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.
Gymnázium Evolution Sázavská Praha 2-Hlavní město Praha Czech Republic 16, 17 3 / 0 English
3D design software: Fusion 360
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vUiwM3kJ7bW8kuaKoh46p9cqz31TO9o0?usp=share_link
Our mission is named Planetary Habitat and Astro-Scientific Exploration. This is the next P.H.A.S.E in lunar exploration.
Purpose of this mission is to achieve continuous human presence on the moon and to serve as a support point for future moon missions. Our base utilizes the marvels of modern engineering with a goal of safety in mind. It is designed to meet all the vital needs of our astronauts and to ensure comfort during their stay. This station builds on other moon infrastructure such as the Gateway by ESA. This mission will come later in the moon expansion time frame, in order to ensure maximum safety and smoothness of the whole process.
PHASE will house 3 astronauts. It will be located at the moon’s south pole. This location was specifically chosen for its unique properties. The station consists of 5 rooms: The lab, bedroom, social room, greenhouse and pressure chamber. Rooms are connected via hallways which house additional storage space and important systems such as the MELiSSA life support. Here is the top down view below:
The PHASE mission also includes a rover, 2 autonomous robots, antena and in total twenty underground solar panels to provide power.
The main purpose of this station is scientific research. The research would focus on producing and growing plants on the moon and studying its viability under the moon´s 1/6th gravity. Other maybe more important part of the research would include harvesting and transforming the moon´s water into drinkable form. Other research would include a deeper study of moon rocks and utilizing them in construction on the moon.
As we wrote previously the base would be located on the moon’s south pole due to stable sunlight and access to frozen / underground water. More specifically the base would be located outside the Shackleton crater. The crater itself has been covered in darkness since the moon’s formation and it will serve as a frozen water reservoir.
Construction of the base is going to be divided into two phases. The first one is going to be unmanned and the second one manned. The astronauts are going to arrive in the second one and have all the necessities ready. The resources onboard the first one will include materials for the station’s mainframe. The station is going to be inflatable and it will be made of carbon fiber reinforced kevlar and it will be reinforced with titanium. To build the foundation for the base we will utilize 3D printing to lay an accurate base. We could partly print using local materials such as a moon rock to further minimize necessary materials. Inside of the walls is going to be filled with a mix of oxygen and nitrogen that will serve as an emergency oxygen reserve.
Part of this first phase are going to be the two autonomous robots, that will put everything they can together. The station is going to be underground to prevent radiation and other hazards. The robots will prepare the ground for the station and then cover it with dugout material. The first phase will also set up energy and communication via the antennas and solar panels. The most important part that will need to be set up in the first phase is the water systems. We will describe how they work further on. Once we have set up electrolysis in the first phase, we can use the product gasses to fill the walls.
The base protects its inhabitants by being covered by 3D printed moon rock material. This has many advantages. It protects from radiation and meteorite showers. This removes the need for complex and heavy structures, enabling our reinforced inflatable design, saving weight on ships and allowing us to carry more additional payload.
Also we have retractable underground solar panels that can hide in case of danger posed by meteorite showers. Also the underground storage will automatically clean moondust from the panels. The antenna is also retractable to prevent damage.
One of the biggest problems of the moon’s environment is the dust. The base needs to rely on external equipment and EVAs. To solve the dust issue, everything that is outside and or is in contact with the dust is going to be coated in a special layer utilizing the dust electrical charge against it. The system will have an electrical layer that will actively repel dust, instead of attracting it. Rigid fixed bodies will use a layer made of metal and flexible bodies such as space suits will use carbon nanotubes as a conductor.
Our base will incorporate recycling systems for black and gray water, which are going to clean / recycle it. The outcome will be drinkable white water that can be used elsewhere. Leftovers from this process are going to be used as fertilizer in the greenhouse.
The main source of water beside recycling is going to be mining and cleaning the moon’s water into a drinkable form. This will be achieved by an RTG charged rover that will mine in the craters ice. The RTG will mean no need for charging and sunlight and will enable the rover to work in dark areas in the crater.
