How to build a house on the Moon
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Humans have visited the Moon but we’ve never lived there. Could we build a home on our lunar neighbor? Join Molly and co-host Ira as they find out why the Moon can be a dangerous place, and what it would take to live there. We’ll imagine a visit to a lunar hotel, hear about all the stuff humans have left up there and even hear a song sung by the Moon herself!
Featured Expert: Phil Plait, astronomer, journalist and author of several books, including, Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer’s Guide to the Universe, which uses science and imagination to paint a picture of what it would be like to vacation on the moon.
Audio Transcript
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IRA: You're listening to Brains On! where we're serious about being curious.
ANNOUNCER: Brains On! is supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
CASTING DIRECTOR: Thank you so much for auditioning for our new musical. We'll be in touch. Next!
MOLLY BLOOM: Next on the list to audition is-- let me see, buh-buh. Um, it just says "Moon."
THE MOON: "Just says Moon"? I think you mean The Moon, a.k.a. the world famous glowing orb who's also a triple threat. I sing.
(SINGING) La!
(SPEAKING) I dance.
[TAP DANCING] Ah cha cha-cha cha-cha cha-cha cha!
And I make the tides ebb and flow.
[WAVES CRASHING]
[SCOFFS] I'd love to see Lin-Manuel Miranda do that.
CASTING DIRECTOR: The Moon? Hi. You realize we're casting for the musical Little Orphan Annie, right?
THE MOON: I know. And you're so lucky I'm here.
(SINGING) The Moon will come out tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow
CASTING DIRECTOR: It says here that you've been in movies.
THE MOON: Oh, yeah, lots of them. Usually, just in the background, but I did have a starring role in this really, really important film made by a little government agency called NASA. Maybe you've heard of them. They shot on location on me.
CASTING DIRECTOR: Well, thanks for coming all this way to audition. This is great stuff, really. We'll be in touch.
THE MOON: You mean it? Really? Finally. This is my big break! I can just feel it. Moon, baby, you're going to be a star!
CASTING DIRECTOR: Exit's right there. Next!
[THEME MUSIC]
MOLLY BLOOM: You're listening to Brains On! from APM Studios. I'm Molly Bloom, and joining me today is Ira from San Jose, California. Hi, Ira!
IRA: Hi, Molly!
MOLLY BLOOM: Today, we're answering a truly "out of this world" question from Caleb.
CALEB: Hi, my name is Caleb from Watertown, Massachusetts, and my question is, how do you build a house on the moon? What materials do you use?
MOLLY BLOOM: Ira, would you want to live on the moon if you could?
IRA: Yeah, if I could breathe and I had the things I need, yeah, I would like to. The views would be really cool.
MOLLY BLOOM: The views would be cool. So what would you want to make sure to take with you?
IRA: My favorite book series, Keeper of the Lost Cities, my favorite stuffed animal, my family, I would hope some of my friends would join, a bunch of stuff so I don't get bored, food, water, and maybe some hairbands and clips and maybe a hairbrush.
MOLLY BLOOM: These are really good ideas. So humans have been to the moon before. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the United States landed several crewed spaceship on the lunar surface.
IRA: The first person to ever set foot there was Neil Armstrong in 1969.
MOLLY BLOOM: These missions stopped in 1972, and no one has been back since.
IRA: That was over 50 years ago.
MOLLY BLOOM: It's been so, so long. But right now, the US space agency, NASA, along with more than 30 other countries, are working to get humans back to the moon sometime in the next few years. These would just be short visits, anywhere from 10 to 30 days.
IRA: But the goal is to eventually build a base there, make homes even, so people can stay for longer.
MOLLY BLOOM: Maybe one day, we'll even have moon hotels. What would that be like?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
STAFF: Welcome to the Lunar Inn. It's morning on the moon.
[ALARM CLOCK RINGING]
GUEST: [YAWNING]
STAFF: Or what we call morning. We have daylight on the moon for around two weeks straight in Earth time. Then it's totally dark for the next two weeks.
GUEST: Ooh, I have to pee. Where's the potty?
STAFF: Right away, you'll notice the gravity of the situation. And by that, we mean there's much less of it. You only weigh about a sixth of what you weigh on Earth, which means walking--
GUEST: Aha! There's the toilet. [GRUNTS]
Whoa! Oof.
[THUD, CLANGING]
Ugh.
STAFF: Walking is a challenge. A normal step has enough power to send you flying. It's best to use a slow and gentle side shuffle.
GUEST: OK, shuffle, shuffle, OK. [SIGHS] Finally.
[WHOOSHING]
Ah! Wait. What was that noise?
STAFF: That's the sound of our moon toilet flushing. Since there's so little gravity here, Earth toilets won't work on the moon. Lunar toilets have to suck the waste away. Germs still work on the moon, though, so don't forget to sanitize your hands. As you head to breakfast, make your way through our super thick concrete halls.
GUEST: [KNOCKS WALL] Wow, that's solid.
STAFF: It better be. There's no air on the moon, so you need strong walls to keep all this breathable oxygen inside. Without them, you'd be toast.
GUEST: Yikes!
STAFF: Speaking of toast, welcome to the cafeteria.
[CHATTER, SILVERWARE CLANKING]
Did you know the first ever meal eaten on the moon was bacon squares, peaches, sugar cookie cubes, juice, and coffee? Sounds tasty, right? Well, we've got even better fare now. Some of the salad was even grown here in our Lunar Greenhouses.
[CRUNCH]
GUEST: Yum, Moon Salad.
STAFF: And be sure to turn around because right there is our extra large picture window.
GUEST: Huh? [GASPS] It's so beautiful. And up in the sky, is that Earth?
STAFF: Yes, it is. You'll notice that it's a crescent shape, just like how people on Earth see the moon covered half in shadow at times. Here on the moon, we see Earth in shadow, too. What a view, huh?
GUEST: Wow. I have got to get a picture. Let me just walk a little closer and--
STAFF: Just remember the difference in--
GUEST: Whoa!
[THUD, BOING]
STAFF: --gravity. Can we get a mop in the dining room, please?
GUEST: Oof, still not used to that.
