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Stargazers watching the night sky. Credit: Halfblue CC-BY-SA-3.0

I’m planning a star party for our neighborhood in July so our local folks can do a little stargazing. We tried one last year, and it ended up raining that night. It had been clear for days before, so we figured it was a good time. But, suddenly the universe decided to send a little moisture our way just in time for stargazing. I didn’t mind too much—the drought in our area is pretty bad, so a little rain isn’t a bad thing.

If you’ve ever wanted to give a star party, it’s pretty easy to do. You just announce one, then it rains that night, and you reschedule. If you’re lucky, the cosmos will give you that second night as a clear one. If not, you rinse, lather, and repeat till you get a good night. Then, you gather at the right spot, look up, and explore.

Quality over Quantity

The star party we had attracted about 40 or 50 people. That included folks who drove quite a ways to get up to a clear dark-sky site. We had telescopes lined up like cannons along a walkway. A couple of observers even brought computerized systems and dazzled attendees with real-time screenshots of galaxies and clusters. It was a lot of fun.

Just so you know, though, none of that is necessary for a good star party. All you really need is a clear, dark sky (or access to a fairly dark area without direct lighting if you live in an urban setting. You do need a knowledge of the main constellations (or have somebody there with you who does), and a pointer. Some star charts are useful, too.

At a star party I gave last fall for a group of Cub Scouts, we had a few telescopes, but they didn’t get used. Instead, the main attraction was the Big Dipper. We talked about that one for quite a while, with the kids asking questions about it. I showed them how to use the Pointer Stars to find other objects. The Dipper was not in the best position in the sky, but we could see it clearly along the horizon. For our purposes, it worked well enough. As a bonus, we could see the Milky Way arching overhead.

Announcing an Eclipse

Not every star party gets organized in advance. Nor is it always a star party.

In May, I “worked” a science fiction media Con in Denver as the science track organizer. My job was to bring good science speakers in to share their work. We had quite a nice selection of folks, and attendees were quite enthusiastic about the talks. Each day, I announced that on Sunday night at the end of the Con, there’d be an eclipse of the Moon. I figured most people would be headed home that night, but at least they’d have something to do that night. Not only would the Moon look cool, but it would be a good chance to do a little stargazing.

I walked out of the hotel on Sunday to take a break and found about 50 or so people scattered around the parking lot, observing the eclipse. It was a very relaxing experience, and afterward, I got emails from people sharing their feelings about the event.

Just Get Out There

There’s something about the sky and stargazing that just attracts people, whether they know much about it or not. And, there are certainly a lot of good places to do it, ranging from your backyard to national parks. Over the years, I’ve attended many star parties. Sometimes I’ve been a guest speaker. Other times, I was showing people the sky from onboard a cruise ship. Often enough, it has been from a backyard or a mountaintop.

If you do give a star party, don’t stress over not knowing the whole sky. There are plenty of resources out there, including star charts you can take outside (or install on your smartphone or data pad). What’s important is that you just get out there and do it. Before long, you’ll find you and your family and friends talking about all kinds of cosmic things, all spurred on by a desire to see the stars.

The Moon's soil could be a rich resource to help astronauts synthesize supplies they need for future missions. Courtesy LRO. — Lunar soil could be a rich resource to help astronauts synthesize supplies they need for future missions. Courtesy LRO.

When people begin long-term occupancy of the Moon, they’ll have to depend on local materials (lunar soil, etc.) for resources. It’s pretty expensive to transport everything from Earth to the Moon. So, any future colonies and science labs will need to become self-sufficient as soon as they can.

So, what resources will lunar citizens need? Water. Oxygen. Fuels. Materials for habitats. Some of that will be brought from Earth, at first. But, it’s gonna get expensive. So, other resources have to come into play.

We all know that there’s no running water on the Moon, and no air, and those are first-order priorities. Once lunar colonists establish their “beachheads”, they will have to synthesize what they need. That’s going to require quite a lot of infrastructure development beyond what gets brought in the first wave from Earth. At the moment, there are no manufacturing plants, labs, or even habitats on the Moon. Just robots and orbiters. That’ll change, of course.

Using Lunar Soil and Astronaut “Exhaust”

As it turns out, oxygen and water can be generated from lunar rocks and soil. And, of course, the lunar polar regions do harbor water ice. So, those resources are there, although they will take some work to unlock.

So, how do we get life-supporting substances from the Moon? First, look at all the resources available. Lunar soil is rich in materials that can convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and fuels, according to scientists at Nanjing University in China. They’re analyzing materials brought back to Earth from the Chang’e 5 mission. The sample seems to be abundant in iron and titanium. So, that’s one source of raw materials.

Another source is lunar astronauts themselves. As they work, they breathe out water vapor and carbon dioxide. That can be captured for use—it would be a shame to just let it escape, right?

The team at Nanjing analyzed those resources and proposed a strategy they called “extraterrestrial photosynthesis”. It would use water processed from lunar soil, plus that from the astronauts, and the elements in the soil itself. The process would then create such compounds as methane, which can be a fuel. Tweak the process another way, and you get oxygen and water. The beauty of this procedure is that it uses local materials. You don’t have to pay to bring stuff from Earth on a rocket.

The leader of the Nanjing team, Zhigang Zou, described the system they hope to develop for use on the Moon and h ow it would work. “We use in-situ environmental resources to minimize the rocket payload,” he said in a press statement. “Our strategy provides a scenario for a sustainable and affordable extraterrestrial living environment.”

Future Lunar Resources Synthesis Machines

The Nanjing team is testing different configurations of equipment to allow future lunar astronauts to create their fuels, oxygen, and water. In addition, they’re studying ways that the lunar soil can supply resources for materials useful in creating livable environments. If all goes well, future lunar inhabitants will become self-sufficient. According to Zao, that future isn’t all that far away.

“In the near future, we will see the crewed spaceflight industry developing rapidly,” he said. “But, if we want to carry out large-scale exploration…we will need to think of ways to reduce payload, meaning relying on as little supplies from Earth as possible and using extraterrestrial resources, instead.”

Zao described the team’s work in a peer-reviewed paper, “Extraterrestrial photosynthesis by Chang’E lunar soil”, published in the journal Joule, May 5, 2022.

The Spacewriter's Ramblings

Stargazing Thoughts

Quality over Quantity

Announcing an Eclipse

Just Get Out There

Lunar Soil and Other Resources for Future Astronauts

Using Lunar Soil and Astronaut “Exhaust”

Future Lunar Resources Synthesis Machines

Exploring Science and the Cosmos