The moon camp will be built in the Shackleton crater. Our moon camp will be underground to protect from radiation and meteorites. The only components that will be overground are the main entrance, garage, greenhouse, and solar panels. The astronaut suits will be stored at the main entrance and the lunar rovers will go into the garage. In the greenhouse, we will grow plants and crops. If it gets too warm we will use shades to protect from excessive heat/light. The solar panels will give lots of energy for light and heat. In the main entrance, there will be an elevator leading down to the other rooms. Every room is on a different level. The first two rooms are the research room and the electronics room – our most important room. Going down comes the storage room, kitchen, extra room for guests, bedrooms, and bathrooms for girls and boys.

Shackleton crater

We chose the South Pole because it is the sunniest place on the moon. We chose that the base will be underground on the side of a mountain on the side of a crater because that’s the sunniest spot. It also has a lot of ice surrounding it as a source of water.

For our moon camp to provide the water the astronauts would go outside to the ice patches and bring the water back to the moon base to drink. Our lunar rover is parked in the garage. The rover will roam around the south part of the moon looking for the exact location of water ice. It will have a laser connected to the front to drill, break out the ice crust and cut out the ice. Once the ice is brought to the moon base the astronauts melt the ice to drinkable water by using a heating chamber, then put it through a filtration system.

Our moon camp will have a greenhouse to grow our crops, which will provide food. Examples of what the astronauts could grow are rice and potatoes. The greenhouse is long and low so that it can get enough sun. We will also have a cover to place over the crops in case they get too much sun. We will use these crops to eat, at the same time the crops will provide oxygen, we are accomplishing two things with one action! The crops will be producing a bit of the oxygen that gets pumped into each room.

Our moon camp will provide power by having solar panels to collect energy from the sun. Since we are on the sunniest part of the moon, we will be able to have enough sun for the entire moon camp to have enough power. We will also have an energy control room dedicated to electrical equipment and to convert sunlight from the solar panels and distribute electric power to the other rooms. In case there are any electrical problems you would go to the electricity room and see what’s going wrong.

Our moon camp will grow its own food and get its oxygen from plants and algae. There will be a bit of algae in each room. We will also have plants in the greenhouse which will be used as oxygen and food. There will be air pumped into the room from the plants as extra air to support the algae since there is not that much algae in each room.

We are planning on launching a few parts of the moon camp at a time onto the moon and having it then all connect on the moon. The base will then get built with robots on the moon. Some materials that would be used are metal and plastic tarp. The metal will be the roof, the walls, and the floor. The plastic tarp will be blown up on the moon into the spears that are underground.

Our moon camp will protect the astronauts from asteroids because it is underground. The entrance is over the ground but it is made of sturdy and durable metal (titanium) which will be very safe and able to protect from radiation. The area where astronauts actually live is underground (5.5 meters) which should be well protected and safe from any asteroid or meteorites. When the astronauts go out of the main base they will drive a rover, which is also stable but not as strong.

The first thing that astronauts would do, after having breakfast and brushing their teeth, is to check if everything in the moon camp is properly working (for example the air pumps). Then he would go into the greenhouse and plant some new crops as oxygen and a good meal for a few weeks, months. Next, they would go outside and into the rover to have a look at the moon and see if they can gather more scientific information about the surface, ice, and water on the moon. After gathering some new information they would come back to the moon camp and go upstairs to the telescope and gather more information about the stars and planets (size, shape, and location). After gathering all this information they would go downstairs into the kitchen and eat lunch. Then they would go into the lab and write all the facts down. In the lab, they would also use computers to communicate with NASA. They would tell them the new facts they learned. And let them know that everything in their base is working or if NASA needs to send equipment to the moon. At the end of the day, they would have dinner. To get their meals they would either go into the greenhouse and cut off some of the crops they have been growing or eat some of the food they brought from earth. Then they would eat these crops for example potatoes or carrots and go to bed.