Between now and the mid-2030s, multiple space agencies hope to send crewed missions to the moon. of These plans all involve establishing bases around the moon's southern polar region, including the Artemis Base Camp and the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).

These facilities will enable a "sustained program of lunar exploration and development," according to the NASA Artemis Program mission statement. In all cases, plans for building facilities on the surface call for a process known as In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), where local resources are used as building materials.

This presents a bit of a problem since not all lunar soil (regolith) is well-suited for construction. Much like engineering and construction projects here on Earth, builders need to know what type of soil they are building on and if it can be used to make concrete.

China, India and the U.S. have all achieved landing on the moon in the 2020s.

Once there, their eventual goal is to set up a base. But a successful base—along with the spacecraft that will carry people to it—must be habitable for humans. And a big part of creating a habitable base is making sure the heating and cooling systems work.

That's especially true because the ambient temperature of potential places for a base can vary widely. Lunar equatorial temperatures can range from -208°F to 250°F (-130°C to 120°C)—and similarly, from -225°F to 70°F (-153°C to 20°C) on Mars.

In 2011, the National Academies of Science published a report outlining research in the physical and life sciences that scientists would need to do for the U.S. space program to succeed. The report emphasized the need for research about building heating and cooling systems for structures in space.

I'm an engineering professor, and when that report came out, I submitted a research proposal to NASA. I wanted to study something called the liquid-vapor phenomenon. Figuring out the science behind this phenomenon would help with these big questions around keeping structures in space a comfortable and habitable temperature.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has only been operational for just over a year, but this isn't stopping the world's biggest space agency from discussing the next big space telescope that could serve as JWST's successor sometime in the future.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said his country could soon send its first astronauts to the Moon in a Chinese spacecraft, hailing Thursday a scientific cooperation agreement reached with President Xi Jinping.

Maduro arrived in Beijing on Tuesday after a tour of Shanghai and other Chinese cities, meeting Xi on Wednesday and agreeing to "upgrade" ties with Beijing.

Maduro announced during his meeting with Xi on Wednesday that the two countries had agreed to train young Venezuelan astronauts in China, with plans to eventually send them to the Moon.

A special task team "on scientific, technological, industrial and aerospace cooperation will sooner rather than later (send) the first Venezuelan man and woman to the moon in a Chinese spacecraft", Maduro said.

"Very soon, Venezuelan youth will come here to prepare as astronauts in Chinese schools," he said.