In Moon Camp Pioneers, each team’s mission is to 3D design a complete Moon Camp using the software of their choice. They also have to explain how they will use local resources, protect astronauts from the dangers of space and describe the living and working facilities in their Moon Camp.
郑州轻工业附属中学 河南省郑州市-金水区 China 19 4 / 1 English
3D design software: Fusion 360
Human mining is endless, but the resources on Earth are limited. When Earth’s resources are exhausted, where should humanity go? For a long time, the moon has been considered a potential location by scientists and astronomers as it is the closest celestial body to Earth. In recent decades, many proposals have been put forward for building a “base” on the moon that can adapt to human habitation. Building a lunar base is the first step for humanity to move towards the moon. Our lunar base is located in Shackleton Crater, which receives sunlight almost 80%-90% of the year and can provide a long-term stable light source for the camp. The focus of the camp is on astronaut research and life, creating a relaxed working environment and emphasizing astronauts’ quality of life. It is mainly divided into living areas and work areas. The living area mainly includes sports exercise, entertainment, medical care, life support functions providing safe and comfortable living environment for astronauts. The work area contains lunar geological research cabins.
Our camp will be built with living areas, work areas, outer cabins, gardens. The living area is mainly to ensure that the astronauts have a good living place, a comfortable sleeping environment, a place for cooking food, a well-equipped medical room, and a toilet to ensure freshening. The working area is mainly convenient for astronauts to work and discuss, in addition to the vegetable breeding area. Most of the extravehicular buildings are some equipment used to ensure the supply of some energy. More characteristic is our garden area, its surroundings are covered with vegetation, suitable for viewing, in the garden area, astronauts can be greatly relaxed physically and mentally, in addition to the gym but also built a yoga room, high-intensity, low-intensity training can be satisfied, in our base, in addition to ensuring the basic life of astronauts, as far as possible to give them the best sense of life experience.
Our lunar base is located in Shackleton Crater, an impact crater at the south pole of the Moon, where parts of the crater walls are exposed to almost constant sunlight, and in these areas there is almost a continuous flow of electricity from solar panels, making it an excellent location for future moon landings. These regions also have lower temperatures and the equatorial region of latitude is more favorable to avoid extreme temperatures from 100° Celsius during the day to −150° at night. The camp is surrounded by a large number of ancient and famous craters, and the ancient lunar layers exposed at the bottom of these craters can provide valuable and accurate data samples for scientists to study the geological evolution of the moon.
The construction of the camp is divided into three periods, the first period has an earth launch vehicle to send the basic living cabin of the camp and the camp construction robot to the lunar surface, this period will be the human remote control robot to complete the construction of the camp prototype, melt the lunar soil using 3D printing technology to cover the entire camp shell, forming the strongest shell structure of the camp. In the second period, astronauts were sent by Earth to carry a large number of scientific research equipment and daily necessities to enrich the internal environment of the camp. The third period is the formation period of camp ecology, in which astronauts select and cultivate herbaceous or algae plants suitable for growing on the earth, improve the camp ecology, and form a complete water vapor air circulation. In addition, in the construction of the camp, we will use a large number of foam metal, which is made of laser molten metal alloy, and there is almost no combustion gas such as oxygen in the space environment, and there is almost no gas molecules and dust scattering high-power lasers, which can provide a processing place for laser burning, welding or cutting of large-size metal materials. At the same time, the foam metal itself also has the ability to digest and absorb kinetic energy, and the foam metal can also be used in the manufacture of artificial bones, and the artificial bone created can withstand the load space in the human body.
First，The temperature is controlled indoors by utilizing external lighting and energy released from the reactor. The base is located in Shackleton Crater, which provides a long-term stable source of light for the camp. Additionally, our walls are constructed with a new type of magnesium gel insulation board that can insulate against external heat while maintaining a constant temperature.
Second，Radiation is mitigated in several ways at our camp.We have constructed thick walls that are strong enough to enhance the barrier against radiation. Additionally, we provide daily diets rich in vitamins A and C for astronauts to neutralize the effects of radiation and boost their immune systems.
Third，The spacecraft outside the camp is always ready to transfer astronauts in case of emergencies.Underground medical support robots provide emergency assistance to astronauts if needed.
Fourth，Our living quarters are built underground, which can effectively block impacts from meteorites.,
In addition, the lunar camp has its own medical station, and astronauts on Earth monitor various physical data sent back from space through the medical monitoring station of the ground station, and directly talk to astronauts through TV to make comprehensive judgments and predictions of their physical conditions, and astronauts also have to regularly report their physical conditions to the ground. The lunar camp has an ample stock of medicines, and we have prepared a large number of medicines for possible diseases, such as anti-motion sickness, sedative-hypnotics, painkillers, anti-allergy drugs, antidiarrheal drugs, cough medicines, disinfectants, hemostatic trauma tapes and compression bandages. The lunar camp is equipped with modern observers, which can perform various endoscopic examinations on astronauts, and if surgery is required, it can be carried out under the guidance of a ground doctor or camp doctor, and each astronaut has a dedicated artificial intelligence health assistant, and the health assistant will be responsible for the health of each of them.
Water : Because the lunar soil contains a large amount of hydrogen, when the solar wind bombards the lunar surface, it combines with oxygen in the lunar soil, thus forming water molecules. On top of that, the water at our camp is 100% recyclable and reusable, so it’s enough for astronauts.