The main source of food are plants from the greenhouse. The greenhouse shelves are multifunctional and can hold different types of plants. Main plants grown are: Potatoes for carbohydrates and vitamins A and C, Tomatoes for vitamins A,C,K, potassium and fiber. The last plant is beans for zinc, copper, manganese, selenium, and vitamins B1,B6,E. We would also include food delivered from earth with the astronauts. The greenhouse has day and night cycles that are created by changing the intensity and brightness of high efficient lights. Plats as we mentioned are fertilized and watered by the Automatic Fertiliser and Sprinkler Module (AFSM) that will be fed from the recycle module.
Oxygen for astronauts is going to be covered partly by plants as a byproduct of the greenhouse and partly by electrolysis from the moon´s water. Also we can use the insides of walls as an emergency oxygen backup if the systems fail. Inside of the base can fill up with carbon dioxide as an exchange for oxygen.
We are producing over 75kW of electricity using solar. Single panel has 12m2 of surface area, we will have twenty. With a bit of math and using high efficiency 25% efficient panels and using the solar constant we get: 240×1300:4 = 78000W of power. The RTGs will be used as an emergency backup.
We will have a closed and fully integrated MELiSSA loop in our base, that is capable of dealing and reusing with practically all the waste the base could generate. MELiSSA is a life support system based on an artificial ecosystem and it was initiated by ESA. The MELiSSA loop contains 4 compartments:
Liquefying – collection point
Photoheterotrophic – Elimination of liquefying byproducts
Nitrifying – Cycling NH4+ into nitrates
Photoautotrophic – plant compartment for regeneration of oxygen
The above is heavily simplified for purposes of this paper. We aim to produce zero waste and reusing everything we bring up to the moon.
The base itself will be equipped with a short and long range antenna for communication. The main point is using the Gateway mission by ESA on the moon’s orbit as a relay station to earth. This link enables communication even if earth is not in direct line of sight / range with the moonbase. Also the Gateway serves perfectly as an orbit relay for other moon activities with the base, even for longer distances. The antenna on the roof serves as a backup and is to be used mainly for Gateway communications. The larger antenna on the ground is a fully fledged primary one.
The main research purpose of this base is the research of colonies on different planets (moons) and human response that can be then used on future missions. Connected with that is a deeper exploration and understanding of the moon’s geology. The base will explore mining and usability of the moon’s rock and other resources as a worthy material to be used by further expansion on the moon.
One of the issues presented to astronauts will be the lack of earth’s gravity. This means that muscle and bone atrophy. To prevent this the station is equipped with special exercise machines that work in low gravity. Astronauts will need to have a complete knowledge of how these machines work and all the risks they will encounter. This applies to the whole mission, not just workouts.
Astronaut training will include a 1:1 version of the station on earth in order to familiarize its features. Together with the complete knowledge of the equipment that astronauts will use. Astronaut training for the moonbase should be similar to training for the ISS.
Additional training compared to the ISS should include:
Lunar dust management
This mission will include active and passive dust anti measures. Even with that astronauts will need to know how to prevent and deal with dust buildup and how to clean it.
Radiation protection
The earth electromagnetic field does not reach the moon and unlike the ISS astronauts conducting EVAs will be exposed to vast amounts of radiation. They need to be trained on how to minimize health risks and what to do if for example the exposure was too high.
EVA Suit maintenance
Space suits used on this mission will need to withstand exponentially more EVA hours then previous moon missions such as the Apollo program. Due to this the spacesuits will need to be serviced and checked regularly and astronauts will need the knowledge to do so.
For traveling on the moon we will use a rover to reach further distances. The rover contains an RTG (Radioisotope thermoelectric generator) and solar to power on board batteries, giving it in theory an unlimited range.The rover has an antenna that can be used in collaboration with the Gateway to communicate with the base anywhere on the moon.
We have a 3D printing autonomous robot and an excavator that will be a part of the first phase of this mission and will be used to lay the foundations, harvest the ice and mine moon soil respectively.
The base will have a nearby landing platform that is going to be used by rocket powered vehicles such as the Artemis lander spacecraft or the Spaceship. Travel to and from the base will be done by rocket, as humanity currently does not have a better extraterrestrial way of transport.