SINGERS: (SINGING) Ba ba, ba ba, ba ba, ba ba ba, ba Brains On!
MOLLY BLOOM: Wow. Sign me up. I can't wait to visit the moon!
IRA: Before you book your room, Molly, let's talk about getting there.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
First. The moon is really far away, around 238,000 miles from Earth. It would take a spacecraft about three days to get there.
MOLLY BLOOM: OK, no problem. I'll just bring a good book.
IRA: Second, it's super expensive. It can cost over a million dollars to send just 1 kilogram of stuff to the moon.
[KA-CHING]
MOLLY BLOOM: Wait. That's how much my hardcover book weighs. Now, on second thought, skip the novel. Maybe I'll just look out the window.
IRA: Well, don't forget the space you're traveling through is full of deadly radiation.
[ZAP, FIZZLING]
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, right. Space has something called cosmic radiation. It's made up of super tiny, super fast particles. They come from our sun and from deeper in space. Space radiation can make you very sick if you're not protected from it. On Earth, we have an atmosphere that protects us, but in space, astronauts need special ships and spacesuits to help shield them from the radiation.
IRA: And it's not just radiation. There are also tiny pebbles in space. They're flying at super speeds. And they can damage your ship.
[WHOOSH, CLUNK]
So you need really sturdy vehicles.
MOLLY BLOOM: Flying through a big, dark void of mega dangers? OK, actually, looking out a window at that seems terrifying, so I'll just catch up on sleep, I guess.
IRA: Once you land on the moon, there are more problems. The moon has no air, so you have to bring it with you and/or a spacesuit with oxygen tanks to breathe if you want to go outside.
[RAGGED BREATHING]
MOLLY BLOOM: Not my preferred vacation attire, but OK. No need to pack Hawaiian shirts, I guess.
IRA: Also, the moon is covered in toxic dust. It's really bad if you breathe it in. So you have to be careful. Don't let it get in your ship or building.
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, dear. Toxic moon dust sounds really bad for my allergies. Is it too late to pack extra tissues?
IRA: Plus, it gets super hot and super cold on the moon. Sometimes, it's 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Other times, it's 200 below zero.
[WIND WHISTLES]
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, that is too many degrees below zero. I didn't know degrees could go that low.
IRA: And the moon even has moonquakes. Some lasts for hours.
[RUMBLING]
[ROCKS CRASH]
MOLLY BLOOM: Deadly dust? 400 degree temperature swings? Moonquakes? I think I'm going to just do a staycation here on Earth. I hear it's nice this time of year. Even though I might not want to visit the moon, lots of people do.
IRA: Yeah, thrill seekers, astronomers, atmosphere haters.
MOLLY BLOOM: One reason NASA wants to build a base there is because it could help us explore other parts of space, too. It would be much easier to send ships to Mars if they could stop at the moon first and pick up more supplies and fuel.
IRA: We still have lots to figure out before that dream is a reality.
MOLLY BLOOM: But here's something we can figure out right now. It's the--
[DISCORDANT TONES WARPING]
SPEAKER: (WHISPERING) Mystery Sound.
MOLLY BLOOM: Are you ready to hear the mystery sound, Ira?
IRA: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: All right, here it is.
[CRUNCHING]
[CRUNCHING FASTER]
Mhm, what do you think, Ira?
IRA: It sounds like someone's eating something like a cracker. My first thought was a cracker, but it sounds too soft to be a cracker.
MOLLY BLOOM: Mhm. So what else do you think it could be?
IRA: I don't know, maybe like a very, very hard chip or a hard cracker.
MOLLY BLOOM: Excellent.
IRA: Or maybe someone biting a lollipop and chewing a lollipop.
MOLLY BLOOM: Ooh, yeah. That's not good for your teeth.
IRA: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: But maybe they were doing it. All right, well, we're going to hear it again, get another chance to guess, and hear the answer after the credits.
IRA: So keep listening!
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MOLLY BLOOM: We are working on an episode about stringed instruments and how they all make unique sounds, from ukuleles and sitars to violins and guitars. For this episode, we want you to send us your own version of the Brains On! theme song. You know, pa pa pa pa pa ra.
Play it on the piano, bang it on a drum, strum it, beatbox it, sing it, write your own lyrics. You don't have to play the whole thing. And you can add your own flair. Ira, if you could come up with your own version of the Brains On! theme song, how would you do it?
IRA: Maybe--
(SINGING) Brains, brains, brains oh-oh-on! Brains, brains, brains, oh, oh, on.
(SPEAKING) But less off tune.
MOLLY BLOOM: [LAUGHS] I liked that. That was delightful. Listeners, please send us your theme song recordings at BrainsOn.org. And while you're there, you can send us mystery sounds, drawings, and questions.
IRA: Like this one.
SPEAKER: My question is, what makes a good paper airplane?
MOLLY BLOOM: You can find an answer to that question on the Moment of Um podcast. It's a short dose of facts and fun every weekday. Again, that's BrainsOn.org.
IRA: So keep listening!
NARRATOR: Brains On! Universe is a family of podcasts for kids and their adults. And since you're a fan of Brains On!, we know you'll love the other shows in our universe. Come on, let's explore.
[ZOOMING]
ALIEN: Entering Brains On! Universe.
[ZING]
So many podcasts.
[CLICK, BEEP]
Brains On!
[BEEP, CLICK]
Smash Boom Best.
[BEEP, CLICK]
Forever Ago.
[STATIC, PINGING]
[GASPS] Picking up signal.
[BEEP]
Smash Boom Best, a debate show. What are they arguing about this time?
[ZAP]
Tomatoes versus potatoes?
[STATIC, PINGING]
MATT SPRING: I was just remembering, in 1949, the Mr. Potato Head went into production, a pivotal toy in a lot of people's childhood. And I was googling right now Mr. Tomato Head.
MOLLY BLOOM: [LAUGHS]
ARIANA: Oh.
MATT SPRING: And the first thing that comes up is, did you mean Mr. Potato Head?
ARIANA: Oh.
MOLLY: Oh.
ALIEN: [LAUGHS] Hilarious!
[BUZZ]
[GASPS] Lorp. Signal down.
