Moon base. Illustration of astronauts at a base on the Moon. Humans will require protective suits and sealed buildings (here covered in lunar soil or regolith) when on the Moon. This is because the Moon has no atmosphere and a wide range of surface temperatures from minus 170 (night) to 127 (day) degrees Celsius. The lunar day-and-night cycle is nearly 30 Earth-days long. The Moon has a gravity that is about a sixth of that of the Earth. A moon vehicle is at right. Also shown here is power generation from solar cells. The Moon is about 384,000 kilometres from the Earth (seen in background).