3.1 – How does your Moon Camp protect and provide shelter to your astronauts against the Moon’s harsh environment.
The turret is a robot that walks around scouting for meteors or any other dangerous items. There are three turrets in total. It has a camera at the top that will be sent to the control center as footage of the robot’s view. Once a robot finds a threat to the moon, it will blast the threat into little pieces until it is out of sight. If a robot finds an area that has usual threats, It will plant itself into the ground to stay and protect while the other two turrets are keeping other places safe. The turret will eventually take its legs out of the ground when there are fewer threats.
3.2 – On the Moon, resources are very scarce, but during long Moon missions, astronauts cannot rely on resupply missions from the Earth. Explain how your Moon Camp will provide astronauts with sustainable access to basic needs like water, food, air and power.
The greenhouse is where all the food will be grown. In the greenhouse, there are stacks of plants that use hydroponics, a system where nutrients are directly inserted into the plants using water. Hydroponic plants produce a greater yield of fruits and vegetables because, in a hydroponic system, plants are more densely spaced together compared to the size of land that would be needed to grow the same number of plants. Plus, they don’t have to use soil which can fly everywhere if not fully contained. In this greenhouse, there is also an air humidifier, which can help the plants grow better. Without the greenhouse, astronauts would not be able to grow any food, and therefore, wouldn’t be able to eat anything. As a next step, I would probably reshape my containers to a more general, glass cylinder shape
The Air-water recycling module is made for water filtering and air-producing. The huge tanks near the solar panels are recycled water into a mist for astronauts to breathe in powered by solar panels and this module is one of the most important ones of them all. The tanks by the white wall contain filtered water from the filter beside it. The orange tank on the top is made for dirty water and used to be filtered, and the blue tank on the bottom is the filtered water ready to drink for future use or used for the mist air-maker.
The food processing unit (FPU) is an important part of the lunar base. It acts like a kitchen, preparing all the food for the astronauts. Most of the food is imported fresh from the greenhouse, where all the good is grown using hydroponics. The FPU has many machines to prepare food, such as ovens, cutters, and freezers. It also has a utensil storage system and a food hydrator, since many foods on the moon will need to be hydrated. Without this module, astronauts will not be able to eat most of the food that they grow. As a next step, I would probably reorganize my processing stations, expand the area for more space to navigate around, and add more useful machines such as an auto food cooker.
The power supply model is made for all the nearby buildings to have electricity for everything to function correctly. Inside the module we have batteries for backup and a panel beside the ladder to configure the solar panels outside. Solar panels are the main electric source. This room is mostly not meant for astronauts to stay at and be used when necessary such as collecting batteries or fixing solar panels.
In the power plant, there are various solar panels and generators that produce energy 24/7, giving the name “power plant”. The solar panels capture the sun’s energy and convert it into electricity, making it a very important part of the lunar base. The generator constantly converts mechanical energy from a few big wheels spinning into electrical energy. Without this power plant, the entire moon base would be out of power within days, and therefore nothing important with function.