[ALARM BLARING, TYPING]
Oh, no.
[MUTTERING]
Need Smash Boom Best now!
[EXPLOSION]
ANNOUNCER: Search for Smash Boom Best wherever you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER: (REVERBERATING) Brains on, on, on!
MOLLY BLOOM: You're listening to Brains On! I'm Molly.
IRA: And I'm Ira!
MOLLY BLOOM: Today, we're talking all about whether you could build a house on the moon. Turns out there are some pretty big challenges, like moon dust that irritates your lungs and super extreme temperatures.
IRA: Not to mention that it's really expensive.
MOLLY BLOOM: But scientists at NASA are already hard at work, trying to figure out the best way to build moon houses.
IRA: And they hope to have their first houses built on the moon by 2040. That's less than 20 years away.
THE MOON: What a relief!
MOLLY BLOOM: Did you hear something?
IRA: I think it came from that open window.
THE MOON: It's me. Hello! Out here!
MOLLY BLOOM: What the-- what? It's the moon.
THE MOON: Why is everyone always so surprised when they realize I can talk? I happen to have been voted most pleasing speaking voice at Moon High School and also most likely to end up on human Broadway.
(SINGING) There's no business like show business.
IRA: Makes sense to me.
MOLLY BLOOM: Definitely nothing weird here.
THE MOON: Anyhoo, I just so happened to overhear you two talking about whether it would be possible for humans to build houses on me, the Moon. And I couldn't help myself. I have lots of thoughts on this.
IRA: What kind of thoughts?
THE MOON: So glad you asked, Ira. Earth has been hogging all the humans for thousands of years. It's time they share a little. You know what I mean? I'm not playing second fiddle to Earth anymore. I'm ready to be the star-- the moon that I was always meant to be.
MOLLY BLOOM: Sure, but we just talked about all the reasons why it's going to be hard to build houses on the moon. The sharp dust.
[CLUNK]
IRA: The radiation.
[ZAP]
MOLLY BLOOM: No air.
[RAGGED BREATHING]
IRA: The moonquakes.
[ROCKS CRASHING]
THE MOON: Or maybe all the junk left behind on me by astronauts.
[ORGAN PLAYING]
IRA: Where's that music coming from?
THE MOON: Shh! This is my big moment.
[MUSIC PLAYING] It can be so lonely, can't it
When you're orbiting a planet
And there's only you and Earth and outer space
Sure, I love human company
But all the things you dump on me
Are cluttering the craters on my face
Like bits of spacecraft, chunks of probes
Where do you think this stuff would go
And a tiny sculpture of an astronaut.
Falcon feather, that's a hoot
And a dozen pairs of boots
And that's just a fraction of the stuff I've got
I'll have to beg your pardon
But I've no intend to garden
With the rakes and drills and brushes lying here
These cameras and batteries
A photo shoot won't flatter me
I'm not a lunar trash can for your gear
When you look at me, the Moon
On a balmy night in June
They say it's romantic to do
But you might be alarmed
The opposite of charm
To see bags and bags and bags of human poop
Sure, this orbit can be lonely
but I'm currently the only
Moon you've got
I'm begging on my knees
I could use a little grooming
While I'm out here moonly mooning
Keep your garbage off my face
So pretty, please
MOLLY BLOOM: Wow. That was so lovely. I agree. First thing we need to do when we return to the moon is clean up a bit.
IRA: It's the polite thing to do.
THE MOON: Thank you. All that junk left behind notwithstanding, I'm totally open to responsible construction on my surface. But there's some stuff you earthlings should know first. You should take notes. Are you taking notes?
MOLLY BLOOM: Yep. Got my notebook right here.
IRA: Molly, that's a brick of cheddar cheese.
MOLLY BLOOM: Oops! If this is my cheese, then what in the world did I put on my nachos earlier?
THE MOON: Ahem. So like I was saying, there are a couple things that every moon house needs to have. My human buddy, Phil Plait, knows all about this. He's an astronomer, and he says the most important thing is air.
PHIL PLAIT: A house on the moon absolutely has to do one thing, and that's keep you alive. And that means you have to be able to breathe. And since there's no air on the moon, you can't have a window you can open. No screen windows for getting a nice spring breeze blowing through. You can't do that. So it has to be airtight.
IRA: Got it. Since there's no atmosphere or air on the moon, you have to be sure that all the air is sealed up tight inside your house.
THE MOON: Right. You'll need a special airlock chamber, like what you'd see on TV or in the movies. It keeps the air from escaping when you go in and out of your house.
MOLLY BLOOM: And it keeps all that sharp moon dust from getting inside and making you sick.
THE MOON: Oh, yeah, you definitely don't want to be breathing my dust. It's like they always say on human Broadway,
(SINGING) no dust, no fuss, and that's a plus.
IRA: Do they always say that?
THE MOON: Well, if they don't, they should. [SIGHS] The second thing your moon house needs, really, really, really good insulation.
IRA: Oh, yeah! Insulation is the fluffy stuff in walls that helps you stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
MOLLY BLOOM: And that's probably pretty important for protecting people from those big swings in temperature on the moon's surface that we talked about earlier. But how do you do it?
THE MOON: Easy. The rock and dust that covers my surface is great for insulating things. Just pile up, say, 6 to 10 feet of that stuff on top of your house, and you're good.
IRA: A house under 6 to 10 feet of rock and dust? Isn't that kind of like living underground?
THE MOON: It's exactly like living underground, Ira. And in fact, underground is a great place to be if you're on me, the moon. You're more protected from that dangerous space radiation you mentioned earlier.
MOLLY BLOOM: Makes sense.
THE MOON: Plus, living underground protects you from all the comets and asteroids and tiny space rocks that slam into my moony surface. Remember, I don't have an atmosphere. So without that protective bubble of air, all that stuff just crashes right into me.
IRA: On Earth, the atmosphere is like a special shield. When meteors and asteroids fly into it, they burn up!
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah, that's because this stuff is falling really fast toward Earth. The air in front of it gets all squished together, and it gets super hot, which burns things up.
