The group name is Chandrakhoj. Chandra means “the Moon” and Khoj means “to explore” or “in search of”. There will be 6 astronauts accommodated at a time and they will stay there for 6 months. We aim to find useful metals and ores on the moon and try to find how rare they are, compared to earth. We will also see how differently they react to certain substances when brought to earth. We are among the first to mine on the moon with rovers.

We decided to make the camp location in the south pole, for water, and near the craters as our main goal is to mine our resources using rovers. The area of moon camp will be near craters but has a serene and secure way of reaching the deposit. Another reason why we have picked craters is because we will be able to study the moon’s history. 

The solar panels and antennas will be supplied from earth. Specific materials too will be supplied from earth like the bullet-proof Kevlar and complex machines like computers, a satellite, grow lights, etc. The construction will be done by Robots.

Items built on the moon is listed below:

• The rooms
• The water-extractor plant
• Corridors (to go from room to room made of Kevlar)
• Greenhouses #1 and #2
• Pipes

First, there will be a drill which will be drilling for water-ice. Then it will melt, hence becoming liquid and then vapor. Below there will be a large disk, powered by solar energy, rotating very fast so that gravity is formed hence the soluble and insoluble impurities will be left behind. This way, we will distill the water. Minerals are added to the distilled water after chlorination. Now, purified water is available on the moon. It will be used for drinking, growing the crops and for protection.

For the first 2 months, we will supply the processed (rehydratable) food from earth. Meanwhile, veggies will be grown using the aeroponic method which would be sufficient for the next 2-3 months. There will be two greenhouses. There will be cameras to monitor the crops but from time to time astronauts will have to take a look too. Cameras are connected to the computers of the communication room.

We are using solar energy since there is no natural interference in the sunlight’s path. The panel field will be located towards the north of our camp. We are also using batteries since in the shadow without any sunlight; we will still be needing electricity and cannot stop working.

Regolith is a blanket of loose deposits on the surface covering rock. It contains sediments like broken rocks, and dust. If we take a cubic cm, on average, we will get 1400 kgs worth of minerals, which includes 630 kgs (approx.) of oxygen. Using the regolith electrolysis method, we place one in each room. A heating plate will be kept below to melt the soil. Finally, the O2 and N2 are extracted from the soil.

We protect the astronauts from radiation by covering the moon camp with at least 50 centimeters of lunar soil. Additionally, an underground chamber shielded with about 10 meters of water is enough to protect against occasional solar storm events, which can cause radiation levels to spike dramatically. Well for the meteorites, we’re using bullet-proof Kevlar.

The astronauts wake up at 7:00 am IST. One of them will fill some regolith in the container for air. Another astronaut will fill some chlorine for purifying water. One more will fill concentrated nutrient-water in the pipes for the greenhouse. Then all of the astronauts will start exercising before mining. Once the exercise is done they will have a meal. The astronauts will start wearing their space suits and check if everything is on track. Now the astronauts will exit the room and start mining. Now they will start doing experiments and collect objects from the moon. They will do some research and send the data to earth. After 2 hours of working on the moon they would go back to the camp, have a meal and rest.