Difference between revisions of "Outpost"

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Current thinking is a small/inflatable buried structure with absolute minimal facilities. An inflatable 4 metre diameter tube roughly 6 metre long, laying on its side, buried 2 meters, with two meters of regolith overburden. Say 3-5 bunks on a wall, a couple desks, a RV style shower/head and a small sink. Maybe if we are really lucky a place to heat food. There will probably be three airlocks, one outer lock leading to a suit room, a second lock between the suit room and the living quarters to keep dust down, and a third as an emergency exit. There will be a limited amount of water recycling, and until we get the in-situ resource manufacturing down, most supplies will need to be brought it. Of course power will be supplied by solar panels over the overburden, (A little more protection) and perhaps as a sun shade over some of the external equipment. Power storage for overnight is still in the 'air'. (Sorry)
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<!--[[Image:Outpost_in_use_outside.jpg|thumb|900px|none|<center>What it might look like in use, from the outside.</center>]]
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[[Image:Outpost_in_use_outside.jpg|450px|<center>What it might look like in use, from the outside.</center>]]
  
We'll get a smaller image up soon.
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Current thinking is a small/inflatable buried structure with absolute minimal facilities. An inflatable 4 metre diameter tube roughly 6 metre long, laying on its side, buried 2-3 meters, with 2-3 meters of regolith overburden. Say 6-10 bunks on a wall, a couple desks, a RV style shower/head and a small sink. Maybe if we are really lucky a place to heat food. (all inflatable furnature/barriers, filled with varying densities and consistencies of spray foam) There will probably be three airlocks, one outer lock leading to a suit room, a second lock between the suit room and the living quarters as a dust mitigation lock, and a third as an emergency exit. There will be a limited amount of water recycling, and until we get the in-situ resource manufacturing down, most supplies will need to be brought it. Of course power will be supplied by solar panels over the overburden, (A little more protection) and perhaps as a sun shade over some of the external equipment.  Power storage for overnight is still in the 'air'. (Sorry) Depending on the location though. (see
  
[[image:Top.jpg|a look at a proposed floor plan, top view]]
 
  
(10/28/08)
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'''Click on thumbnails below for two sized illustrations suitable for computer desktop bitmaps, one is 4x3 aspect ratio, the other is 16x9 wide screen.'''
If we are prepared to accept a 2% increase in circumference for the inflatable outpost, we may be able to expand available floorspace by 30%.
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A true cylinder 4 meters (12.8 ft)in diameter, constrained to a 2.5 meter (8.0 ft)floor-to-ceiling height, will have a floor approximately 3.8  meters(12.16 ft)wide.  The circumference of a 4-meter diameter cylinder is 12.56 meters (40.19 ft).
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<center><gallery>
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Image:Outpost_desktop_1024x768.jpg|What it might look like in use, from the outside. 1024x768
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Image:Outpost_desktop_1680x1050.jpg|What it might look like in use, from the outside. 1680x1050</gallery></center>
  
A half-cylinder, or quonset, shape 5 meters in width will have a circumference of 12.85 meters - a 2.3% increase - yielding a floor area 1.2 meters wider - an increase of 30%.  The floor-to-cieling height remains the same at 2.5 meters.
 
  
Actual curvature of the walls is increased yielding a slightly greater distance from the centerline for a quonset configuration based on these dimensions.
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==An idea to reduce the volume of the payload==
  
Given that floorspace and overall volume are always at a premium, I would recommend going with the quonset style for an inflatable.  There would be the same number of seams (potential leakage points) in its construction as the cylinder and only a somewwhat greater complexity in construction, but actually this trades one complexity (installing a floor in an inflatable cylinder) for another (installing two 'D'-shaped endcaps to the ends of a fabric with non-uniform dimensions)for a net balance in effort.  I'm drawing up an internal arrangement concept for this design.
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By: [[User:Len|Len]]
  
(10/28/08)
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By filling the inflatable items on the mission with expanding foam (it comes in various densities) things such as the sleeping cubes, the tables and chairs, and room dividers are all items that can be collapsed to a fraction of the volume of standard itemsSince the expanding foam generates CO2 it will self inflate the object.   
Crew size is currently envisioned as five or six.  For the volume being considered (@ 300 cubic meters) there are major problems with sizing crew accomodations.  Bunk space, for example, has to be divided by three bunks stacked.  If total floor-to-ceiling height is 2.5 meters, each bunk would have to allocate just 83 centimeters each to stack three bunks.  This would have to assume the lowest bunk was on the floor.  This might seem a trivial point except that bare-minimum accomodations can be a very major morale buster - particularly if sleep quality is effected.  This same general problem exists all the way through the design processNot just for the outpost/habitat, but for the transport system as well.   
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By way of recommendation, the evidence suggests reducing BASIC crew size to four. Outpost expansion can be calculated in multiples of four crewmwmbers with fairly comfortable/robust margins based on the initial outpost mass being considered a standard design point.
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The foam comes in several different densities - ranging from styrofoam to rock.  Filling inflatables with foam will have the benefit of adding rigidity to the item.  
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This assumes that the foam will expand normally in a vacuum at lunar gravity levels and it should be noted that the foam is temperature sensitive during expansion - extensive testing would be required.
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This is another off of the shelf solution available to the mission.
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[[Image:Igloo_Layout_-1a.jpg|thumb|900px|none|<center>A revised proposed floor plan showing emergency escape tube</center>]]
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[[Image:Top.jpg|thumb|900px|none|<center>A proposed floor plan</center>]]
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[[Image:LunaLodge1 OpenLuna.gif|thumb|900px|none|<center>A proposed minimalist initial habitation</center>]]
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[[Category:Lunar outpost designs]]
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[[Category:Modular pieces of equipment]]

Latest revision as of 19:33, 3 October 2012

What it might look like in use, from the outside.

Current thinking is a small/inflatable buried structure with absolute minimal facilities. An inflatable 4 metre diameter tube roughly 6 metre long, laying on its side, buried 2-3 meters, with 2-3 meters of regolith overburden. Say 6-10 bunks on a wall, a couple desks, a RV style shower/head and a small sink. Maybe if we are really lucky a place to heat food. (all inflatable furnature/barriers, filled with varying densities and consistencies of spray foam) There will probably be three airlocks, one outer lock leading to a suit room, a second lock between the suit room and the living quarters as a dust mitigation lock, and a third as an emergency exit. There will be a limited amount of water recycling, and until we get the in-situ resource manufacturing down, most supplies will need to be brought it. Of course power will be supplied by solar panels over the overburden, (A little more protection) and perhaps as a sun shade over some of the external equipment. Power storage for overnight is still in the 'air'. (Sorry) Depending on the location though. (see


Click on thumbnails below for two sized illustrations suitable for computer desktop bitmaps, one is 4x3 aspect ratio, the other is 16x9 wide screen.


[edit] An idea to reduce the volume of the payload

By: Len

By filling the inflatable items on the mission with expanding foam (it comes in various densities) things such as the sleeping cubes, the tables and chairs, and room dividers are all items that can be collapsed to a fraction of the volume of standard items. Since the expanding foam generates CO2 it will self inflate the object.

The foam comes in several different densities - ranging from styrofoam to rock. Filling inflatables with foam will have the benefit of adding rigidity to the item.

This assumes that the foam will expand normally in a vacuum at lunar gravity levels and it should be noted that the foam is temperature sensitive during expansion - extensive testing would be required.

This is another off of the shelf solution available to the mission.

A revised proposed floor plan showing emergency escape tube
A proposed floor plan
A proposed minimalist initial habitation
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