A Polyhedral Approach for Design of Inflatable Lunar Habitats

摘要

Despite some of the harshest conditions, Moon has been attractive to space scientists and designers for its proximity to earth. The benefits of long-term settlement on the Moon have been at the heart of space exploration for science, tourism, and alternative planetary habitats. The paper first briefly discusses the rationale for a long-term settlement on the Moon, followed by potential sweet spots to locate habitats considering the extreme environmental conditions. Suitable structural materials, loads, architectural, and structural design considerations are discussed. A habitat concept design based on polyhedral geometry and modularity is proposed. The truncated octahedron is used as the fundamental building block for its potential to add new units as needed to form a modular space-filled assembly. In order to keep the mass and stowed volume minimal, the structure(s) would be erected by inflating the individual units as needed. The adaptability of the overall system lends itself to accommodate different volumes according to utility of spaces.