Food : We are planning to build a vegetable greenhouse to provide fresh and green food for astronauts. They can also process the vegetables in the kitchen, ensuring that they receive sufficient vitamins A and C. As for protein, it will be transported from Earth. Astronauts can also bring compressed dry food from Earth for convenience during outdoor work when they need to fill their stomachs quickly.
Power: The main sources of energy used in our camp are solar and hydrogen power. We have built solar panels to collect a large amount of sunlight. In addition, we can use fusion reactors to convert helium-3 from the lunar soil into deuterium and tritium, which can then be fused together to produce oxygen gas. Therefore, hydrogen power is also one of the main sources of energy for our camp.
Air: The ecosystem of our camp can sustain the composition of the camp air almost the same as the earth, with about 21% oxygen, about 78% hydrogen, and less than 1% water vapor, carbon dioxide and other inert gases left. Oxygen can be obtained by electrolysis of melting lunar soil and electrolysis of water.
The main purpose of our lunar battalion is to further explore and develop the moon. Although the Moon is the closest planet to us, little is known about it, and we don’t know if there are other resources on the Moon that we haven’t found. So we set up a lunar camp as a lunar exploration base, explore the moon through unmanned remote sensing lunar rovers and manned lunar rovers, and then mine and collect the detected resources through lunar resource development vehicles.
These wastes mainly include material waste generated by camp equipment, such as nuclear wastewater, waste parts, etc., as well as metabolic waste, food residues, and daily necessities residues generated by astronauts’ lives. For this waste, the camp automatically classifies them into recyclable and non-reusable categories. Food scraps, metabolic wastes that are converted into camp vegetation nutrients through biodegradation; For unusable garbage, it is cleaned up by high-temperature incineration, and its heat is converted into electricity.
The camp is equipped with three large radio communication transmitters, which can meet the camp’s high-frequency real-time communication with Earth and near-Earth planets. Information communication is accomplished between lunar camps through relay communication satellites in lunar orbit, and camps can also use camp lunar rovers for short-distance operations and face-to-face communication with other camps in close proximity.
The lunar camp we built is mainly to facilitate astronauts to carry out scientific research and realize the long-term plan of human science in space exploration. Building a permanent base would allow us to explore the lunar surface more deeply, studying its characteristics, composition and history. By building bases on the moon, we can test a variety of technologies and equipment to determine if they are suitable for longer-distance, more complex missions. The main tasks of the astronauts are deep space observation, geological exploration, communication transit, and testing the long-term survival of astronauts in the lunar environment. In addition, the compression force of human survival bones in space is significantly reduced, bone density decreases, muscles degenerate to varying degrees, and the space environment is easy to cause cardiovascular problems, and the mineral density of weight-bearing bones during astronauts in space is reduced by an average of 1% to 1.5% per month; Muscle mass is also lost faster, and body fluids flow to the head in microgravity, which can put pressure on the eyes and cause vision problems; Secondly, if the blood in the head gathers too much, it will also lead to changes in the astronaut’s sense of smell and taste, and even headaches, abnormal blood pressure and other conditions. In the human space journey, these problems need to be solved one by one, so the camp uses medical capsules, sports modules through physical exercise, real-time health monitoring, weak current stimulation and other means to study the adaptation conditions of the human body in the space environment, so as to prepare for the real entry of human beings into space in the future.
At 7 o’clock, the astronauts in charge of the night patrol returned to the cabin to rest, and the other astronauts woke up from their sleep. At 7:15, the astronauts got up and washed up in the bathroom. At 7:30, astronauts entered the fitness area to start their morning exercises. At 8 o’clock, the astronauts finished their morning exercise and went into the kitchen to cook and eat breakfast. At 8:30, the astronauts entered the conference room to set up the day’s mission, and from 8:40 to 11:40 a.m., the astronauts began their own mission. Some take manned lunar rovers to explore the moon, some go to the general control room and research room to probe and analyze data, and some go to the green vegetation area to observe plant growth. 11:50 is lunch time, timely supplement the required nutrients to ensure the health of astronauts. Astronauts who go out to explore the moon can eat hearty food brought from the camp. 12:40 to 14:00 is free time. Astronauts can take a lunch break or head to the garden to admire the greenery. If you feel physically or psychologically unwell on the moon, you can go to the medical area for testing, and the computer will develop a suitable treatment plan for the astronauts based on the enemy. Between 14:10 and 18:40, astronauts were still on duty. At 19 o’clock, the astronauts returned to the camp to begin eating. At this time, the astronauts can share the results of the day’s lunar exploration or have some small talk. After dinner, the astronauts began to move freely, looking at the Earth from the moon or talking to family members on Earth through distant views, going to the fitness area to exercise, watching in the garden, going into the bedroom to work, playing games, etc. At 21 o’clock, the astronauts first finished the day’s work in the conference room. Then return to the house to start washing and resting. The astronauts on duty that night began their patrols.
Future spacecraft need to have a circulation engine that meets both the Earth’s atmosphere and the vacuum environment of the universe, needs to have an aerodynamic curve shape, a relatively spacious internal space, can carry a large number of materials and equipment in each mission, and has its own small declaration support system to ensure the short-term survival of astronauts on the way to the moon, and can also be used as a refuge for camps to face emergencies. The surface transportation of the camp is met by the lunar rover, which has complete and advanced scientific research facilities, which can meet the long-distance operation of astronauts on the lunar surface and shoulders the personnel circulation tools between camps.