THE MOON: And when you see a shooting star on Earth, it's actually a tiny piece of a meteor burning up as it flies through the atmosphere. Here's my human astronomer friend, Phil, again.
PHIL PLAIT: The thing about meteors, when you're outside, and you're looking up in the night sky, and you see a shooting star, that's a meteor, and that's caused by something that is typically smaller than a grain of sand. But it's moving really, really quickly, and so it burns up. It generates so much heat when it goes through our atmosphere it burns up. Well, something like that hitting the moon, it's just going to go right down to the surface and kablam!
So you really have to think about that. It's not big, but it has a lot of energy. So you really-- it can really punch through stuff, so you have to protect yourself.
IRA: Whoa. Shooting stars smaller than a grain of sand? Awesome.
MOLLY BLOOM: But without a nice cushy atmosphere, all these tiny little pebbles could totally bust up our moon house. Could you just dig a big hole and put your house in it?
THE MOON: You could. Or you could just use one of my beautiful craters and caves. Did you know that I, the moon, have hundreds of deep underground caves? Scientists think that some of them were created when lava flowed from ancient volcanoes. And some of these caves even stay a pleasant 63 degrees all the time.
IRA: Positively cozy!
MOLLY BLOOM: But what if we don't want to live underground? Asking for a friend.
THE MOON: Oh, Molly. [LAUGHS] Molly, Molly, Molly Beum.
MOLLY BLOOM: It's "Bloom."
THE MOON: Who said you had to live underground? Scientists are studying all different kinds of super tough building materials that could be used to make aboveground houses on the moon, like mixing moon dust with water to make something that looks like concrete or 3D-printing houses. (IN SINGSONG VOICE) The sky is the limit!
IRA: Yeah, just imagine what our moon colony could look like one day.
MOLLY BLOOM: It'd have to have huge solar panels to capture energy from the sun and store it in batteries to power our houses.
IRA: And greenhouses so you can grow your own fresh food.
MOLLY BLOOM: One day, people might even be able to harvest water from deep, icy craters at the moon's poles, and then you could use that water to make rocket fuel!
IRA: That means you could use the moon colony as a place to fuel up for longer space travel, like trips to Mars!
MOLLY BLOOM: Ooh, ooh! Maybe someday, people will have custom moon houses with giant thick windows so you could see Earth!
IRA: And trampoline gyms. I bet you could jump so high, thanks to the moon's super-duper low gravity.
THE MOON: Now you're talking. Next stop, moon trampoline parks, moon Olympics, moon Broadway! But could you guys hurry up and get here already?
(SINGING) Because it's a hard-knock life for me
It's a hard-knock life for me
[THEME MUSIC]
IRA: Scientists are working hard to figure out how to build houses on the moon.
MOLLY BLOOM: There are some big challenges, like toxic moon dust and space radiation.
IRA: Plus, super extreme temperatures and even moonquakes.
MOLLY BLOOM: That means our moon houses will have to have great insulation and ways to hold all the air inside since the moon doesn't have an atmosphere.
IRA: But someday, moon colonies could be a launchpad that lets us explore other parts of space, like Mars!
MOLLY BLOOM: That's it for this episode of Brains On!
IRA: This episode was written by Sanden Totten and Shahla Farzan. It was produced by Rose DuPont. Our editor was Molly Bloom. Fact checking by Ruby Guthrie and Phil Plait.
MOLLY BLOOM: We had engineering help from Deegan Adams and Derek Ramirez, with sound design by Rachel Brees. Original theme music by Marc Sanchez. We had production help from the rest of the Brains On! Universe team-- Anna Goldfield, Nico Gonzalez Wisler, Lauren Humpert, Joshua [? Ray, ?] Charlotte Traver, Anna Weggel, and Aron Woldeslassie. Beth Pearlman is our executive producer, and the executives in charge of APM Studios are Chandra Kavati and Joanne Griffith. Special thanks to [? Aparna ?] [? Bharadwaj, ?] [INAUDIBLE], [? Arisha ?] [? Singhi, ?] [? Emma ?] [? Acevedo, ?] and Michelle Rao.
IRA: Brains On! is a nonprofit public radio program.
MOLLY BLOOM: There are lots of ways to support the show. Subscribe to Brains On! Universe on YouTube, where you can watch animated versions of some of your favorite episodes, or head to BrainsOn.org.
IRA: While you're there, you can send us mystery sounds, drawings, and questions.
MOLLY BLOOM: OK, Ira, are you ready to hear the mystery sound again?
IRA: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: Wonderful. Here it is.
[CRUNCHING]
[CRUNCHING FASTER]
OK. What do you think?
IRA: It's definitely someone eating something. There's this Indian cracker. It's called a mathri. And it's really crunchy. So I think it might be someone eating that.
MOLLY BLOOM: That sounds delicious. What does the cracker taste like?
IRA: It's sort of like a normal cracker, except it's a little less salty, and it's really crispy. And it's brown, and it tastes really good with spices on top.
MOLLY BLOOM: Mhm, it sounds so good. I hope that's the answer. Shall we hear what the answer is?
IRA: Yes.
MOLLY BLOOM: All right, here it is.
[? GRINNIE: ?] My name is [? Grinnie, ?] and I'm from Calgary. This is the sound of eating chips.
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, eating chips!
IRA: Oh.
MOLLY BLOOM: You were right the first time! You got it!
IRA: I thought it was too soft to be chips.
MOLLY BLOOM: Too soft?
IRA: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: It wasn't quite crunchy enough?
IRA: Chips would be more crunchy-ish but less hard sounding?
MOLLY BLOOM: Mhm. Interesting. So you thought it was just not quite the right sound. Maybe these are chips that were a little stale, potentially. [LAUGHS]
IRA: Oh, yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: We got to find out what kind of chips. I mean, there's so many different kinds of chips. There's banana chips.
IRA: Maybe it was those pita chips.
MOLLY BLOOM: Pita chips? I think that's a good guess, yeah. So there's so many different kinds of chips. We need to follow up and find out what kind of chip because now I'm hungry.
IRA: Yeah.
[GRINNIE EATING CHIPS]
MOLLY BLOOM: Now it's time for the Brains Honor Roll. These are the incredible kids who keep the show going with their questions, ideas, mystery sounds, drawings, and high-fives.
