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.
Colegiul National “Mihai Eminescu” Suceava-Suceava Romania 18, 17 3 / 2 English
3D design software: Fusion 360
Moon Glow Industries will become the backbone of a new economy and an innovative way of life for humanity. It is the first great lunar factory that strives towards the industrialization of helium – 3, beryllium, lithium. The extracted resources will be shipped back to Earth where they are processed and sold, the money being reinvested in future space missions.
Our structure proposal is defined by 11 modules of two different sizes including, 3 bedrooms, 3 algae farms, 1 communication centre and one gym. In addition, the aluminium modules we will utilize a 3D printer to create the tunnels from regolith.
The crew will be fashioned from 12 members, each with specific attributes, therefor we emphasize the production of water, oxygen, and food.
The team will be changed once every 4 months, ensuring that the base is constantly active. Since our base is mainly automated, we rely on robots, there is a vital need for a definitive energy source, which will be provided by multiple solar panels and a nuclear reactor.
The Moon has a vast quantity of valuable and rare resources that may be used to drive forward the human economy and industrial progress. Through our Moon settlemet we strive to make lunar materials, helium-3, beryllium, lithium, more accessible so that we can better develop the industry of medical imagery, nuclear reactions, space propulsions. Due to the modular structure we intend to extend the Moon Glow Industries in the future to one day reach the efficiency of an Earth factory. Furthermore, we envision the prospect of developing our Moon Camp into a network of cooperating industrial stations with the help of potential investments and the accumulated profits. Moon Glow Industries can be a starting point for further colonial endeavours.
Our base will be built in the De Gerlache crater located 30 km from the South pole of the Moon. We chose this site because of its relative flat surface and its abundance in resources. The crater contains an extensive Permanently shadowed regions in the centre and multiple smaller PSRs around the crater rim that may harbour icy regolith deposits, another resource, for crew consumables, radiation shielding, and propellant.
Thus, our base is surrounded by vital terrestrial resources that we can exploit to sustain human life on the Moon Camp. The de Gerlache crater is not naturally abundant in helium-3; the extraction of the materials will be performed by way of robots that will travel and extract the radioisotope from Copernican regions of the Moon.
Given the fact that the building surface is covered by a layer of moon dust, the first step in building our camp is sending robots to clean until they reach the first geologically stable sediment. They will also remove any jagged terrain that might interfere with the base’s stability and take additional precautions to ensure its structural integrity. The second step in the construction is bringing the space modules with the help of 15 Orion spaceships. The rooms will be connected by 3D printed tunnels made from regolith and the 8 bigger modules will be assembled with the help of robots and the rooms will be furnished accordingly. All the units come equipped with windows made from barium silicate glass to allow the natural light flow. The oxygen, carbon dioxide and water pipes made from copper are also installed by robots. Finally, after the base is installed, the crew will land with the remaining supplies such as water and food and they will start the production of oxygen trough the three chlorella farms each with two 3,85 m2 tanks with the capacity of 5 m3. The members will plant crops and install the laboratory and the communication centre. The main mining robot will be transported and readied for use by the robot specialists. At this point our space mission begins.
Another challenge is the harsh lunar environment, which exposes the Moon base to micrometeoroids, solar radiation, and dust storms. These hazards can damage equipment, threaten the health of astronauts, and disrupt mission operations. First, outer space radiation is a concern on the Moon due to the satellite’s almost inexistent atmosphere.
In this regard, our moon base is equipped with a set of 60 cm thick walls that have a sandwich-like structure. From the outside in, the wall contains a layer of aluminium, then Reinforced Carbon Carbon, air, Reinforced Carbon Carbon, a space from installations such as pipes, aerogel and finally, another layer of isolating aluminium | inside space, that protect the crew from beta radiations and temperature fluctuations. This also helps mitigate damage in the event of a meteorite impact. As mentioned earlier, the glass is also an effective radiation blocker.
Secondly, we must consider the extreme temperatures present at the southern lunar hemisphere. Our base comes equipped with a central heating system that comes into play both in cooling the base down during periods of high temperatures and provide heat when the region is cold. Thirdly, for protection against moon dust, which can prove lethal, we will make use of high-quality space suits and an airlock to prevent contamination. In the event of an internal accident, the airtight doors will stop the fire or explosion, protecting the crew bedrooms.
Lastly, contact with Earth is essential in case of an accident therefore the communication center will be immediately closed off from the rest of the base protecting the room as much as possible. Two big modules are separated from the main camp, namely the robot garage and the storage room. They are not connected to oxygen pipes to prevent any possible leaks. In this regard, the base also offers two exits making evacuation safe and efficient for the crew.
