient remains unknown.
The greatest unknown concerns foetal development. Human gestation evolved under Earth gravity. Bone formation, muscle development, cardiovascular system maturation—all calibrated to specific gravitational loading. Would a foetus develop normally at one-sixth g? Would a child born on the Moon ever be physiologically capable of visiting Earth, or would their skeleton and cardiovascular system be unable to tolerate our planet’s gravity?
We do not know.
And we will not know until someone tries.
ISRU: Turning Ice Into Infrastructure
In-Situ Resource Utilisation transforms lunar economics from “impossibly expensive” to “merely very expensive.”
Water ice exists in permanently shadowed craters at the lunar poles, mixed into the upper metres of regolith at concentrations reaching several percent by mass. This ice, when extracted and processed, becomes:
- Potable water: Essential for drinking, hygiene, and food production
- Breathable oxygen: Electrolysed from water, providing life support
- Liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen: Combined as rocket propellant
Every kilogram of water extracted from the Moon and converted to propellant is a kilogram that does not need to be launched from Earth’s gravity well at costs of thousands of pounds per kilogram. This fundamentally alters the economics of deep-space missions.
The Moon becomes not merely a destination but a filling station—a waystation where spacecraft departing for Mars, asteroids, or beyond can refuel using locally-produced propellant. This is the economic case for permanent lunar infrastructure.
The process is technically mature: robotic excavators scoop regolith, heating elements sublimate the ice, condensers capture the vapour, electrolysers split it into constituent elements, cryogenic systems liquefy and store the products. It works. It has been demonstrated in laboratory conditions and validated by robotic missions.
The challenge is scale and reliability. Building and maintaining this infrastructure in one of the most extreme environments in the solar system, with equipment that must function at temperatures approaching absolute zero whilst being sandblasted by micrometeorites, requires engineering of exceptional robustness.
But it is solvable. And it changes everything.
What Daily Life Actually Looks Like
Permanent lunar residents—perhaps arriving within twenty-five years—will not live in transparent domes gazing at Earth whilst wearing comfortable jumpsuits. They will live in pressurised modules buried under regolith or carved into lava tubes, venturing to the surface only when necessary and only wearing full spacesuits with comprehensive radiation monitoring.
Their days involve:
- Mandatory centrifuge sessions to maintain bone density
- Continuous medical monitoring tracking radiation exposure, cardiovascular function, bone loss rates
- Work shifts supervising autonomous mining operations, maintaining surface infrastructure, conducting scientific research
- Extensive equipment maintenance because dust destroys everything and equipment failures are life-threatening
- Rigorous psychological screening and support because isolation, confinement, and constant danger strain mental health
Fresh food comes from hydroponic and aeroponic farms producing vegetables and herbs. Protein comes from cultured meat grown in bioreactors. Water and air are recycled with obsessive efficiency. Everything not locally produced arrives on quarterly resupply flights at enormous expense.
Leisure involves low-gravity sports, Earth-gazing from observation lounges, and the peculiar psychological experience of living somewhere that remains persistently hostile to your continued existence.
This is not comfortable. This is not Earth-like. This is more analogous to a submarine or Antarctic research station—constant technological mediation between human biology and an unforgiving environment.
But it is possible.
The First Lunar Generation: Greatest Unknown
The question that haunts medical ethicists and mission planners alike: what happens when someone gives birth on the Moon?
We do not know if gestation proceeds normally at one-sixth gravity. We do not know if bone density develops adequately. We do not know if the cardiovascular system calibrates correctly. We do not know if a child born on the Moon could ever visit Earth without their skeleton collapsing under gravitational loading they were never designed to withstand.
We do not know if such children would consider the Moon home and Earth a distant, impossible world where gravity crushes and atmosphere confuses.
The ethical questions are vast. The scientific questions are vaster.
Humanity’s first truly extraterrestrial generation might not be “humans living on the Moon.” They might be something new: lunar, adapted to an environment their parents merely tolerated through technology, unable to return to the ancestral planet, constituting the first branch of humanity that cannot go home.
This is not science fiction speculation. This is a genuine possibility within the lifetime of people currently alive.
And we are not prepared for what it means.
The Management Assessment
The Square-Haired Boss would like to remind employees that “habitable” is a spectrum, not a binary classification.
Earth is habitable in the sense that humans can exist there without constant technological support. The Moon is habitable in the sense that humans can exist there with extensive, continuous technological support that, if interrupted for any reason, results in rapid and catastrophic mortality.
Both are technically habitable. The difference matters.
Living on the Moon requires accepting that every breath is recycled, every drop of water is extracted from frozen regolith or reclaimed from waste, every structural panel stands
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🎧 Listen to the full episode — Can We Live On the Moon?