Vsauce, I’m Jake and recently I’ve been
playing a lot of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel which takes place on a Lunar colony that has
similar characteristics to our own moon. And it got me thinking about how mankind has always
dreamed of colonizing the moon. Back in 1638 Bishop John Wilkins wrote about future humanity
living on the moon. In the 1950s and 60s the US Government created numerous proposals detailing
just that like the US Army’s Project Horizon in 1959 which outlined a military base on
the Moon by 1966. Or the US Air Force’s Lunex Project to create an underground air
force base. And in 2006 NASA proposed to build a lunar outpost by 2024. But what if we actually did...what would it
be like on Earth’s only natural satellite...”What if We Lived on the Moon?” One of the first things you’d notice is
the Sun and how it would be white. Because there is only an extremely thin layer of gas
surrounding the Moon, an exosphere, there is no real atmosphere to absorb and scatter
sunlight… which is also the reason why the lunar sky is just black. You’d also have
a hard time seeing any stars since the Sun is so much brighter than they are. It is the
reason why there are no visible stars in the background of photos from the Apollo missions. A lunar day would be a lot longer, as well.
It would last 29 Earth days with 14.5 of them being in sunshine and 14.5 in darkness. And
even though the Moon and Earth are pretty equal in terms of distance to the sun, the
lack of atmosphere on the Moon means that the temperatures would change dramatically
- going from 240 degrees F during the day to -280 degrees F at night. And then there
are parts of the Moon where it’s perpetually dark. Deep craters around the poles may never see
sunlight and the coldest temperature ever recorded in our Solar System so far was inside
one of them, the Hermite crater, at - 413 degrees Fahrenheit. The coldest natural recording
on Earth was in Antarctica at -135.8 degrees. It is thought that within these craters there
is water ice which would allow us to get H20 directly from the moon instead of the incredible
cost of having it sent from Earth. On the opposite side of the spectrum are parts
of the Moon that are exposed to direct sunlight over 80% of the time. These extremely long
hours of daylight and darkness would not only put us out of sync with the Earth, but could
mess with our bodies. Midnight suns can cause sleep disturbance, hyperactivity, fatigue,
and irritable moods; whereas polar nights can lead to feelings of sadness, lack of energy,
difficulty concentrating, difficulty staying awake and cravings for carbohydrates. Since we’d be on a different time than the
citizens of Earth, we’d need a way to keep track of it. In 1970 Astronomer Kenneth L.
Franklin created a watch for people who visited the moon. It told time in “lunations”
which were equal to 29.5 Earth days. If you didn’t have a moon watch, another
way to tell time would be by using the cycles of the Earth’s phases. Just like how we
used the Moon’s to create a lunar calendar, we could use the Earth to create a calendar
for the moon. Since both celestial bodies are tidally locked to each other, we would
see all phases of the Earth in one full Lunar day and it would look something like this… The Earth is almost 4 times bigger than the
Moon, so during an eclipse the sun becomes makes a red ring around the Earth
for hours… Besides the effects the long days and nights
would have on us mentally, the difference in gravity would change us physically. We
know that the human body in microgravity causes bone loss, and the wasting away or atrophy
of muscles. Luckily the moon has 1/6th the gravity of Earth, so you’d not only be able
to lift a small cow but these effects on your body would happen less quickly than say to
the astronauts on the International Space Station...but one of the benefits of being
on the ISS is that you age less. After 6 months on the ISS, the astronauts
are .0007 seconds younger than if they had stayed on Earth. However, on the Moon you
would age faster. Einstein said that “time is a river”. It can speed up at certain
points and slow down at others. Because of time dilation, time would be going faster
on the Moon so if you stayed there for a year you’d be .002 seconds older than on Earth
and after 80 years you’d be .16 seconds older. Also there are the doses of radiation
you’d be blasted with because of the whole no atmosphere thing. So why not make an atmosphere
on the moon? The big issues would be the solar wind that
would slowly whisk it away and according to the Hoekzema Study, that looked into creating
a Lunar atmosphere, it would take about a century to create one that was stable...however
it wouldn’t be breathable at a pressure one ten-millionth that of the one on Earth’s
surface. It would actually be the same as the Karman line, the altitude at which “outer
space” technically begins. Even if we could create a breathable atmosphere on the Moon,
it would only last for 100 years until it’d need to be replenished. So we’d have to stick to space suits and
bio-domes for our moon adventures and not have a breathable atmosphere. The silver lining
to all of this though would be climbing the moon’s highest point, which at 35,328 feet
makes it 6,299ft taller than Everest, and firing a tank. Why fire a tank you ask? Because
the bullet you just shot would then orbit the moon. Just be sure to move out of the
way an hour and 49 minutes later when it comes back around...and as always, thanks for watching.
