Astronaut looks to Namib for Moon answers

The Namib Desert holds answers to problems astronauts will face when they build a base on the Moon, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Matthias Maurer told learners in Swakopmund last Wednesday.“The Moon is a desert. It’s just a little bit harsher than the Namib Desert because you don’t have any air,” he said.Maurer visited Namibia from 1 to 10 October for World Space Week, a United Nations initiative marked this year under the theme ‘Rocket Revolution’. The German embassy in Windhoek organised the visit in partnership with the National Commission on Research, Science and Technology.He was set to address about 8 000 learners in Windhoek, Oshakati, Ongwediva and Swakopmund during his tour. The programme included the Gobabeb desert research station, the High Energy Stereoscopic System observatory and the Africa Millimetre Telescope.The visit aimed to strengthen ties between Namibia and the European scientific and space community and to inspire young people to take up science and technology.Maurer spoke at Namib Primary School in a talk titled ‘To the Moon and Beyond’, hosted by the Scientific Society Swakopmund.The dust problemMaurer, who is preparing for the Artemis mission to the Moon, said landing remains a problem. When a rocket lands, its engine blasts away sand, which can destroy a base."Either we need to land three kilometres away in order to protect our base, or we need to build a landing pad," he said.This was one of the reasons he visited Gobabeb, he explained."I asked them, how do you guys handle the sand? How do you build your roads here?" he said, citing salt roads as an example. "We could think of such an approach to solidify the sand so that we can actually land without creating a dust storm."Moon dust damages lungs, equipment and spacesuit seals, Maurer said."And being here in Swakopmund, I believe you guys know much better than me how to keep the dust outside. I might ask you afterwards what your trick is," he quipped.No gold, but plenty to useHe said astronauts want to set up a greenhouse on the Moon, which will have to use lunar sand instead of soil from Earth. Desert plants are candidates for testing. He said he had been told the !nara plant "could be interesting to look into".The Moon has sand, water, ice and some titanium, but no heavy metals, he said."So we don't fly to the Moon to find gold, platinum and all these precious elements. There's nothing there."Water ice is believed to lie in craters at the Moon’s south pole, where temperatures reach minus 240 degrees Celsius. It could supply drinking water, oxygen and hydrogen for energy, he said.Proposals include heating sand into glass for solar panels and glass fibre for construction. Maurer said Namibia’s experience in geology and resource exploration could help."So maybe we can learn from you also on how to make use of the resources that we find on the Moon," Maurer said.Namibia’s role in spaceHe said radio astronomy observatories are planned on the Moon, and named the Africa Millimetre Telescope, under construction, as a Namibian contribution.European satellites gather data on Earth, which Europe provides for free but lacks the capacity to analyse, Maurer said. Namibian experts could analyse that data with artificial intelligence, using the desert station as a ground reference station, and have a space project."So it doesn't have to be super complicated and you don't have to build a lander as the first project. You can start small," he said.Maurer compared space exploration to a picnic: "You need to bring something to the picnic to be a guest that is welcome. And not everybody should bring the same thing.""I believe you have assets – you probably are not aware of how valuable your assets are, but also the human capital and the young people that are interested and inspired," he said.He ended his talk with an invitation."Part of my message here is that also the African countries, especially in Namibia, have a lot to contribute. And so, there is an invitation to join the space community and to be part of this exploration endeavour."

Astronaut looks to Namib for Moon answers

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Namibian Sun 2026-10-12

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Astronaut looks to Namib for Moon answers

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Namibian Sun 2026-10-12

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