Hello, SFIA audio listeners. In this month's Nebula exclusive, big alien theory,

we're asked at the reason alien civilizations might be rare is because most aliens are huge.

To hear it and every episode early and ad-free, plus hours of bonus content,

check out go.nebula.tv slash Isaac Arthur and use my code, Isaac Arthur.

We so often hear of my naster mining asteroids, but the moon outmasses every known asteroid

combined dozens of times over again, and is closer to Earth, too.

So what would life be like mining on the moon?

Luis and Clark are twins that have the dubious honor of being amongst the first ten kids

ever born on the moon, and the first twins, and while they've been off the moon into space,

they've never been to Earth, and find the idea of trying to live in its gravity a bit intimidating,

but a trip there is on their bucket list for whenever they make the big find, the one that in theory lets them retire,

but in practice would probably just be used to buy new gear because they love their work.

They spent a lot of time driving around in the Louisiana, which more resembles a freight

truck or a recreational vehicle than a dune buggy, but they got one of those too, which they

carry along.

Both are battery-powered, and they have a lot of solar panels they can unroll at their base camp

as awnings and walls to protect them from the dust and sunlight during the long lunar days.

They also have two 5-kilawatt radioisot thermoge thermal generators, each massing 50 kilograms or 110

pounds of it were on Earth, as much as Luis would weigh. These are backpack carryable units that

they also use during the two weeks of darkness.

Their individual expeditions usually last two to three months, sometimes more, sometimes

less, depending on what they find, so they had to spend a few long nights on each trip before

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