We are a group of young astronomers which intend to move to the Moon. We want to make detailed observations of the objects and phenomena of the Universe and we know that we can do better observations on the Moon which doesn’t have atmosphere. Furthermore, the taking off of the rackets is easier there due to the lunar weaker gravity. These are the reasons that led us to project a camp and take the decision to build it on the Moon and live there for three years. In the future we intend to take off from the Moon and travel to another planets.

Close to the Lunar Poles

Living on the Moon means adaptation with the severe conditions existing there: there is no water or air but instead there are high levels of radiations and big temperature differences. Therefore we decided to settle our camp at the Pole because it’s the only place where we can find water ice. At the Pole there is also a constant light from the Sun and smaller temperature variations. Furthermore it is the best place for communications with people on Earth, without any additional sattelite.

We must carry water supplies from the Earth and use it the first weeks. But we need a lot of water, not only for us but also for the plants in the greenhouse. We must find water ice and extract it from the shadowed craters of the lunar soil. We’ll melt, distile and use it in our everyday activities. Water is so precious on the Moon that we’ll also have to recover and purify every drop of the waste water.

The first weeks we’ll eat food transported from the Earth. We need a lot of tinned food and frozen food as we intend to live there for three years. So we think that building a greenhouse and planting seeds and roots of vegetables is a good idea. Fresh food is a healthy food because it offer us the vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients we need.

The Sun is the source of energy not only on the Earth but also on the Moon. We can use the light of the Sun to run the solar panels of the electric power plant. The solar panels will extend on a circular area of 4 000 m2. We need a lot of solar panels because we use a lot of machines, devices and installations fed with electric power. This circular arrangement of solar panels has the central building in the center. The first weeks, until we build the power plant, we’ll use radioisotope thermoelectric generators to produce energy.

We need a huge amount of oxygen for the three years we are going to spend on the Moon. First, we’ll transport oxygen in bulk as a liquid in specially insulated tankers. This is the most efficient transportation of oxygen since one liter of liquefied oxygen is equivalent to 840 liters of gaseous oxygen at 20 °C and atmospheric pressure. We’ll also produce oxygen by means of the plants in the greenhouse. Using the waste products (sweet, food waste, CO2, urine, metabolic waste and wastewater) or green algae and cyanobacteria we can also obtain oxygen.

Our camp will look like a two-storeyed building, having the first floor underground and the top floor outside, on the ground. This building lays on a surface of 900 m2. On the top floor is the greenhouse, just above the central building and there are many air pipes and a staircase that connect it with the rooms below. The central bilding underground has all the necessary rooms: bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, living room and a gym room. There is also a 100 m2 tower near the central building, with four floors. On the first floor there is a store for the land rover, devices, robots and other machines. On the second floor there is the comand panel of the power plant and on the third floor the central control room of all the devices and installations of the camp. On the fourth floor, right on the top is the astronomical observatory, covered with a mobile steel roof presenting one hole (window). The roof can rotate around a central vertical axis and the extremity of the telescope, that gets out of the hole, can also rotate with the roof. This is the reason the telescope may be orientated in any direction around. On the other side of the central building is an underground construction with tanks for the wastewater, food waste and garbage.This small construction has also devices for processing the garbage and the waste water. The main material used for the constructions is the regolith extracted during the excavations for the ground floor. The regolith is used to make bricks necessary for the other buildings. The bricks are made using a 3D printer. We must also use other materials brought from the Earth, such as steel, plexiglass and polyethylene.

We intend to build the central building with the rooms where we  live, sleep and work underground because the thick layer of lunar soil will offer us protection both against radiations and variations of temperature. The tower outside has thick walls of regolith bricks, lined inside with polyethylene. The costumes we are wearing outside are also made of polyethylene because this substance offers best protection against radiations. The walls of the greenhouse are made of plexiglass and are also very thick, so we hope they will protect the plants inside from radiations and meteorites.

Our team consists of three astronauts who live and work together in the camp. They are doing different activities but they also help each other in case of need. One of them is the manager and astronomer, the second member of the team is an engineer and IT specialist and the third is agronomist and cook. We’ll describe the daily programme of the astronomer / manager of the team.

The astronomer wakes up, takes a shower each morning and then makes gym exercises to keep himself in fine fettle. Then he walks into the kitchen, has breakfast with the others and they all talk details about the work they have to do. At 9 o’clock he mounts into the tower and checks the monitoring devices in the central control room, to make sure everything works. Then he goes to the astronomical observatory and checks the apparatus and devices existent there. Inside the observatory there are devices that makes measurements and register different parameters like intensity of light, magnitude of the stars, color of the emitted light, temperature of the stars, distance between stars, speed of motion etc. He reads the results and make notices. The roof of the observatory is made of steel and presents some plexiglas windows situated on different sides of the roof. He points the telescope in a certain direction,   to a certain star or to a group of stars and observe them. He makes a lot of pictures and measurements. Then he read all the recorded values, writes down his observations and the informations obtained and establishes conclusions. At noon he has lunch with the others and they all talk about their work. He rests for two hours  and then he goes back into the observatory and carries on his work. He sends photos and  informations and discuss with the other astronomers on Earth about the results and conclusions. He fills in his journal comments, observations and conclusions and then descend in the central control room for the final checkings of the day. In the evening he has dinner with the others, chats and establishes the programme for the next day. Finnaly he takes a bath and goes to sleep.