MOON VILLAGE

Surface Level // EVA Missions

Rover rides on the uneven terrain

Robot manipulation on the surface

Cleaning dust from solar panels, suits, rovers, robots

Portable greenhouse observation

EVA suit walking training

-1 Level // Meeting

Trainees / Crew / Visitors

Maintaince

Outside Skin Concept

Carbon Panels

Aluminized polyimide

Multi Layer Insulation

Graphite-fiber reinforced epoxy

Sintered Regolith

-2 Level // Workshops

Repairing robots / drones / system

LSS maintenance

Medical operations

Scientific training

3D Printing in low gravity conditions

Geological test training

-4 Level // VR training

Learning new skills in VR

Practising learned skills in VR

Comments by David Nixon

+ Sensible adjacencies organization.

+ Accommodation areas providing both communal and private facilities.

+ Architecturally interesting multilevel accommodation approach.

- Excavating those underground volumes would be a major challenge and assumes the subsurface geology is soft enough for Earth-style mechanical diggers.

Comments by Miriam Dall‘Igna

+ Great architectural programme.

+ Clear diagrams and graphics help to understand the ideas.

Open questions: Considering energy, how much electricity would be necessary to maintain the campus facilities? What is the strategy to bring in or simulate natural light? In terms of modularity and resilience, it would be interesting to detail how parts of the structure can be replaced.

CREW first base for two astronauts research base for six astronauts

MISSION LENGTH minimum six months maximum theoretically indefinite

MISSION OBJECTIVE research of the crater’s natural resources using the crater from top to bottom

LOCATION Philolaos Crater, North Pole

CONSTRUCT I ON regolith sintering and on-site additive manufacturing to adapt the existing lava tubes

Summary

The crater research facility ‘Kraterhausen’ is located in a crater near the North Pole. Here, a lot of natural resources can be found – including ice water in the lava tubes at the bottom and eternal sunlight at the crater rim. A mixed team of humans and robotics research the possible uses of those resources. The research base is located in the natural lava tubes in the crater wall, so that the rock provides constant shelter from radiation and extreme temperature.

On the rim, the first habitation and surface base is located. Farther down, still in the sunlight zone, lies the research and human habitation base. Here, existing caves are made habitable by 3D printing layers of solid rego lith to maintain the pressure inside the base. A coating of silicon sintering separates the regolith layer from the habitation areas.

Farther down lies a second, mainly robotic, research base, where bigger scaled projects are manufactured.

At the bottom, ice water is harvested from the lava tubes and transported to the upper research bases via funicular rovers. Here, it is filtered and converted to drinkable water and oxygen. Using a whole slice of the crater wall, the crater’s resources are researched from top to bottom. The infrastructural route, which connects the various bases, is depressurised and requires the use of rovers or spacesuits.