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.
Michigan Youth Empowerment Foundation TROY-Michigan United States 14 1 / English
3D design software: Tinkercad
https://www.tinkercad.com/things/2898ISUSU4G-moon-1st-floor/edit
Moon Camp brings an abundance of intrigue, opportunities, and challenges from creating rapid construction facilities, power source, and access to resources for longterm self reliance. In the HEARTH Moon Camp design, a subterranean base structure is proposed using drilling constructions to develop living quarters, research facilities, farming vegetation and proteins, waste management and power generation. Hearth utilizes the inner core of the Moon to reduce mass transport of building material, instead leverages the majority of resources found on the moon and also extract the Space Debris, roughly 30,000MT floating around the Earth to recycle in the future development of HEARTH.
HEARTH is arranged in 5 main levels dedicated to various objective:
LEVEL 1: Storage and mall.
LEVEL 2: Communication Command Center and Tourism will be top level – this will be the lowest security clearance – also the center floor panel can extend outward to the surface, so that tourist can experience observation of Space.
LEVEL 3: Farming/Food Production Level combined with Space Agricultural Research
LEVEL 4: Scientific Research – Space Exploration; methane and fertilizer production; gray waste processing Quarantine centers
LEVEL 5 – Armory
LEVEL 6- Fusion Reactor – Energy Generation
Ultimately, HEARTH will be a near-Earth Human colonization model to be developed and refined for other planetary establishment. Instead of surface terraforming and having to deal with exterior planet challenges, HEARTH established a secured subterranean base that allows rapid construction, minimum building resources, and can be up and running within 6-9 months vs. years.
HEARTH’s subterranean designs secures astronauts and other visitors from harsh Space elements with the Moon surface – as the first layer will be drilled 500 FT below ground. With five levels, HEARTH’s most secured activities will have over 1000 FT of Moon Surface protection. HEARTH’s walls will also be sprayed with a Insulating, Radiation Barrier, Elastic Sound dampening (IRES) quick dry spray that will eliminate erosion, possible cave in and wall structural compromise. Furthermore, by having the structure underground, the base can establish artificial breathable air, through hydroponic vegetation growth. This is critical just in case the air generator fails, you will have several areas that’s capable of supplying breathable air exchange through vegetation. By being underground, you can also leverage the insulation effects and geothermal exchange for improved heating and cooling. Using geothermal principals will reduce drastic temperature fluctuations.
The structural tunnels will be created by a large scale drill excavation machine followed by IRES spray applicator that will stabilize the wall. Other sections, such as piping, electrical wiring, flooring, etc – will be brought up from Earth. When Level 4 – Material Refinement facility gets up and running – this facility will process Space debris that will separate useful material in future construction needs. When the drill goes through it has a storage compartment in the back that can store lots of dug up material that has many different minerals that can be studied or used in construction in later parts of the build. The individual rooms will be made using a small drill with no compartment.
HEARTH will use the Moon’s own surface integrity as its primary protections. As energy shielding technology may be developed in the future, this can be added on. Furthermore, HEARTH is not limited to the initial 1000FT construction, if needed the drill excavation machine can go even deeper towards the Moon’s core. This gives the construction team several options to initially expand closer to the surface and create more side channels or to go deeper due to harsh environmental challenges. In the case of a large asteroid the armory will immediately step into action to shoot it down. Since the base is created under the ground things like the sun’s radiation, temperature fluctuation, and small astroids will be mostly not even a noticeable problem.
Water will be initially be brought from earth and then through cleansing the gray waste people create will be filtered into potable water. Food will include beans, potatoes, bamboo shoots, and wheat. The protein source that will sustain the astronauts will be quail as a study has already shown that quails can indeed survive and reproduce in space. Air will be made from the aforementioned bamboo. Bamboo is a very special plant where it has so many different uses. It generates 35% more oxygen than trees. When fully grown it can be used to make scaffolding. When thin it can be used to make utensils to eat with. Bamboo also works as a natural humidifier. Finally if needed it can be burned into a fuel source. When it comes to power generation the most long term plan is Fusion Power. Finally using chicken manure and natural biowaste artificial landfills will be made to capture methane and be rechanneled and used in other parts of the facility.
When waste is created the 1st thing people think of when thinking of waste is throw it away. However, my thought is to reuse it in a multitude of ways. 1st you can reuse to fertilize your plant soil. Secondly, it can be aged and slowly be turned into compost to reintroduce minerals into the soil. Finally it can be used to create methane gas and produce heat for the rest of the base.
Communication will be very simple: a signal is sent out and since the base is quite deep there will be small ports to help the message travel further. Then, when it reaches the nearest space station that will make the final leap and send the message to headquarters.
HEARTH is a near-Earth model to simulate other world human colonization, the main researches will include the following:
RAPID base construction facility development. This includes speed, efficiency, and improvement in equipment such as the drills to see how we can improve the designs.
As most of the moon is covered in utter darkness Autonomous robots that can explore the new terrain will be sent into the unknown and report back findings.
Far Space communication system for interstellar communication back to Earth. When this base is created the main goal is to continue and since Mars is most likely the next place in the solar system this base will be testing whether or not messages can easily travel between that distance and discovering ways to make it more efficient.
Space Mapping. Most of space is unknown however in the standpoint of the moon the Space around will be much easier to map and see. Maps will be needed to be created if there is any hope to take the next step away from the moon.
Adaptable Biology Plant mass that will provide food, construction material, air production. However, the main goal is to better see how these plants will adapt in their new environments. Slowly if those plants are able to withstand extremely harsh climates and situations it can be brought back to earth to solve the planet’s food shortage.
First thing first the astronauts will be put in the Typical Astronaut procedure. The G-force practice. Anti gravity, and others. The next thing the system begins with is a test that sees the aptitude of everyone on board. Then depending on the urgency jobs and positions will be handed out to people with either high aptitude or a high interest in the subject. Things on the top of the urgency scale would be farmers and people who work on the fusion reactors. On a scale from most to least the most important job is either the fusion reactor or farm. The reason being is that without these 2 key components the people will either starve or die from space freeze. The least important would be sitting idly in the communication rooms. The next practice they would have to do is repair. There is not always a consistent amount of engineers on staff. In the case of emergencies everyone should be able to fix anything. Not only that, they will need rigorous training in mental fortitude and teamwork. Not only that, everyone should also be taught basic farming and animal care in the aforementioned cases of the main farmers caught a cold.
The vehicles found on the moon camp are for exploratory, Military, and completing missions. As for the vehicles needed to jumpstart this base are a multitude of rockets and drills. The drills come in different diameters. A 100, 75, and 50 feet bit. The 100 will drill the main tunnel down. The 75 will be the one drilling the hallways and rooms. Finally, the 50 feet will be used to create side escape tunnels. The Military portion will be the mechs controlled by humans. There are 2 different models, the larger one will be used to shoot down asteroids. The smaller one for defense. The exploratory section is mostly rovers to guarantee safety of the astronauts. The final one is completing the mission. There are cars. However, they have a built in radar to scout and a dashboard that shows updates such as warnings or temporary change.
