moon_camp

Moon Camp Pioneers Gallery 2020-2021

In Moon Camp Pioneers each team’s mission is to 3D design a complete Moon Camp using Fusion 360. They also have to explain how they will use local resources, protect astronauts from the dangerous of space and describe the living and working facilities.

Team: PareDisen

Eton College  Eton, Windsor    United Kingdom 17

External viewer for 3d project

Project description

Our Moon Camp has been designed to be a small, scientific outpost on the Moon, needing minimal human input to set up. It was devised with lightweight components to reduce launch expenditure; the main structure is made of inflatable materials, empty fuel tanks, and the main rocket body that brought these elements to the Moon. In total, the camp requires five rockets to completely set up, including the transport of rovers, interior essentials, and two astronauts. The rockets used are the upper stages of the larger launch vehicles that got them off Earth. They have vertical landing capabilities due to thrust vectored engines, and are able to land precisely using terrain-relative navigation. The rocket to which the inflatable habitats are attached lands at the base of a crater with a diameter of approximately 30m and depth of 10m. This crater is then domed over and covered in lunar regolith, creating a zone free from hazardous radiation and space debris.

[All subsequent number references correspond to body names on the .f3d file]

Where do you want to build your Moon Camp?

Our Moon Camp is centred in a crater approximately 30m in diameter and 10m deep, with a relatively smooth floor. Thousands of craters with this rough specification are scattered throughout the Moon and these can be scouted with the existing Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Our camp will be in one near to the Shackleton Crater in the Moon’s south polar region. There are high places here which are illuminated up to 96% of the time, an ideal place for the solar panels the camp relies upon for energy. Furthermore, water ice, essential for any human presence, has been detected in large volumes in the shadowed areas of this region.

How do you plan to build your Moon Camp? Describe the techniques and materials you would use.

Building begins when the first rocket (6061 aluminium alloy) lands in the centre of a crater. The Dome Storage Panels [1] are ejected using explosive bolts, opening the Dome Storage Container [2]. The airtight Kevlar composite Dome [3] packed inside is then inflated using compressed air [4]. The Dome expands to cover the entire crater, finally resting on the rims. Meanwhile, the three Spoke Storage Chambers [5] open in a similar way. More compressed air [6] floods the main airtight rocket body which pushes out the three Spokes [7] (before this, everything is depressurised to evaporate and expel the remaining fuel). The Spokes are also made from an airtight, tear-resistant Kevlar composite. Once everything is inflated, the base of the empty Liquid Oxygen Tank [8] detaches, opening access to the Hydroponic Farm [9]. The Liquid Oxygen and Fuel Tanks’ [10] positions within the rocket are modified from traditional rocket designs by being raised to the top, moving the payload section to the bottom which then connects the Spokes. Airlock Doors [11] are located between the two tanks and at the top of the Fuel Tank. The one at the top of the Fuel Tank gives direct access to the outside. The Fuel Tank therefore becomes an airlock.

The other items required arrive in the next three rockets. These also have Panels [12] removable by explosive bolts covering their payload sections. Winches [13] allow the astronauts to lower everything down to the ground when they arrive in their lunar lander.

The environment on the Moon is very dangerous for the astronauts. Explain how your Moon Camp will protect them.

The living and working area for the astronauts is in the inflatable Spokes at the bottom of the crater. This crater is covered with an inflatable Dome, which is subsequently covered in lunar regolith by the Regolith Rover’s [14] Augers [15]. This combination blocks harmful radiation and space debris, and maintains a constant temperature below that reduces stresses on the structures. Another danger is the low gravity. While a centrifuge may help, one would be expensive and difficult to transport, setup, and maintain. Instead, the workout equipment included – namely a Treadmill [16] with an elastic harness and Elastic Weights [17] – will help slow muscle and bone degradation. Furthermore, the gym, along with the light-holes in the dome and the communications equipment [18], will help maintain the astronauts’ mental health, which could easily deteriorate in a confined, artificially lit environment with no other human contact.

Explain how your Moon Camp will provide the astronauts with:
Water
Food
Electricity
Air

One of the rovers in our Moon Camp is a Water Rover [19], which collects fresh water. To do this, it utilises six Core Drills [20], which burrow into patches on the Moon where water ice has been detected (using onboard infrared sensors). Once each core has been filled, the Drills are retracted into the main body of the Rover, which is then sealed [21] and pressurised. Via solar power [22], the inside of the Rover is heated [23], evaporating the water within the core samples. This steam condenses on the cold Dome [24] at the top of the Rover, causing it to flow down into Removable Containers [25]. Once full, the astronauts take these Containers inside, and return the empty used ones to the rover. Waste water from showers and sinks, urine, and faeces, are piped into Purifiers [26] that recycle it, reducing the demand on the Rover.

