Constructing Sustainable Lunar Settlements

This volume analyses the multifaceted challenges and opportunities of future human habitation on the Moon.

The idea of a ‘Moon Village’, once promoted by the European Space Agency (ESA), serves as a shorthand for this ambition, and for the wider political, economic and ethical questions it raises. The book examines power, international cooperation and responsibility in space in the current return-to-the-Moon era. It contrasts Europe’s distributed approach—shared between ESA, EU and national governments—with the centralised strategies of the United States and China, and considers what this means for Europe’s capacity to act with coherence in space exploration. Drawing on policy, law and practical engineering insights, the book compares the United States and Europe in their spending, priorities and political commitment to lunar exploration. Case studies include EU space diplomacy (the European External Action Service and the EU Special Envoy for Space), Europe–Russia cooperation, and proposals for space taxation and rules for shared resources and fair access. Chapters also identify operational constraints—lunar dust, radiation, long nights and limited maintenance—and discuss 3D printing for habitat structures, robotics and low-maintenance operations, as well as power supply and storage. Bringing together space policy, legal and economic analysis with sustainable construction and engineering perspectives, the book shows how ‘building’ and ‘governance’ interact in lunar habitation.

This book will be of interest to students of space policy, sustainability, law and International Relations.