Water
Water is not an abundant inside our chosen crater; however, the south Pole contains ice particles entrapped within regolith. Our robots mine in areas rich in these particles and deliver the raw materials to the Moon Camp’s laboratory where the ice is separated, transformed into water, purified, and then introduced into the base’s system. We make our base sustainable by recycling wastewater through a system based on osmosis.
Food
A healthy and balanced diet is essential for maintaining peak astronaut performance throughout the mission. Our base includes three distinct farming modules, one of which utilizes aerophonic technology to grow different types of lettuce. The other one contains two tanks in which we farm rice and the last one presents six boxes where we will plant potatoes. In the early stages of the mission, while the farms produce their first batch of food, we will rely on various supplies brought from the Earth.
Air
In the beginning we will address the lack of oxygen by mining regolith and smelting it at high temperatures. Lunar rock contains oxides from which the oxygen can be released. Once a steady supply of oxygen is assured this way, algae in our base will transform carbon dioxide back into breathable air. We assure gas flow throughout the Moon Camp by means of an extensive network of pipes that connect modules to the oxygen facility.
Power
Our base requires full energetic uptime to properly fulfill its industrial role. The electrical network of our Moon camp is double consisting of both solar panels placed in a well-lit region of the site and a nuclear micro reactor to serve as backup if the solar panels do not provide enough energy, are damaged, or are scheduled for maintenance and replacement.
We envision a sustainable base by recycling as much waste as possible. After the water is used in the bathroom or kitchen, it is transported back to the laboratory where it is purified and reintroduced in the clean water supply for further use. Food scraps are collected and turned into fertilizer that is later used in the farms. Carbon dioxide is turned into oxygen with the help of the three algae modules that are the source of the ventilation system. Breathable air is a vital supply and with the help of an oxygen program we intend to limit the quantity as much as possible. This implies that when a certain module is empty, the pipe system is programed to stop the oxygen flow in that specific room.
All space missions, our Moon Camp notwithstanding, require a fast and efficient means of communication with the Earth. To this end our project is going to make use of a series of geostationary orbit satellites and stations on Earth, which allow for transmission of data in bulk and even high-resolution images. Because our Moon Camp is the first steppingstone in the great work of human expansion towards outer space and the Moon, we have designed our satellite network with scalability in mind – it can be readily extended to span the entirety of the Moon. In the event of an emergency on the Moon, these satellites will ensure real-time communication, which is important to maintain because we can find the most advisable course of action together with teams on the Earth by brainstorming.
Our base’s main purpose is industrial, aiming for efficient extraction of helium-3. However the data we will gather from our operations under the actual conditions of the Moon will be the first of its kind and hold far more value than what has been currently found in idealized experimental settings. We are going to measure the long-term effects of lunar environment on human anatomy with respect to bone and muscle degradation, which represent the main impediment of a truly permanent settlement on the Moon and draw conclusions on how we may improve in this field. Our farms will be the first of their kind and we will also perform experiments on them to find ways of increasing the crop yield for future missions on the Moon. Observing the efficiency of our helium-3 processes is also a point of interest, as it could lead to technical advancements in the technologies used to extract the isotope from regolith.
Our program will prepare crew members with skills in critical thinking and decision making even while under time pressure are a must, as well as familiarity with the basics of operating the Moon Camp base. This includes knowledge about all the life support infrastructure, the heat and water systems, the basics of aeroponic farming and industrial processes in order to help each astronaut understand the full extent and objectives of the project. We will start with a basic training stage where each astronaut, be they a junior or a veteran, will have the chance to familiarize themselves with the fundamentals such as the structure of the Moon Camp, performing activities in a spacecraft or during an EVA, and the systems in place for orientation on the Moon, communication, and life support. Specialized training will then commence, as each crew member will be briefed on their role in the mission and trained in their respective fields. They will also be taught how to respond during an emergency according to protocols and subjected to psychological training, as extended stays on the Moon run the risks of stress and feelings of isolation.
Our Moon base features two different vehicles. The most important of them is our Carrier robot with the dimensions of a bus that powers itself with the help of the built-in solar panels. It is operated by two crew members who travel with it and functions by sending out smaller robots to harvest from many different areas at once. When the mini bots have finished their extraction task they will return to the main robot with the materials. The extracted resources are later deposited in our Moon Camps warehouse. The landing pad, which also acts as a launch pad, is located less than 100 kilometres from the main base and offers the possibility of easy transport of materials by rocket from the Moon to Earth and back. Our Moon Camp will transport as much helium-3 as the spaceships allow us.
