// CANDIDATE WORLD — MOON
Luna — South Pole
NEARThe nearest foothold.
The most accessible body off Earth, with polar ice and near-permanent sunlight — the proving ground for everything that follows.
Schematic — not to scale
The lunar south pole is the program's beachhead. Three days from Earth, it pairs permanently shadowed regions holding water ice with crater rims in near-continuous sunlight — resource and power in the same neighborhood.
Low development cost and high accessibility make it where Segal proves regolith printing, ISRU, and autonomous construction before carrying the algorithm to Mars.
- Gravity
- 0.16 g
- Day length
- ~29.5 Earth days
- Surface temp
- −50 °C to −230 °C
- Atmosphere
- None (exosphere)
- Water
- PSR ice deposits
- Radiation
- Unshielded; regolith mitigates
Permanently shadowed regions hold extractable water ice for crew, agriculture, and propellant.
Polar peaks see near-continuous sunlight for high solar duty cycles.
Abrasive regolith and deep cold drive sealed, autonomous build and ISRU.
Catalog and plan in the Orbital Foundry.
Every candidate world, scored and sequenced in one console.