[THEME MUSIC]
[LISTING HONOR ROLL]
(SINGING) Brains Honor Roll
Bye, guys
We'll be back next week with an episode all about stringed instruments.
IRA: Thanks for listening!
ANNOUNCER: Brains On! is supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
CASTING DIRECTOR: Thank you so much for auditioning for our new musical. We'll be in touch. Next!
MOLLY BLOOM: Next on the list to audition is-- let me see, buh-buh. Um, it just says "Moon."
THE MOON: "Just says Moon"? I think you mean The Moon, a.k.a. the world famous glowing orb who's also a triple threat. I sing.
(SINGING) La!
(SPEAKING) I dance.
[TAP DANCING] Ah cha cha-cha cha-cha cha-cha cha!
And I make the tides ebb and flow.
[WAVES CRASHING]
[SCOFFS] I'd love to see Lin-Manuel Miranda do that.
CASTING DIRECTOR: The Moon? Hi. You realize we're casting for the musical Little Orphan Annie, right?
THE MOON: I know. And you're so lucky I'm here.
(SINGING) The Moon will come out tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow
CASTING DIRECTOR: It says here that you've been in movies.
THE MOON: Oh, yeah, lots of them. Usually, just in the background, but I did have a starring role in this really, really important film made by a little government agency called NASA. Maybe you've heard of them. They shot on location on me.
CASTING DIRECTOR: Well, thanks for coming all this way to audition. This is great stuff, really. We'll be in touch.
THE MOON: You mean it? Really? Finally. This is my big break! I can just feel it. Moon, baby, you're going to be a star!
CASTING DIRECTOR: Exit's right there. Next!
[THEME MUSIC]
MOLLY BLOOM: You're listening to Brains On! from APM Studios. I'm Molly Bloom, and joining me today is Ira from San Jose, California. Hi, Ira!
IRA: Hi, Molly!
MOLLY BLOOM: Today, we're answering a truly "out of this world" question from Caleb.
CALEB: Hi, my name is Caleb from Watertown, Massachusetts, and my question is, how do you build a house on the moon? What materials do you use?
MOLLY BLOOM: Ira, would you want to live on the moon if you could?
IRA: Yeah, if I could breathe and I had the things I need, yeah, I would like to. The views would be really cool.
MOLLY BLOOM: The views would be cool. So what would you want to make sure to take with you?
IRA: My favorite book series, Keeper of the Lost Cities, my favorite stuffed animal, my family, I would hope some of my friends would join, a bunch of stuff so I don't get bored, food, water, and maybe some hairbands and clips and maybe a hairbrush.
MOLLY BLOOM: These are really good ideas. So humans have been to the moon before. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the United States landed several crewed spaceship on the lunar surface.
IRA: The first person to ever set foot there was Neil Armstrong in 1969.
MOLLY BLOOM: These missions stopped in 1972, and no one has been back since.
IRA: That was over 50 years ago.
MOLLY BLOOM: It's been so, so long. But right now, the US space agency, NASA, along with more than 30 other countries, are working to get humans back to the moon sometime in the next few years. These would just be short visits, anywhere from 10 to 30 days.
IRA: But the goal is to eventually build a base there, make homes even, so people can stay for longer.
MOLLY BLOOM: Maybe one day, we'll even have moon hotels. What would that be like?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
STAFF: Welcome to the Lunar Inn. It's morning on the moon.
[ALARM CLOCK RINGING]
GUEST: [YAWNING]
STAFF: Or what we call morning. We have daylight on the moon for around two weeks straight in Earth time. Then it's totally dark for the next two weeks.
GUEST: Ooh, I have to pee. Where's the potty?
STAFF: Right away, you'll notice the gravity of the situation. And by that, we mean there's much less of it. You only weigh about a sixth of what you weigh on Earth, which means walking--
GUEST: Aha! There's the toilet. [GRUNTS]
Whoa! Oof.
[THUD, CLANGING]
Ugh.
STAFF: Walking is a challenge. A normal step has enough power to send you flying. It's best to use a slow and gentle side shuffle.
GUEST: OK, shuffle, shuffle, OK. [SIGHS] Finally.
[WHOOSHING]
Ah! Wait. What was that noise?
STAFF: That's the sound of our moon toilet flushing. Since there's so little gravity here, Earth toilets won't work on the moon. Lunar toilets have to suck the waste away. Germs still work on the moon, though, so don't forget to sanitize your hands. As you head to breakfast, make your way through our super thick concrete halls.
GUEST: [KNOCKS WALL] Wow, that's solid.
STAFF: It better be. There's no air on the moon, so you need strong walls to keep all this breathable oxygen inside. Without them, you'd be toast.
GUEST: Yikes!
STAFF: Speaking of toast, welcome to the cafeteria.
[CHATTER, SILVERWARE CLANKING]
Did you know the first ever meal eaten on the moon was bacon squares, peaches, sugar cookie cubes, juice, and coffee? Sounds tasty, right? Well, we've got even better fare now. Some of the salad was even grown here in our Lunar Greenhouses.
[CRUNCH]
GUEST: Yum, Moon Salad.
STAFF: And be sure to turn around because right there is our extra large picture window.
GUEST: Huh? [GASPS] It's so beautiful. And up in the sky, is that Earth?
STAFF: Yes, it is. You'll notice that it's a crescent shape, just like how people on Earth see the moon covered half in shadow at times. Here on the moon, we see Earth in shadow, too. What a view, huh?
GUEST: Wow. I have got to get a picture. Let me just walk a little closer and--
STAFF: Just remember the difference in--
GUEST: Whoa!
[THUD, BOING]
STAFF: --gravity. Can we get a mop in the dining room, please?
GUEST: Oof, still not used to that.
SINGERS: (SINGING) Ba ba, ba ba, ba ba, ba ba ba, ba Brains On!
MOLLY BLOOM: Wow. Sign me up. I can't wait to visit the moon!
IRA: Before you book your room, Molly, let's talk about getting there.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
First. The moon is really far away, around 238,000 miles from Earth. It would take a spacecraft about three days to get there.
