Living on the Moon is still a completely foreign concept, and in all likelihood not that comfortable. It's a cold, desolate place, and staying there for an extended period would likely require holing up deep underground. So to see what it would be like, European researchers and students have built a replica of the experience under the Swiss Alps.

The IGLUNA project features 20 student teams from 13 universities, which are based in nine countries around Europe, with 150 students total. Working since September 2018, the groups are currently going through the testing of their replica experiences. Their tests began on June 17 and will last until July 3.

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Too hot? Then cool off with the #IGLUNA project. Students from 9 European countries have developed concepts of space habitats. Visit their designs inside the Klein Matterhorn glacier cave and in an exhibition in Zermatt, Switzerland, until 3 July. #ESALab https://t.co/HeJzV2ZArf pic.twitter.com/FW8dvKQGgK — ESA (@esa) June 26, 2019

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#esaBICch visited @IGLUNA @CHspacecenter

ESA Lab at Zermatt - simulating habitat in space / another planet! Worth a visit, especially during these boiling temperatures.. Until July 3rd.. pic.twitter.com/RdXSxeXB0y — ESA BIC Switzerland (@esaBICch) June 27, 2019

The teams have different goals. The Guidance and Localization for Astronauts Cooperating in Environmental Roughness (GLACiER), built by students from the Warsaw University of Technology in Poland, focuses on "habitat<->astronaut radio communication and localization of the astronaut outside the habitat in real time using radio modules," according to the project's website.

Then there's MOONY, from the students of Politecnico di Milano in Italy, which is a habitat designed for a lunar lava-tube, like the giant tube discovered by Japanese space exploration in 2017 that could fit an entire city. That habitat wants to use the Moon's environment to "foster the best psycho-physiological conditions for the inhabitants."

Elsewhere, the Lunar Exercise and Activity Platform (LEAP) by Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia focuses on keeping people healthy using gamification. The habitat uses "games, virtual environments and accessories to create a gamified physical experience, and the Holistic Lunar Fitness (HLF) is [a] training device," according to a Facebook post from the team.

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Another entry, from the homegrown Zurich University of Applied Sciences, focused on a robot named SWAG, or Smart Waste-based Agriculture Growing System.

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"Zermatt is not exactly space, but it has its own limitations," Peter Zurbrügg, a scientist in the laboratory of construction and architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), tells Space.com. "It's minus 4 degrees (Celsius). To access this place, you have to go through an elevator with very small dimensions. We're on top of a mountain 3800 meters (12,500 feet) high. At this altitude, you cannot move as you can [closer to sea level]."

The challenges of spacefaring in the coming decades will no doubt multiply. The U.S. wants to establish a permanent presence on and around the surface of Earth's only natural satellite with its upcoming Lunar Gateway project. Separately, a number of private corporations have begun to envision living outside of Earth's orbit, like SpaceX and Blue Origin.

Whatever programs create a viable colony on the Moon first, it wouldn't be surprising if they incorporated at least a few of the ideas born in the fake Moon below the Alps.

Source: Space.com

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