Every Variable Changes: From the ISS to Moon Base

The Moon, backlit by the Sun during a solar eclipse, is photographed by NASA’s Orion spacecraft on April 6, 2026, during the Artemis II mission. Image Credit: NASA

Establishing Moon Base takes builds upon NASA’s most important in-space research outpost, the International Space Station, and changes every variable. First, let’s step back and look at the space community’s last permanent research base, the International Space Station (ISS). In November of 1998 the Zarya Functional Cargo Block (Russia called it the FGB) launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan and entered orbit. It was the first module of the ISS.¹ Funded by the US and built by Russia, it was sent up to be joined with the second module, Unity, which was built in the US and launched on December 4th of that same year.² The two modules were put together by the 50-foot (~15 meters) robotic arm on Space Shuttle Endeavour during the STS-88 mission.²

On October 31st, 2000, the Expedition 1 crew (William M. Shepherd, Sergei K. Krikalev, and Yuri P. Gidzenko) launched from Baikonur and docked with the new International Space Station two days later.³ Since then, NASA and the international space community have kept it occupied and operational.³

Expedition 1 crew joining hands during a break from training for their upcoming mission are, from the left, William M. Shepherd, Expedition 1 commander; Yuri P. Gidzenko, Soyuz commander; and Sergei K. Krikalev, flight engineer. Image Credit: NASA

Over the past 25 years of operation, the ISS has housed 292 astronauts from 26 different countries and supported over 2,500 scientific investigations.³ That’s a massive impact by a structure that started as the size of a one-bedroom apartment (it has now grown to the size of a football field). Those 2,500+ investigations have led to many discoveries and an increased understanding of the effects of microgravity. The ISS was exciting as it enabled research in sustained microgravity and humans living in space. It has accomplished so much over its lifetime and continues to do so.

The next big research outpost on the final frontier will be built on the lunar surface. Just like the ISS it will contribute to thousands of studies and discoveries. Its impact will be broader than the ISS. The ISS put a sustained presence in space, but the major variable changed was gravity. The Moon will present a much more compelling research outpost as every variable will change. The lunar surface brings incredible opportunities and exceedingly difficult challenges.

The Moon has 1/6 Earth’s gravity and no atmosphere. The lunar regolith (lunar “soil”) is sharp, electrically charged and very fine. The fineness and angularity of the particles provide a damaging hazard to equipment and people.⁴

The surface is fine and powdery. I can—I can pick it up loosely with my toe. It does adhere in fine layers like powdered charcoal to the sole and sides of my boots. — Neil Armstrong about lunar regolith

This adherence as he called it is a major problem. It’s what makes the dust stick to solar panels, clog electrical ports, and eat into seals and astronaut suits making them less effective.⁴ Due to its fineness, the regolith lofts very easily. Combining this with its clinginess and the fact that it’s dangerous to breathe becomes a hazard for astronauts if it makes it inside their spacecraft. Apollo astronauts reported sneezing and nasal congestion due to the regolith, and prolonged exposure may result in similar health effects as seen in the mining industry.⁴

The area chosen for Artemis landing sites is called the South Pole-Aitken Basin (SPA), a massive impact feature spanning the distance from the Aitken Crater at 16.66 degrees S latitude to the lunar South Pole.⁵ It’s an area about 1,550 miles (2,500 km) in diameter.⁶ Its regolith is a lunar highlands type meaning it is mature and rich in anorthosite. The lunar highlands make up the lighter parts of the Moon while the lunar mare makes up the darker parts. The mare consists of a younger, more basaltic or volcanic regolith.⁶ These are important distinctions that will impact the processes used to build Moon Base.

Image showing the South Pole-Aitken Basin. Image Credit: NASA

The SPA is home to permanently shadowed regions (PSRs), which may hold water ice.⁶ PSRs are possible at the South Pole due to the extremely low angle of sunlight. Combining this with the heavily cratered and rough surface of the SPA makes it possible for some areas to be permanently hidden from the Sun and cold enough to sustain water ice.⁶ The rough surface and low angle of sunlight will make it difficult for lunar rovers and astronauts to navigate. Other hazards (or exciting challenges) on the Moon include micrometeorite bombardment, Moonquakes, the lunar day and night cycle with its temperature swings, and radiation.⁷ I hope to cover the challenges on the lunar surface in more detail in another article later on. For now I just want to emphasize how different establishing Moon Base will be than anything that we’ve done before.

Moon Base will enable scientific discovery in a place we’ve only briefly visited and a look into older geologically affected body.⁸ It will also usher in the beginning of a space resource based economy built upon commodities such as rocket fuel produced on the Moon and exportable helium-3.⁹ Producing materials on the Moon is part of a broad push by public and private industry to arrive on the Moon and use what’s already there, a type of living off the land so to speak. It’s called in situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), a field of research where we are trying to harvest oxygen and metals from regolith, build structures using processes like regolith sintering or 3D printing, mine volatiles such as water ice among many others.¹⁰

Researchers are developing processes to use microwave heating to create landing pads, bricks, and 3D structures. This is what my research focuses on and it’s called microwave sintering. Microwaves couple to the dielectric properties of the material directly and heat the material volumetrically, which is quite efficient for heating a very insulative material like lunar regolith. Sintering is a ceramics manufacturing process that takes a powdered material, which in this case is the regolith itself, and heats it to a point that is close to its melting point but not quite. This causes the individual grains of the material to join together and can be used to consolidate material. This consolidation is also a very effective form of dust mitigation. You can’t have dust lofting about if it’s been sintered together! Microwave sintering is just one example of the type of research ongoing in the ISRU field.

The Moon Base vision. Image Credit: NASA/Edmy S. Cruz Reyes

Phase 1 of Moon Base will send up 25 missions total with 21 landing on the lunar surface.¹¹ Artemis has moved slowly in its initial build up and growing pains, but it will begin to outpace Apollo shortly.¹² America is finally going back to the Moon. Artemis II was a huge deal. And we still don’t even have boots on the ground. We’re going back to the Moon to establish a sustained human presence. Lunar science and technology development will happen quickly over the next 20 years. Welcome to the second space race.

This is the first post in a series on living and building on the Moon. Next up: ISRU processes, the lunar regolith, and the South Pole environment.