Lunar Capital City Competition

docabn

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Does anyone know how compact the rock on the side of a crater might be? The pictures I’ve seen lead me to believe that they are mostly loose rock and moon dust.
I was thinking about how difficult it might be if the sides of the crater are little better than piles of loose sand and rocks. Imagine trying to tunnel into the side of a sand dune.
If I'm right and the sides of craters are made of relatively loose material, using the walls might not be such a good idea.
Instead perhaps clear the top layers of loose rock from the surface of the floor of the crater (again I’m not sure how deep that would be) and create a foundation, build your modules on this foundation, and then use the loose material to bury your modules.
IMO this might be a better alternative to tunneling into loose unstable rock.

This site shows what I was trying to explain hopefully better than I did
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/expmoon/science/craterstructure.html
 
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StevoPistolero

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I think the softness of the rim of the crater further convinces me that we build the base on the surface, not the rim, and not the basin.
 

Andy44

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Yes, building on the surface with pre-fab modules and burying them is also a viable idea. You can build the vast underground complexes later.

As for meteor protection, a good thick layer of regolith should do for the small stuff.

I am going to take a WAG here and say that most interplanetary debris is probably orbiting the sun at a low inclination, so being inside the walls of a polar crater might be a good place to be, but I have no data to back that up.
 

T.Neo

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I am going to take a WAG here and say that most interplanetary debris is probably orbiting the sun at a low inclination, so being inside the walls of a polar crater might be a good place to be, but I have no data to back that up.

It's better to be safe than sorry. I'd bury the base anyway.

You need 5 meters or so of regolith to guard against cosmic rays and solar flares anyway, AFAIK.
 

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Just an idea, theres mention of undergroud. Obviosly we can,t go below the surface in Orbiter, but you could go inside say the side of a crater. For instance, have a mesh with some kind of entrance an go inside.
 

statickid

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Hmm, well, we should have staging, and a design that is expandable. It would probably start out as a lunar resort, and grow as the solar collectors come online. The natural size of the city all depends on how many jobs there are, and that depends on how big the tourism, solar, and helium mining components are.

Let's say that the initial resort starts off with 500 beds and 100 staff? You can always expand. The solar farm, I don't know, probably no more than a few hundred.

So we are looking at a village I think, a village that can be expanded if needed.

Where do you think it should be located? In a large crater? In a flat plane? On the side of a crater?


how about on the polar terminus so that the residents don't have to endure all that night time in the shadow
 

StevoPistolero

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I am going to London to work on this concept. This is the letter that I wrote the principle of Atmos, where I shall work this summer.


This year Shift Boston is sponsoring the competition for the Lunar Capital City. There are catagories of of competition: a design for a fifty-person lunar base, and a design for an entire lunar civilization and culture. So far, alone and with the Orbiter forum, I have crafted an economic development plan for the moon. The moon reflects light to the earth, which is harvested in solar collectors. Day in, day out, these collectors produce energy for the earth, ending dependence on fossil fuels, bringing global harmony, and so on. I call this concept Moon Polis and Star Mirror.

My proposal:

There are two types of environments on the lunar surface: what I call "shadow lakes" deep inside 21km craters, the coldest place in the solar system at 40 kelvin. There is ice here, which is harvested to produce water and oxygen (secondary sector).

The surface is bathed in sun half the time. Without internet I cannot get you the exact tempterature, but on the Lunar surface electro-magnetic energy is abundant. Light can be reflected, to Earth or to Lunar energy collectors, or it can be harvested in a fiber-optic array and piped into the colony. Trees of fiber-optic pineneedles radiate light on the promenade, growing dim with the change in the monthly lunar cycle. I imagine a festival in the public square, designated as the geographic center of the moon, the center for the lunar government, with low-gravity dance parties and appropriate music (we can collaborate with a performance artist collective I know). The sun is the primary sector economic driver.

There is a gradient between these two environements, on a lunar crater where seasonal shadow time increase exponentially as one descends. But the gradient is inperceptable: it is always experienced in the harshest black and white, light and shade, vaccume and radiation.

Imagine the polis (the colony) is located on the lowlands, with mirrors across the plane, from horizon to horizon. Gondolas travel up the rim of the crater and plunge down six kilometers into the shadow lake (crater) to harvest ice.

I want to visualize this. My long-term goal is to get to the point where I can take my visions out of my head and put them onto paper effortlessly. This summer, I want to bring Moon Polis to life. To do this I will need to be pushed and critiqued and worked into the ground like I was in my studio.

In six weeks I could visualize one or both of these projects, perhaps knocking-out the moon-civilization competition, and if there is time left in August work on the floor-plan for the fifty-person base. If I win one of the competitions, there is also street cred for runners-up, but if I win, I earn $1000 to pay for my trip, per catagory.

Steps for the second catagory include:

Sections (Illustrator, Photoshop)
Land use schematic (Illustrator, Photoshop)
Site Plan (Rhino (AutoCAD?), Photoshop)
Energy plan (illustrator, photoshop)
Phasing diagram (illustrator)
3d promenade (Rhino)
Terrain mesh(Google Earth, Vue, Zbrush?)
People (Poser, Photoshop, Maya)
Model of solar mirror collectors (Maya)
Fiberoptic trees(Maya)
Lighting (Maya)
Final Photoshop and Maya renderings
Final board copy (text)
Final board layout and printing
AfterEffects movie.
Flythrough and animations (Maya)
Virtual reality (Unreal engine)

That is two goals a week for over six weeks!
Can I do it? Depends on my mastery of the technology.

Alternatively, I could also work on the base, I would want to do in Revit or Autocad, because those are my weakest programs. Unfortunately, the program for the 50-person base is strict, and as much fun. It is advanced, technical, architectural work. I feel more comfortable in my role as a planner, desiging the entire civilization, at least at first.

But being this is an unpaid studio, I request permission to ask questions, shadow, be formally critiqued at least once a day, and to ask occasional questions of the architects. I might want a workspace where I can stash valuables that I cannot leave at the hostel, such as my computer. I also request that I be allowed to participate in major group discussions and critiques unrelated to the Lunar Mirror. I am not quite sure how things work at an architecture firm, but I am willing to learn and fit-in smoothly and not disrupt the workflow. Do you work late into the night or more 9-5?

Winning this competition brands Atmos as cutting-edge, futuristic, gritty, civic, pragmatic, avant garde, critical, optimistic... It also advances my own brand, my own style, seen throughout my body of work.

And when I am finished, I shall make ice cream for everyone.
 

NukeET

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3 words:

Lunar Base Niven

And a link:

[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3646"]Lunar Base Niven v2.0[/ame]
 

Andy44

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Cool, but this at the bottom of the page:

proper website coming soon ; in the meantime, get in touch

And....that's about it. No real explanation about who they are or what they do.

---------- Post added at 05:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:59 PM ----------

Although, I might add, very cool design and photos on that pagel.
 

tblaxland

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Given that there is real money at stake here, the administration of Orbiter-Forum would like members to know that Orbiter-Forum is not affiliated with the competition nor can we vouch for the legitimacy of the competition organisers or the legitimacy of any member attempting to organise an entry. We encourage anyone who wants to work on an entry to do so but members need to take responsibility for any dealings entered into with each other. You may also like to consider the protection, or freedom, of your intellectual property.
 
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