Moon Base Design Comparison

By,Mudassir Ali

Andrew Leonard

Lunar Base Competition 2010

• 102 Entries but only 15 that were realistic• Location: South Pole of Moon• Gravitational Difference: 1/6 of Earth• No Atmosphere• Getting things to Moon - $10,000/ lb• Primary Purpose: Provide a science, and technology development facility on

the Moon• Most important scientific material so far is 300 kg of regolith brought back by Apollo

Astronauts

• Competition was to design a second generation base an international effort to build a permanent human community on the moon

Lunar Base Competition 2010

• Design Requirements:• Facilities located 3m (10 ft) below Lunar Surface for Protection from everyday

radiation (not solar flares)• Minimal risk of solar Flares, vacuum of space, etc. • Human Comfort• All plans support a resident staff of 60 people • All entrants were to presume the infrastructure of a first generation base

under construction by 2030, completed by 2040

• Two base designs that tied for 1st for Elegance and Feasibility Award in 2011: Craterville and Moon Capital

Craterville

• Base acquires CHON:• Oxygen from Oxide Rocks.

• Ex. Iron oxide, Titanium oxide• Hydrogen from water in Shackleton crater• Nitrogen and Carbon are imported from Earth

• A satellite will be skimming Nitrogen off Earth atmosphere while in orbit• Helium-3 exported to Earth and used for fusion reactors

• Exporting from Moon to Earth done in aluminum containers• Carbon containers used from Earth -> Moon

• Base Energy Source: • Helium-3 nuclear fusion reactor• Nearly continuous sunlight

Craterville

Craterville

• Tower has reflective surface that takes in light and sends it down• Sunlight coming in laterally

• Base has 3 layers 10 m apart and located underground• Protects against Radiation (including solar flares)• Top level- Agricultural level

• In the case of a Solar Flare – go to 3rd level chamber• Exterior access

• Water filled chamber (airlock) for people and supplies • Standard airlock for large/sensitive equipment

• Water is acquired from dark areas in crater• A factory makes disks or cubes of ice and • Ice is then pulled up to lowest level of the base- materials processing area

Tom Schmit’s Moon Capital

Moon Capital

• Base acquires CHON by importing everything• Base Energy source is through Solar Energy

• Tower has reflective surface and is extremely large compared to Craterville

• Base is placed on stilts• 3 meters (10ft) of regolith will block 90% of cosmic radiation

• During Solar Flare- close garage type doors pile regolith on top and move people to bunker• Design is very inadequate for protection against radiation

• Standard airlocks are used to get in and out of base• Water is acquired from a shallow crater

• (no such crater is known to exist on the Moon)• => DESIGN FLAW

Extracting Minerals

• Robots will be used to extract gasses, glass and metals from the lunar regolith

• Japanese designing a robot base that doesn’t require human presence

Next Time… Botany!!!

• Both of these bases featured greenhouses to grow food and raw materials. Next lesson we’ll focus on this.• In the food area, we will be talking about “staples”, protein sources in

the absence of meat (other than fish and worms) and vitamins needed to stay healthy