Engineering, Design and Construction of Lunar Bases

Abstract

How do we begin to expand our civilization to the Moon? What are the technical issues that infrastructural engineers, in particular, must address? This paper has the goal of introducing this fascinating area of structural mechanics, design, and construction. Published work of the past several decades about lunar bases is summarized. Additional emphasis is placed on issues related to regolith mechanics and robotic construction. Although many hundreds of papers have been written on these subjects, and only a few tens of these have been referred to here, it is believed that a representative view has been created. This summary includes environmental issues, a classification of structural types being considered for the Moon, and some possible usage of in situ resources for lunar construction. An appendix provides, in tabular form, an overview of structural types and their lunar applications and technology drivers.

Low-cost solutions for Martian base

“…space stations, space shuttle and lunar Apollo modules). Metal constructions are strong, tensile, puncture and tear resistant, that's why they are used in different Mars base concepts: Kokh (2002b) or Griffin (Benaroya et al, 2002). However, they are heavy and compact packing is difficult, thus their price in extraterrestrial missions is high.…”

“…The construction can be supported only by internal atmosphere under pressure (which must be produced for people to breathe anyway). Different Martian (and lunar) base concepts deals with inflatable constructions: Vanderbilt et al concept (Benaroya et al, 2002), Sadeh and Criswell (1996), Hublitz et al (2004). Transparent membrane structures provide natural lighting inside the habitat.…”

“…Some of them have been applied in previous architectural concepts (examples are adduced in brackets) and the other are new: use light structures easy in transport from Earth (Benaroya et al, 2002), use local materials (MacKenzie, 1989), employ underground natural formations (Kokh, 2002a), employ shape of the terrain in the construction, use the most optimized technologies for certain elements/parts of the base, habitable space should maximize usage of available volume.…”

“…Many approaches to conceptually design a planetary base, like: Benaroya et al (2002) or Petrov (2004) etc. are known.…”

Earth and Space 2014

“…On the surface of the Moon, the habitat and the crewmembers will be exposed to a several environmental dangers that must be accounted for within the habitat design (Malla et al 1995;Benaroya et al 2002). These dangers include, but are not limited to, the lack of atmosphere, reduced gravity, extreme temperature variation, exposure to high levels of ionizing radiation, and impact from micrometeoroids and debris .…”