Challenges of Long-Term Habitation on the Moon: Technical Review

Long-term human presence on the Moon is currently regarded as one of the key stages in the development of crewed spaceflight. However, most existing studies focus on individual aspects of lunar infrastructure, such as radiation protection, life-support systems, power supply, in-situ resource utilization, robotics, or medical issues. The problem of the long-term viability of a lunar settlement as a single complex system is considered much less frequently. This review presents a systematic analysis of the main technical, biological, operational, organizational, economic, and social problems associated with permanent human habitation on the Moon. It considers the radiation environment, the effects of lunar regolith, power supply, thermal control, water supply, construction, micrometeoroid hazards, lunar seismic activity, communications and navigation, maintenance and repair, habitat sealing, fires, medical and psychological aspects, bioregenerative systems, robotization, cybersecurity, legal issues, and the economics of lunar settlements. Particular attention is paid to the interconnections between different categories of risk. It is shown that the greatest danger to the long-term viability of a base is posed not by individual failures, but by cascading degradation processes affecting several subsystems simultaneously. In this context, the review analyzes systemic dependencies among power supply, life support, logistics, repair, crew condition, and autonomous control systems. The work proposes a classification of critical and underestimated problems, analyzes technological gaps, and identifies priority directions for further research. Special attention is given to long-term infrastructure operation, accumulated wear, crew-time deficit, logistical constraints, and the economics of lunar-base maintenance. The review does not propose a single technical solution to the problems considered. Its purpose is to form an integrated picture of the constraints, risks, and research tasks that arise during the transition from short-term expeditions to permanent extraterrestrial settlements. The results may be of interest to specialists in space engineering, life-support systems, robotics, medicine, infrastructure operation, risk analysis, and the design of long-term lunar settlements.