This is our Adventum Moon Base.  Adventum means adventure in Latin and we think living on the moon will be one of humans’ greatest adventures!  It has been carefully designed to keep astronauts safe while conducting scientific missions and experiments. We built most of our base underground to keep our astronauts as safe as possible. The base includes a lab, dormitory, greenhouse, large scientific telescope, multipurpose room, systems room, storage room, lunar garage and emergency bunker which are all connected by underground tunnels.

The lab provides scientists with room to conduct research and experiments on the moon.  Scientists will also have access to a large telescope to study the universe. The multipurpose room includes a mission briefing space, kitchen and gym.  The systems room will house the main controls for the base.  The greenhouse will have aeroponic and hydroponic gardens as well as a seaweed tank and chicken coop.  The dormitory will have beds, toilets and all of the comforts astronauts might need.  The lunar garage will store rovers and other equipment.  An additional storage room is connected to the garage by a tunnel.  The emergency bunker will have beds, a toilet, a 3-day emergency supply kit and communication system.  This will keep our astronauts safe if ever they need to evacuate.  The bunker can be accessed from the moon surface as well as an underground tunnel.  Near the bunker is a crater which will serve as a mine.

Close to the Lunar Poles

We plan to build our moon base close to the lunar poles. Building near the poles will allow us to melt ice into water, have plenty of access to sunlight for solar energy and allow us to explore, mine and build in the lava tubes.

When building our base, we plan to use an assortment of materials from both the moon and earth.  We plan to use extruded aluminum frames to reinforce inflatable structures above ground as well as using 3D printed regolith structures.  Above ground modules, including our greenhouse will be covered with 20cm thick polyethylene sheeting to protect them against radiation and meteors.  We’ve designed most of our base to be underground which keeps our astronauts safe from meteors and radiation.  We also plan to use lava tubes for both building in and mining.

We have several ways of supplying our base with water. We plan to melt ice collected by our rovers. We will use a wastewater recycling system that will turn some of the astronauts’ waste into drinkable water. Finally, we will collect water that is produced during waste incineration.

We plan to keep our astronauts well fed while staying on the moon. Our greenhouse will have aeroponic and hydroponic gardens to grow tomatoes, greens, strawberries, peppers, beans, melons and potatoes. We will have a seaweed tank in our greenhouse which will provide our astronauts nutrition and oxygen. We also plan to have a few chickens in our greenhouse. The chickens will eat composted plants and food scraps and their waste will be used as fertilizer. Chickens also produce eggs and if needed, meat. We also plan to have our astronauts study how chickens adapt to life on the moon.

We will have two main sources of power on our base. The first are solar panels connected to fuel cells which will allow our astronauts to have power during eclipses or if a solar panel is down. We also plan to incinerate our astronauts’ waste which will not only produce power, oxygen and water, it will help solve the problem of waste management.

We plan to do three things to make sure our astronauts have plenty of air. First, we will extract oxygen from the regolith on the moon. Second, we will use a recycling unit connected to the greenhouse to exchange oxygen produced from our plants and algae tank with carbon dioxide produced by our astronauts. Finally, we will capture the oxygen produced from waste incineration.

At 6:00am our astronauts wake up and prepare for the day.  At 6:30am astronauts meet in the multipurpose room to eat breakfast.  At 7:00am astronauts will begin their work doing research, base maintenance and exploration.  During this time each astronaut will take a one-hour exercise shift.  At 12:00pm astronauts will meet for lunch and have some time to relax.  At 1:00pm astronauts will resume their work including another one-hour exercise shift.  At 6:00pm astronauts will meet for dinner then have free time from 7:00pm to 9:30pm.  During this time astronauts can talk with family and friends on earth, enjoy the sun in the greenhouse, hang out with the chickens and relax after a busy day’s work.  At 10:00pm our astronauts will go to sleep so they can rest for a brand-new day!