Solar power spacecrafts and moon stations.

The new solar-powered engine by NASA makes it possible to make a low-cost flight to the moon. The main problem. With moon missions and stable moon stations. It is the fuel. When a spacecraft rises from Earth and lands on the Earth. Most of the fuel is needed to get the spacecraft to the orbiter. The fuel. That is currently used in the first stage. That is, lift-off from the ground is hydrocarbons. 

Because they give more thrust than hydrogen-oxygen. When. We look at. The diagrams of the Apollo program flight profiles. The first two stages of the Saturn V are used in the atmosphere. And for transit to the Moon.  Required only the third stage. And return from the moon required only the Apollo capsule. So, most of the fuel is used in the atmosphere. 

The rocket engines that transfer cargo and crew between the Moon and Earth must have enough fuel to transit to the Moon and then land safely. Then the same craft must travel back to Earth. When a spacecraft lands on the Moon, it must use fuel for that purpose. And in the same way, traveling to Earth is theoretically Easy. But the problem. It is to land on the Earth. The space planes. Or airfield-operating shuttles can help to transit to the orbiter, but those systems must be enormous. That they are economical. 

But what if researchers just share the flight into two or three parts? The transit to the orbiter can be done. By using the space planes. Those space planes can use hydrogen-oxygen fuel. That thing doesn’t pollute. Then the cargo. It will transfer to the transit craft. That transits cargo straight to the Moon. Or it can leave it. To the Moon orbiter. 

There is a pickup system that can be a robot craft or a giant space tower. That catches the cargo. In that case, the system can benefit from things like repelling magnets that can slow the fall. That minimizes the need. To use the fuel. The space station requires all the oxygen that it has. Oxygen must be produced from the water that can be separated from the Moon, or it must be brought from the Earth. 

"NASA’s Gateway is coming to life with a solar-powered spacecraft built to light it up—and move it around the Moon. Credit: NASA" (ScitechDaily, NASA Powers Up a Massive Solar Engine for the Moon)

So, the answer can be. The solar-chemical rocket that transports people and cargo between the Earth orbiter and the moon. There are actually two types of solar-powered rockets. 

1) Solar chemical rockets. Those systems use solar power to expand propellant. The subtypes of those systems. Are systems. That focuses solar energy for expansion. Or combustion chamber. The system. It can use a parabolic mirror for that system. Or it can use laser- or microwave systems whose purpose is to boil the liquid gas. 

The system can also use water or any material that the energy system can boil. Or turn into a gas. This kind of system. It can use any gas because it replaces combustion by focusing solar energy into that propellant that expands and forms the thrust. 

2) Solar-powered ion-engines and more exotic systems. Solar power can be used in a system that gives energy to the ion engines. Those ion engines will create very low thrust. But more exotic engine systems can mean. antimatter engines. Those antimatter engines can use solar energy to power their particle accelerators. 

That accelerates electrons against a gold layer. That system transforms electrons into anti-electrons, or positrons. And then the system can use those positrons for the engine systems. The system can store anti-electrons in small electromagnetic bottles that keep those antimatter particles separated from the wall of the bottle. The antimatter. It can give an extremely high power energy impulse. 

There are also risks for the Moon station. 

The fact is that the energy level of antimatter annihilation is so high that 1g of antimatter can destroy the entire Earth. The fact is that. If somebody who has a lunar station wants to destroy Earth, that actor basically can use about 10 kg of rocket to send that antimatter capsule to Earth. This is one of the reasons why those moon stations are also very dangerous. 

https://scitechdaily.com/nasa-powers-up-a-massive-solar-engine-for-the-moon/