“…Some of the designs that are closest to a potentially operational base are the HESTIA habitat at JSC from the Gemini-era [102], the Habitat Demonstration Unit [103,104] that was used during the 2011 field season of the Desert RATS [105] and is now in use for multi-week simulations under the name ‘HERA’ [106], and the Moon and Mars Base Analog (MaMBA, figure 2 and [107]), whose first module has recently been tested for usability at the ZARM in Bremen and which is expected to be expanded soon. Figure 2Artistic rendering of what a (part of a) Moon Village could look like: a habitat under a radiation shield in the centre, small rovers roaming the surface autonomously, a small telescope in the background on the left, and solar panels to supply everything with electricity.…”
Section: Support Infrastructuresmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Moreover, much of the developments that need to be done today in order to arrive at a functional habitat prototype in the not-too-distant future, overlaps with the likely needs of an astronomy facility, be it a telescope, interferometer or radio array. Some subsystems could possibly be developed and verified together, as was tested during EuroMoonMars campaigns at MDRS Utah with Elon Musk Observatory [79], ESTEC, Eifel and Lunares Poland Moonbase [77,78] IMA HISEAs Hawaii Moonbase [81,123] or during DLR telerobotic campaigns at Etna (ROBEX 2017, ARCHES 2021, [95,124]), and with the MaMBA project [107].…”
Section: Outlook and Open Research Questionsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…However, it is important to note that the vast majority of these habitats are designed for simulation purposes only, and are often not intended to function as a prototype of an actual extraterrestrial habitat. Some of the designs that are closest to a potentially operational base are the HESTIA habitat at JSC from the Gemini-era [102], the Habitat Demonstration Unit [103,104] that was used during the 2011 field season of the Desert RATS [105] and is now in use for multi-week simulations under the name 'HERA' [106], and the Moon and Mars Base Analog (MaMBA, figure 2 and [107]), whose first module has recently been tested for usability at the ZARM in Bremen and which is expected to be expanded soon.…”
Section: (A) Human Habitats and Their Peripherymentioning
There is strong interest in lunar exploration from governmental space agencies, private companies and the public. NASA is about to send humans to the lunar surface again within the next few years, and ESA has proposed the concept of the Moon Village, with the goal of a sustainable human presence and activity on the lunar surface. Although construction of the infrastructure for this permanent human settlement is envisaged for the end of this decade by many, there is no definite mission plan yet. While this may be unsatisfactory for the impatient, this fact actually carries great potential: this is the optimal time to develop a forward-looking science input and influence mission planning. Based on data from recent missions (SMART-1, Kaguya, Chang’E, Chandrayaan-1 and LRO) as well as simulation campaigns (e.g. ILEWG EuroMoonMars), we provide initial input on how astronomy could be incorporated into a future Moon Village, and how the presence of humans (and robots) on the Moon could help deploy and maintain astronomical hardware.
This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Astronomy from the Moon: the next decades’.
“…Some of the designs that are closest to a potentially operational base are the HESTIA habitat at JSC from the Gemini-era [102], the Habitat Demonstration Unit [103,104] that was used during the 2011 field season of the Desert RATS [105] and is now in use for multi-week simulations under the name ‘HERA’ [106], and the Moon and Mars Base Analog (MaMBA, figure 2 and [107]), whose first module has recently been tested for usability at the ZARM in Bremen and which is expected to be expanded soon. Figure 2Artistic rendering of what a (part of a) Moon Village could look like: a habitat under a radiation shield in the centre, small rovers roaming the surface autonomously, a small telescope in the background on the left, and solar panels to supply everything with electricity.…”
Section: Support Infrastructuresmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Moreover, much of the developments that need to be done today in order to arrive at a functional habitat prototype in the not-too-distant future, overlaps with the likely needs of an astronomy facility, be it a telescope, interferometer or radio array. Some subsystems could possibly be developed and verified together, as was tested during EuroMoonMars campaigns at MDRS Utah with Elon Musk Observatory [79], ESTEC, Eifel and Lunares Poland Moonbase [77,78] IMA HISEAs Hawaii Moonbase [81,123] or during DLR telerobotic campaigns at Etna (ROBEX 2017, ARCHES 2021, [95,124]), and with the MaMBA project [107].…”
Section: Outlook and Open Research Questionsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…However, it is important to note that the vast majority of these habitats are designed for simulation purposes only, and are often not intended to function as a prototype of an actual extraterrestrial habitat. Some of the designs that are closest to a potentially operational base are the HESTIA habitat at JSC from the Gemini-era [102], the Habitat Demonstration Unit [103,104] that was used during the 2011 field season of the Desert RATS [105] and is now in use for multi-week simulations under the name 'HERA' [106], and the Moon and Mars Base Analog (MaMBA, figure 2 and [107]), whose first module has recently been tested for usability at the ZARM in Bremen and which is expected to be expanded soon.…”
Section: (A) Human Habitats and Their Peripherymentioning
There is strong interest in lunar exploration from governmental space agencies, private companies and the public. NASA is about to send humans to the lunar surface again within the next few years, and ESA has proposed the concept of the Moon Village, with the goal of a sustainable human presence and activity on the lunar surface. Although construction of the infrastructure for this permanent human settlement is envisaged for the end of this decade by many, there is no definite mission plan yet. While this may be unsatisfactory for the impatient, this fact actually carries great potential: this is the optimal time to develop a forward-looking science input and influence mission planning. Based on data from recent missions (SMART-1, Kaguya, Chang’E, Chandrayaan-1 and LRO) as well as simulation campaigns (e.g. ILEWG EuroMoonMars), we provide initial input on how astronomy could be incorporated into a future Moon Village, and how the presence of humans (and robots) on the Moon could help deploy and maintain astronomical hardware.
This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Astronomy from the Moon: the next decades’.
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