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Republican Newt Gingrich has promised that, if he becomes president, he will put a permanent base on the Moon. "By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American", Gingrich stated.

What would the main challenges be in trying to construct a base on the Moon? Certainly we know we can get there, it’s been done before, but getting there may be the easiest part. In order to construct a base we need to take the materials with us – and each extra kilogram of mass we take means we need more fuel and a larger rocket. The payload makes up around 1% of the total mass of the rocket, so bringing a 1 tonne structure with us means an extra 100 tonnes in total, most of this being extra fuel.

Let’s assume that we can make larger rockets, or send up multiple rockets, we still have the challenge of surviving on the Moon and constructing the base. Astronauts must wear spacesuits to walk on the Moon because there is no atmosphere. This means that any air that they breathe, they have to take with them – that means more mass on board the lander. The lack of atmosphere and the fact that the Moon has no magnetic field also causes another problem: radiation exposure. Without the protection that is provided on the Earth, the astronauts are exposed to high levels of ionising radiation which can cause illness and possibly death. A large solar flare could cause a lethal dose of radiation if the Moon is in the path of the energetic particles coming from the Sun.

Astronauts also need to eat. The International Space Station receives food from unmanned vehicles which dock with the station (they also take away the waste). This would not be so easy on the Moon – the vehicle would have to land on the Moon, rather than docking in orbit.

The ESERO-UK collection on the National STEM Centre’s eLibrary contains:

• A Human Space Exploration section, where you can learn about food in space, and living, working and recycling on the International Space Station.
• Journey to the Moon is a resource aimed at 5-7 year olds, and looks at the journey of the first Apollo astronauts.
• Lunar Exploration resource, from the Royal Astronomical Society, is aimed at secondary and post-16 education, and includes: Experiments on the Moon; Moon rocks ; The origins of the Moon ; and The Moon and the Earth's tides.

So, is it really possible to build a Moon-base by 2020? Professor Andrew Coates, from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, thinks that this would be an even larger project than the Apollo missions and would like to see a focus on unmanned missions instead.

• Andrew Coates on the Today programme.
• Robotic Landers: Small With Big Benefits is a video on the National STEM Centre eLibrary which looks at NASA’s Robotic Lander Lunar Development Project.