Mobile Lunar Base Concepts

Abstract

This paper describes three innovative concepts for a mobile lunar base. These concept combine design research for habitat architecture, mobility systems, habitability, radiation protection, human factors, and living and working environments on the lunar surface. The mobile lunar base presents several key advantages over conventional static base notions. These advantages concern landing zone safety, the requirement to move modules over the lunar surface, and the ability to stage mobile reconnaissance with effective systemic redundancy. All of these concerns lead to the consideration of a mobile walking habitat module and base design. The key issues involve landing zone safety, the ability to transport habitat modules across the surface, and providing reliability and redundancy to exploration traverses in pressurized vehicles. With self-ambulating lunar base modules, it will be feasible to have each module separate itself from its retro-rocket thruster unit, and walk five to ten km away from the LZ to a pre-selected site. These mobile modules can operate in an autonomous or teleoperated mode to navigate the lunar surface. At the site of the base, the mobile modules can combine together; make pressure port connections among themselves, to create a multi-module pressurized lunar base.

Habot Lunar Crew Size, Skill Mix, and Time Model

“…In Mankins' construct, the Habot infrastructure should serve a baseline of 10 crews rotating through the Habot base, each time in a different location on the lunar surface, for a total of 1000 Earth-Days of occupancy, which approaches the overall time necessary for a human Mars mission. 3 So, this baseline implies a total productive occupancy of 590 Earth-Days with a total planned margin of 80 Earth-Days. Total reserve would be 330 Earth-Days.…”

“…In this modeling scenario, a Moon-stranded crew, holding on through these reserve days, could still be retrieved by a rescue vehicle, but its pilot would be coming in with the sun in her eyes (assuming the stranded crew had landed on Day One in lunar morning. )3 A point supportive of "the Moon as Mars rehearsal" profile.…”

Carbon Radiation Shielding for the Habot Mobile Lunar Base

“…After the crew departs in the CEV ascent stage, the Habot base can disassemble itself and travel autonomously 100km or more to a new site of scientific interest. There, the Habots reassemble the base, connect, pressurize the port connections, and verify readiness and safety, the second crew lands in a CEV lander, The Advanced Projects Branch at NASA-Ames Research Center is working to substantiate the Habot as a candidate lunar surface base architecture (Cohen, 2003(Cohen, , 2004. Radiation shielding is a critical component of the Habot and any interplanetary vehicle or Mars surface habitat.…”

MOBITAT2: A Mobile Habitat Based on the Trigon Construction System

“…One form of Class I structure that can also bridge over into Class II construction is the Habot concept (Cohen 2004). The Habot ("Habitat" + "Robot") is a Class I pre-integrated habitat that has an autonomous robotic mobility system for moving across the surface.…”