New Concepts for Permanently Manned Lunar Bases
Detail beweglicher Horizont
Team Kopernikus

Lunar Base Design Workshop, held in Noordwijk, The Netherlands from 10-21 June 2002
Barbara Imhof, Architect, Institut fuer Hochbau II, TU-Vienna, ESCAPE*spHERE
Susmita Mohanty, Industrial Designer, Principal, Moonfront LLC
Hans Jurgen Rombaut, Architect, Principal, Lunar Architecture
Hans Schartner, Architect, University of Technology, Institute for Design and Building Construction, Vienna
Paul J. van Susante Civil Engineer, Graduate Research Assistant, Colorado School of Mines department of Engineering
Jim Volp Astrophysicist, Young Graduate Trainee, ESA/ESTEC

LSG partners Sandra Häuplik-Meusberger, Kürsad Özdemir and René Waclavicek were core team members of the designs Team Kopernikus and Tycho.

All Images © 2002 Lunar Base Design Workshop. All rights reserved.


The first lunar base designs date back from even before it was declared by president Kennedy that the USA were going to land a man on the moon and bring him safely back to Earth.
The ideas and designs that have been proposed are very versatile and divers. Many issues need to be addressed in the designs such as life support, power generation, heat radiation, radiation shielding, landing and take-off and transportation. The design of space hardware is a very technical , relatively new area and the space design industry has been dominated since the beginning by engineers and scientists. In the designs for Lunar bases this is very visible. Many designs have a very high "tin can" level or just the opposite , they are complete cities with clear domes and terra-formed regions below the domes. It is very difficult to find any designs of lunar bases that go beyond the first stage construction shack, tin can designs and into the realm of long duration durable expandable lunar bases. Some official studies have been performed within NASA towards lunar base designs but due to the political influences it has sometimes even been forbidden to talk about plans for the moon. This resulted in highly fragmented work and loose studies during times when it was allowed to talk about the moon. All over the world individuals (at universities) and incidentally companies have pursued studies towards lunar bases.
 

Team Tycho

Team Contact
Team Kepler

Recently the interest in returning to the moon has increased worldwide. Europe is going to send its first small mission for advanced research and technology (SMART-1) to the moon, Japan is planning 2 missions and India and China both have short term plans to go to the Moon. At the moment Europe has the only official program for human planetary exploration called the aurora program.
This increased interest has stimulated the organization, as a first phase of a multi-phased project, of the first European Lunar Base Design Workshop that was hosted at ESA/ESTEC, in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. Here 40 graduate students from 16 countries and 13 disciplines with an emphasis on architecture students designed lunar base concepts. Six groups designed six different lunar bases according to six different scenario's. The main findings have to do with the horizontal and vertical movement in 1/6G in sleeve shirt environment.

Different concepts for interaction and "contact" with the green inside the base.Another topic was the use of water ice which can be used in several forms. Organic growth using small element to create a larger space in the desired shapes was important for several reasons. Human and human activities were the central spine in this design workshop. Some very interesting results have been produced with respect to the use of inflatable structures, the use of water, the human movement in 1/6 G and how to use the infrastructure that is needed. This effort was guided by the international organizing team (the authors) and by renowned experts from different fields, backgrounds and countries. Among others Gregor Eichinger, Wendell Mendell, Maria Perino, Didier Schmitt, ESA astronaut Wubbo Ockels and Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison "Jack" Schmitt.

further information - http://www.lunararchitecture.com/lunarbase.html