MOLLY BLOOM: OK, no problem. I'll just bring a good book.
IRA: Second, it's super expensive. It can cost over a million dollars to send just 1 kilogram of stuff to the moon.
[KA-CHING]
MOLLY BLOOM: Wait. That's how much my hardcover book weighs. Now, on second thought, skip the novel. Maybe I'll just look out the window.
IRA: Well, don't forget the space you're traveling through is full of deadly radiation.
[ZAP, FIZZLING]
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, right. Space has something called cosmic radiation. It's made up of super tiny, super fast particles. They come from our sun and from deeper in space. Space radiation can make you very sick if you're not protected from it. On Earth, we have an atmosphere that protects us, but in space, astronauts need special ships and spacesuits to help shield them from the radiation.
IRA: And it's not just radiation. There are also tiny pebbles in space. They're flying at super speeds. And they can damage your ship.
[WHOOSH, CLUNK]
So you need really sturdy vehicles.
MOLLY BLOOM: Flying through a big, dark void of mega dangers? OK, actually, looking out a window at that seems terrifying, so I'll just catch up on sleep, I guess.
IRA: Once you land on the moon, there are more problems. The moon has no air, so you have to bring it with you and/or a spacesuit with oxygen tanks to breathe if you want to go outside.
[RAGGED BREATHING]
MOLLY BLOOM: Not my preferred vacation attire, but OK. No need to pack Hawaiian shirts, I guess.
IRA: Also, the moon is covered in toxic dust. It's really bad if you breathe it in. So you have to be careful. Don't let it get in your ship or building.
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, dear. Toxic moon dust sounds really bad for my allergies. Is it too late to pack extra tissues?
IRA: Plus, it gets super hot and super cold on the moon. Sometimes, it's 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Other times, it's 200 below zero.
[WIND WHISTLES]
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, that is too many degrees below zero. I didn't know degrees could go that low.
IRA: And the moon even has moonquakes. Some lasts for hours.
[RUMBLING]
[ROCKS CRASH]
MOLLY BLOOM: Deadly dust? 400 degree temperature swings? Moonquakes? I think I'm going to just do a staycation here on Earth. I hear it's nice this time of year. Even though I might not want to visit the moon, lots of people do.
IRA: Yeah, thrill seekers, astronomers, atmosphere haters.
MOLLY BLOOM: One reason NASA wants to build a base there is because it could help us explore other parts of space, too. It would be much easier to send ships to Mars if they could stop at the moon first and pick up more supplies and fuel.
IRA: We still have lots to figure out before that dream is a reality.
MOLLY BLOOM: But here's something we can figure out right now. It's the--
[DISCORDANT TONES WARPING]
SPEAKER: (WHISPERING) Mystery Sound.
MOLLY BLOOM: Are you ready to hear the mystery sound, Ira?
IRA: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: All right, here it is.
[CRUNCHING]
[CRUNCHING FASTER]
Mhm, what do you think, Ira?
IRA: It sounds like someone's eating something like a cracker. My first thought was a cracker, but it sounds too soft to be a cracker.
MOLLY BLOOM: Mhm. So what else do you think it could be?
IRA: I don't know, maybe like a very, very hard chip or a hard cracker.
MOLLY BLOOM: Excellent.
IRA: Or maybe someone biting a lollipop and chewing a lollipop.
MOLLY BLOOM: Ooh, yeah. That's not good for your teeth.
IRA: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: But maybe they were doing it. All right, well, we're going to hear it again, get another chance to guess, and hear the answer after the credits.
IRA: So keep listening!
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MOLLY BLOOM: We are working on an episode about stringed instruments and how they all make unique sounds, from ukuleles and sitars to violins and guitars. For this episode, we want you to send us your own version of the Brains On! theme song. You know, pa pa pa pa pa ra.
Play it on the piano, bang it on a drum, strum it, beatbox it, sing it, write your own lyrics. You don't have to play the whole thing. And you can add your own flair. Ira, if you could come up with your own version of the Brains On! theme song, how would you do it?
IRA: Maybe--
(SINGING) Brains, brains, brains oh-oh-on! Brains, brains, brains, oh, oh, on.
(SPEAKING) But less off tune.
MOLLY BLOOM: [LAUGHS] I liked that. That was delightful. Listeners, please send us your theme song recordings at BrainsOn.org. And while you're there, you can send us mystery sounds, drawings, and questions.
IRA: Like this one.
SPEAKER: My question is, what makes a good paper airplane?
MOLLY BLOOM: You can find an answer to that question on the Moment of Um podcast. It's a short dose of facts and fun every weekday. Again, that's BrainsOn.org.
IRA: So keep listening!
NARRATOR: Brains On! Universe is a family of podcasts for kids and their adults. And since you're a fan of Brains On!, we know you'll love the other shows in our universe. Come on, let's explore.
[ZOOMING]
ALIEN: Entering Brains On! Universe.
[ZING]
So many podcasts.
[CLICK, BEEP]
Brains On!
[BEEP, CLICK]
Smash Boom Best.
[BEEP, CLICK]
Forever Ago.
[STATIC, PINGING]
[GASPS] Picking up signal.
[BEEP]
Smash Boom Best, a debate show. What are they arguing about this time?
[ZAP]
Tomatoes versus potatoes?
[STATIC, PINGING]
MATT SPRING: I was just remembering, in 1949, the Mr. Potato Head went into production, a pivotal toy in a lot of people's childhood. And I was googling right now Mr. Tomato Head.
MOLLY BLOOM: [LAUGHS]
ARIANA: Oh.
MATT SPRING: And the first thing that comes up is, did you mean Mr. Potato Head?
ARIANA: Oh.
MOLLY: Oh.
ALIEN: [LAUGHS] Hilarious!
[BUZZ]
[GASPS] Lorp. Signal down.
[ALARM BLARING, TYPING]
Oh, no.
[MUTTERING]
Need Smash Boom Best now!
[EXPLOSION]
ANNOUNCER: Search for Smash Boom Best wherever you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER: (REVERBERATING) Brains on, on, on!
