For as long as life as intelligent life has existed, we have gazed upon the white ember ofLuna, hanging in the night sky as a universally recognised symbol of mystery and the unknown.Though to us youngsters this may seem like aeons ago, July 20th of 1969 is not a day longforgotten, but is still relatively fresh in the world’s memory. On a chronicle of millenia, fifty yearsis but a meager blot.Yet for us, the new souls of the world, it is still too long a stretch of time. In 2022, it will be half acentury since we have set foot on our moon, so perhaps it is high time for planning a newincursion.Our camp is to be named ​Selena Vestige 1​. Selena is the greek name for the goddess of ourmoon, and the greeks are widely recognised for, essentially, laying the foundation for westerncivilisation, so a name adopted from their culture would be as universal and uncontroversial aspossible (of course, a lunar deity adopted from the pantheon of the first humans ever would bemore appropriate for a truly international effort, but no such mythology has yet beenreconstructed). you will recieve a mail, with more details on this project. We dindn’t manage to put all our informations, and there is still 3D models, that are more detailed. So we invite you to have a look at them.

It is our plan to land inside the crater of Clavius – a destination fit to forge a new age for humanity.

It has many attractive things for such a mission: traces of frozen water, prime location forobserving the movement of the spheres in outer space, and a more stable environment due toproximity to the pole. This shall become the cradle of a new kind of unified human effort – ourfirst true pocket of life in an ocean of void.

To construct our base, automation will be utilised maximally. Lunar automata shall lay thefoundation of the construction itself, while an intermediary orbital station (ILS) will be utilised todescend the pre-assembled modules onto the surface. The materials used shall be light aheadof durable, since in low gravity buildings are easier to structure. The base proper will besubterranean (sublunary?) to be shielded against the dangers of space. It shall be as a bunker,a vestige of life in a beautiful, yet fully dead world, a world which, according to modern theory,was never even alive in the first place.

​This colony will not be self-sufficient out of the gate – that would be too lofty a task. Frequent supply pods of water, sustenance and a minimal amount of consumer goods will havebe provided in order to keep the enterprise afloat for a while – yet this investment is but pennies compared to the economic prosperity moon colonisation could bring, especially consideringClavius crater is relatively easy to navigate towards.These resources will be conserved as much as possible. A system of water recyclement akin tothat of the ISS will be implemented – meaning we don’t lose much of precious hydration.

Food will, at the very first, come from a reserve of pre-made meals brought along on thevery first landing, yet this is only a temporary measure, until the legwork of setting up the base isover. The next step would be a mass of raw ingredients, able to be cooked much like on earthonce the base becomes fully inhabitable (we’ll have to figure out how these things work in a lowgravity environment – yet it should be easy to calculate). As we move into near-full selfsufficiency, plants will even be able to cultivate on-base to provide nourishment.

Solar energy will be used to its full potential, as it is the most efficient energy source inthese conditions. With enough time, the moon can also become a hub for nuclear energy. Here,with unlimited space and minimal safety concerns (not that there are many even on earth,nuclear energy is surprisingly safe in the modern age, contrary to popular belief) sprawlingpower plants can be built, subtracting cost of transport even cheaper than on earth due to themoon’s low gravity. Though this enters slightly the realm of near-future sci-fi, we could evenstart experiments with nuclear fusion..

The air that the residents of the base breathe will have to be as close in composition toearth’s atmosphere as possible – because that’s what humans have evolved to over billions ofyears. While this will also have to be provided from earth at first, mixing 78% of nitrogen with22% of oxygen (of course, there are other gases present in earth’s air, but those have not beenproven to be essential for breathing (though more detailed research is required). Further oxygenwill be obtained from electrolysis, as on the ISS, and then even through vegetation.

The day proceeds in an organised fashion. The astronauts shall have to wake up in differentshifts – so there is always a crew awake to conduct maintenance and so the base is constantlybeing developed. The largest teams will be assigned to be synchronised with time zonescovering Europe and the U.S. – the space capitals of our planet, and perhaps even China, astheir space programme is developing rapidly. Maintenance comes as a primary, followed thenby the planting of biological sustenance (once the colonies get to this point of self-upkeep),conducting scientific research (the colony’s primary purpose), followed by corporeal needs likenutrition and exercise, and just a touch of free time. The day will have to stick to a relatively rigidroutine at first, yet perhaps, over time, the base can become more of a standard workenvironment, especially once it stops being the only one.