A Hydroponic Farm is located inside the Liquid Oxygen tank upon landing, minus the Pump [27] and Plants (one example plant shown in file – trough to be filled to capacity)[28] which are added by the astronauts (the volume of the system is not great enough to affect the capacity of the tank). Water is added to the Reservoir [29] at the base of the tank, mixed with soluble nutrients that provide all the plants’ needs, and pumped to the top of the spiral Trough, from where it flows back down to the Reservoir. Nutrients are replenished using a mix of food-waste and faeces in powdered form from the Purifiers, supplemented by packets from Earth. Red LEDs on the bottom face of the Trough illuminate the plants with ideal wavelengths for photosynthesis. There will also be a supply of MREs onboard, as a redundancy and for a more varied diet.

The 48-panel solar array [30] has a total area of about 150m2 which produces roughly 200kWh of power. Due to a >90% solar exposition, these are running nearly all of the time, with a Battery Cell [31] that is charged to keep everything going when it gets dark. Power is used for lights, heating, water and air purification, the hydroponic pump and lights, the airlock, the radio antenna and receiver, and other appliances such as computers, mass spectrometers, 3D printers, the microwave, the fridge, heaters, etc.

Upon landing, compressed air from Earth floods the rocket and inflates the Spokes. To fill the full 360m3, two compressed air cylinders are required, each holding 0.4m3 of air at 7000psi. The astronauts bring four CO2 Scrubbers [32], which are spread out throughout the habitat. These absorb carbon dioxide from the air using porous zeolites. Once saturated, the zeolites are put into a tiny airlock [33] which frees the carbon dioxide (once exposed to a vacuum) and sends it outside. Some of the water collected by the water rover is fed into an Electrolyser [34], which generates oxygen to replace what is respired by the astronauts.

Explain what would be the main purpose of your Moon Camp (for example: commercial, scientific, and/or tourist purposes).

First and foremost, our Moon Camp is a proof of concept. The near fully automated setup that gives close to instant protection from the dangers of space is something that would be hugely advantageous for subsequent pioneers on both the Moon and Mars. As for this specific camp, it will start out as a scientific outpost. The fully equipped lab and coring rover will enable the study of rocks, with the goal of determining how they can be processed into metals to build manufacturing facilities and spacecraft in situ. With these processes refined in a low gravity environment, it can be expected that more similar camps will join it to turn the Moon into an industrial complex and spaceship yard. Spacecraft built here will contend with a smaller gravity well than Earth, and with increased water collection, hydrogen and oxygen can be used to fuel them to beyond cislunar space.

Describe a day on the Moon for your Moon Camp astronaut crew.

The astronauts start their day by waking up in their curtained sleeping chambers, before emerging into the common area. They shower, use the bathroom, then make some instant scrambled eggs. This done, there are some checks to do. Water levels on the Purifier and Electrolyser are good, the zeolites aren’t saturated just yet, and the power output of the Solar Panels are nominal. Astronaut one, Virginia, volunteers to go outside today and collect some samples the Coring Rover [35] collected last night. Meanwhile, astronaut two, Mat, is on indoor duty. Virginia heads up to the airlock above the Hydroponic Farm and puts on her Spacesuit [36]. The airlock depressurises, and she emerges at the top-centre of the dome. The dome easily supports her weight as she makes her way over to the Coring Rover. She collects the samples and heads back inside.

Meanwhile, Mat tends to the farm. He tops up the nutrients in the hydroponic solution and collects a lettuce and tomatoes for lunch. As Virginia is out, he decides to talk to his family back on Earth. He uses a computer in the Lab Spoke [37].

When Virginia has finished taking off her suit, she takes the rock samples to the lab. Here, she puts them into the IR spectrometer [38] to determine that they contain a lot of iron oxide. She then has lunch with Mat.

That afternoon, they do some exercise. Half an hour on the Elastic Harness Treadmill and a few reps on the Elastic Weight Machine later, Virginia goes to heat up the iron oxide in the furnace [39], producing iron and lots of impurities. She begins brainstorming how to separate these in an environment with little gravity or excess air. As she does this, Mat tests his design of an

autonomous manufacturing robot that can 3D print metals in situ with just ore as an input. Today he is figuring out how to get the metal to come out of the printer nozzle in low gravity. Virginia’s breakthroughs on purifying will be key to the success this robot.

Before eating dinner and going to sleep, the astronauts conduct a series of medical tests in order to build up data on the effects of low gravity on the human body [40]



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