Building a permanent human outpost on the Moon may be the hardest thing NASA has ever attempted — and the agency is only beginning to map out how.
That was the message from Shatel Bhakta, principal systems engineer for NASA’s Moon Base Program, during a July 30 talk at the Ion in Houston, part of a recurring speaker series connecting NASA’s Johnson Space Center with entrepreneurs, researchers and industry leaders through a partnership with Rice University. Laura Neder of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship welcomed the crowd, and Monte Goforth, Johnson’s acting director of Business Development and Technology Integration, opened the event before introducing Bhakta.
“This is probably going to be the most challenging endeavor NASA has ever undertaken,” Bhakta told the audience.
Credit: NASA/Sumer Loggins
NASA plans to build up the Moon Base gradually, starting with robotic missions and technology demonstrations designed to gather data on the lunar environment and test systems before expanding to full human infrastructure. The lunar South Pole, NASA’s target site, bears little resemblance to the relatively flat terrain of the Apollo landing sites. Steep slopes and deep craters dominate the landscape, and the sun sits so low on the horizon that shadows shift constantly — complicating navigation and leaving solar panels without direct sunlight for long stretches, which raises the need for energy storage and backup power sources.
The rugged terrain also means crews, rovers and other systems may not always have a clear line of sight back to Earth, requiring NASA to build out relay communications infrastructure across the region. Because of these constraints, Bhakta said the Moon Base likely won’t be a single connected settlement — it may instead be spread across multiple sites shaped by terrain, lighting, power and landing limitations.
One of the biggest technical hurdles is lunar regolith, the fine, sharp and clingy dust that covers the Moon’s surface. Left unmanaged, it can damage equipment and spacesuits and pose health risks to astronauts, and its electrostatic behavior shifts depending on lighting and environmental conditions. Understanding it thoroughly, Bhakta said, will be essential to keeping crews safe.
The payoff could be significant: some permanently shadowed craters near the South Pole may not have seen direct sunlight in billions of years and are believed to hold water ice and other volatile materials that could support future missions — though extracting and using them will require entirely new mobility, power and processing systems. Beyond the Moon itself, Bhakta framed the base as a proving ground for deeper space exploration, where NASA can learn how crews and equipment perform away from Earth before eventually sending humans to Mars.
Asked about managing such a complex, evolving system, Bhakta offered a design philosophy: “Don’t deal with the technology directly. Deal with the interfaces.”
He also made a pitch to the room, which included students and professionals well outside traditional aerospace engineering. “There are many ways to contribute,” Bhakta said. “Don’t be afraid that your skill set does not fit in.” NASA currently has multiple open solicitations tied to the Moon Base effort, ranging from early technology demonstrations to long-term surface operations, open to industry and international partners. Details are available at nasa.gov/moonbase-solicitations.