MOLLY BLOOM: You're listening to Brains On! I'm Molly.
IRA: And I'm Ira!
MOLLY BLOOM: Today, we're talking all about whether you could build a house on the moon. Turns out there are some pretty big challenges, like moon dust that irritates your lungs and super extreme temperatures.
IRA: Not to mention that it's really expensive.
MOLLY BLOOM: But scientists at NASA are already hard at work, trying to figure out the best way to build moon houses.
IRA: And they hope to have their first houses built on the moon by 2040. That's less than 20 years away.
THE MOON: What a relief!
MOLLY BLOOM: Did you hear something?
IRA: I think it came from that open window.
THE MOON: It's me. Hello! Out here!
MOLLY BLOOM: What the-- what? It's the moon.
THE MOON: Why is everyone always so surprised when they realize I can talk? I happen to have been voted most pleasing speaking voice at Moon High School and also most likely to end up on human Broadway.
(SINGING) There's no business like show business.
IRA: Makes sense to me.
MOLLY BLOOM: Definitely nothing weird here.
THE MOON: Anyhoo, I just so happened to overhear you two talking about whether it would be possible for humans to build houses on me, the Moon. And I couldn't help myself. I have lots of thoughts on this.
IRA: What kind of thoughts?
THE MOON: So glad you asked, Ira. Earth has been hogging all the humans for thousands of years. It's time they share a little. You know what I mean? I'm not playing second fiddle to Earth anymore. I'm ready to be the star-- the moon that I was always meant to be.
MOLLY BLOOM: Sure, but we just talked about all the reasons why it's going to be hard to build houses on the moon. The sharp dust.
[CLUNK]
IRA: The radiation.
[ZAP]
MOLLY BLOOM: No air.
[RAGGED BREATHING]
IRA: The moonquakes.
[ROCKS CRASHING]
THE MOON: Or maybe all the junk left behind on me by astronauts.
[ORGAN PLAYING]
IRA: Where's that music coming from?
THE MOON: Shh! This is my big moment.
[MUSIC PLAYING] It can be so lonely, can't it
When you're orbiting a planet
And there's only you and Earth and outer space
Sure, I love human company
But all the things you dump on me
Are cluttering the craters on my face
Like bits of spacecraft, chunks of probes
Where do you think this stuff would go
And a tiny sculpture of an astronaut.
Falcon feather, that's a hoot
And a dozen pairs of boots
And that's just a fraction of the stuff I've got
I'll have to beg your pardon
But I've no intend to garden
With the rakes and drills and brushes lying here
These cameras and batteries
A photo shoot won't flatter me
I'm not a lunar trash can for your gear
When you look at me, the Moon
On a balmy night in June
They say it's romantic to do
But you might be alarmed
The opposite of charm
To see bags and bags and bags of human poop
Sure, this orbit can be lonely
but I'm currently the only
Moon you've got
I'm begging on my knees
I could use a little grooming
While I'm out here moonly mooning
Keep your garbage off my face
So pretty, please
MOLLY BLOOM: Wow. That was so lovely. I agree. First thing we need to do when we return to the moon is clean up a bit.
IRA: It's the polite thing to do.
THE MOON: Thank you. All that junk left behind notwithstanding, I'm totally open to responsible construction on my surface. But there's some stuff you earthlings should know first. You should take notes. Are you taking notes?
MOLLY BLOOM: Yep. Got my notebook right here.
IRA: Molly, that's a brick of cheddar cheese.
MOLLY BLOOM: Oops! If this is my cheese, then what in the world did I put on my nachos earlier?
THE MOON: Ahem. So like I was saying, there are a couple things that every moon house needs to have. My human buddy, Phil Plait, knows all about this. He's an astronomer, and he says the most important thing is air.
PHIL PLAIT: A house on the moon absolutely has to do one thing, and that's keep you alive. And that means you have to be able to breathe. And since there's no air on the moon, you can't have a window you can open. No screen windows for getting a nice spring breeze blowing through. You can't do that. So it has to be airtight.
IRA: Got it. Since there's no atmosphere or air on the moon, you have to be sure that all the air is sealed up tight inside your house.
THE MOON: Right. You'll need a special airlock chamber, like what you'd see on TV or in the movies. It keeps the air from escaping when you go in and out of your house.
MOLLY BLOOM: And it keeps all that sharp moon dust from getting inside and making you sick.
THE MOON: Oh, yeah, you definitely don't want to be breathing my dust. It's like they always say on human Broadway,
(SINGING) no dust, no fuss, and that's a plus.
IRA: Do they always say that?
THE MOON: Well, if they don't, they should. [SIGHS] The second thing your moon house needs, really, really, really good insulation.
IRA: Oh, yeah! Insulation is the fluffy stuff in walls that helps you stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
MOLLY BLOOM: And that's probably pretty important for protecting people from those big swings in temperature on the moon's surface that we talked about earlier. But how do you do it?
THE MOON: Easy. The rock and dust that covers my surface is great for insulating things. Just pile up, say, 6 to 10 feet of that stuff on top of your house, and you're good.
IRA: A house under 6 to 10 feet of rock and dust? Isn't that kind of like living underground?
THE MOON: It's exactly like living underground, Ira. And in fact, underground is a great place to be if you're on me, the moon. You're more protected from that dangerous space radiation you mentioned earlier.
MOLLY BLOOM: Makes sense.
THE MOON: Plus, living underground protects you from all the comets and asteroids and tiny space rocks that slam into my moony surface. Remember, I don't have an atmosphere. So without that protective bubble of air, all that stuff just crashes right into me.
IRA: On Earth, the atmosphere is like a special shield. When meteors and asteroids fly into it, they burn up!
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah, that's because this stuff is falling really fast toward Earth. The air in front of it gets all squished together, and it gets super hot, which burns things up.
THE MOON: And when you see a shooting star on Earth, it's actually a tiny piece of a meteor burning up as it flies through the atmosphere. Here's my human astronomer friend, Phil, again.
PHIL PLAIT: The thing about meteors, when you're outside, and you're looking up in the night sky, and you see a shooting star, that's a meteor, and that's caused by something that is typically smaller than a grain of sand. But it's moving really, really quickly, and so it burns up. It generates so much heat when it goes through our atmosphere it burns up. Well, something like that hitting the moon, it's just going to go right down to the surface and kablam!
So you really have to think about that. It's not big, but it has a lot of energy. So you really-- it can really punch through stuff, so you have to protect yourself.
IRA: Whoa. Shooting stars smaller than a grain of sand? Awesome.
MOLLY BLOOM: But without a nice cushy atmosphere, all these tiny little pebbles could totally bust up our moon house. Could you just dig a big hole and put your house in it?
THE MOON: You could. Or you could just use one of my beautiful craters and caves. Did you know that I, the moon, have hundreds of deep underground caves? Scientists think that some of them were created when lava flowed from ancient volcanoes. And some of these caves even stay a pleasant 63 degrees all the time.
IRA: Positively cozy!
MOLLY BLOOM: But what if we don't want to live underground? Asking for a friend.
THE MOON: Oh, Molly. [LAUGHS] Molly, Molly, Molly Beum.
MOLLY BLOOM: It's "Bloom."
THE MOON: Who said you had to live underground? Scientists are studying all different kinds of super tough building materials that could be used to make aboveground houses on the moon, like mixing moon dust with water to make something that looks like concrete or 3D-printing houses. (IN SINGSONG VOICE) The sky is the limit!
IRA: Yeah, just imagine what our moon colony could look like one day.
MOLLY BLOOM: It'd have to have huge solar panels to capture energy from the sun and store it in batteries to power our houses.
IRA: And greenhouses so you can grow your own fresh food.
MOLLY BLOOM: One day, people might even be able to harvest water from deep, icy craters at the moon's poles, and then you could use that water to make rocket fuel!
IRA: That means you could use the moon colony as a place to fuel up for longer space travel, like trips to Mars!
MOLLY BLOOM: Ooh, ooh! Maybe someday, people will have custom moon houses with giant thick windows so you could see Earth!
IRA: And trampoline gyms. I bet you could jump so high, thanks to the moon's super-duper low gravity.
THE MOON: Now you're talking. Next stop, moon trampoline parks, moon Olympics, moon Broadway! But could you guys hurry up and get here already?
(SINGING) Because it's a hard-knock life for me
It's a hard-knock life for me
[THEME MUSIC]
IRA: Scientists are working hard to figure out how to build houses on the moon.
MOLLY BLOOM: There are some big challenges, like toxic moon dust and space radiation.
IRA: Plus, super extreme temperatures and even moonquakes.
MOLLY BLOOM: That means our moon houses will have to have great insulation and ways to hold all the air inside since the moon doesn't have an atmosphere.
IRA: But someday, moon colonies could be a launchpad that lets us explore other parts of space, like Mars!
MOLLY BLOOM: That's it for this episode of Brains On!
IRA: This episode was written by Sanden Totten and Shahla Farzan. It was produced by Rose DuPont. Our editor was Molly Bloom. Fact checking by Ruby Guthrie and Phil Plait.
MOLLY BLOOM: We had engineering help from Deegan Adams and Derek Ramirez, with sound design by Rachel Brees. Original theme music by Marc Sanchez. We had production help from the rest of the Brains On! Universe team-- Anna Goldfield, Nico Gonzalez Wisler, Lauren Humpert, Joshua [? Ray, ?] Charlotte Traver, Anna Weggel, and Aron Woldeslassie. Beth Pearlman is our executive producer, and the executives in charge of APM Studios are Chandra Kavati and Joanne Griffith. Special thanks to [? Aparna ?] [? Bharadwaj, ?] [INAUDIBLE], [? Arisha ?] [? Singhi, ?] [? Emma ?] [? Acevedo, ?] and Michelle Rao.
IRA: Brains On! is a nonprofit public radio program.
MOLLY BLOOM: There are lots of ways to support the show. Subscribe to Brains On! Universe on YouTube, where you can watch animated versions of some of your favorite episodes, or head to BrainsOn.org.
IRA: While you're there, you can send us mystery sounds, drawings, and questions.
MOLLY BLOOM: OK, Ira, are you ready to hear the mystery sound again?
IRA: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: Wonderful. Here it is.
[CRUNCHING]
[CRUNCHING FASTER]
OK. What do you think?
IRA: It's definitely someone eating something. There's this Indian cracker. It's called a mathri. And it's really crunchy. So I think it might be someone eating that.
MOLLY BLOOM: That sounds delicious. What does the cracker taste like?
IRA: It's sort of like a normal cracker, except it's a little less salty, and it's really crispy. And it's brown, and it tastes really good with spices on top.
MOLLY BLOOM: Mhm, it sounds so good. I hope that's the answer. Shall we hear what the answer is?
IRA: Yes.
MOLLY BLOOM: All right, here it is.
[? GRINNIE: ?] My name is [? Grinnie, ?] and I'm from Calgary. This is the sound of eating chips.
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, eating chips!
IRA: Oh.
MOLLY BLOOM: You were right the first time! You got it!
IRA: I thought it was too soft to be chips.
MOLLY BLOOM: Too soft?
IRA: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: It wasn't quite crunchy enough?
IRA: Chips would be more crunchy-ish but less hard sounding?
MOLLY BLOOM: Mhm. Interesting. So you thought it was just not quite the right sound. Maybe these are chips that were a little stale, potentially. [LAUGHS]
IRA: Oh, yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: We got to find out what kind of chips. I mean, there's so many different kinds of chips. There's banana chips.
IRA: Maybe it was those pita chips.
MOLLY BLOOM: Pita chips? I think that's a good guess, yeah. So there's so many different kinds of chips. We need to follow up and find out what kind of chip because now I'm hungry.
IRA: Yeah.
[GRINNIE EATING CHIPS]
MOLLY BLOOM: Now it's time for the Brains Honor Roll. These are the incredible kids who keep the show going with their questions, ideas, mystery sounds, drawings, and high-fives.
[THEME MUSIC]
[LISTING HONOR ROLL]
(SINGING) Brains Honor Roll
Bye, guys
We'll be back next week with an episode all about stringed instruments.
IRA: Thanks for listening!
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