AE 426 Space System Design
Design of a Permanent Lunar Base
PTAR Presentations, November 6, 2014
Summary of Review Board Evaluations and
Recommendations.
AE 426 Space System Design
Design of a permanent Lunar base
PTAR Presentations, November 6, 2014
Design Team No. __1___
Please use a scale of 0-10 (10 = best) to rate presentation and content.
1. Mission Design Introduction :
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Presentation was hard to read. Comm visibility wrt Earth was considered.
What is acceptable rem per year? Safety from mining accidents?
Drill mass – how large?
3-D walls from regolith – good
About boring machines, but not boring!
Didn’t follow the outline
Aeroponics good, but “Plumpy Soy” food – yuck!
2. Trade Options Discussion:
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 Went too fast
 Greenhouse, light, collapsible – good
 Why North vs South?
 How to decide the size of the tunnel?
 Trade discussion essentially presented at the end. How does the crew get
around outside?
3. Design Description:
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 Only concept involving tunneling that showed how the tunnels would be
made
 Self-healing structures – interesting
 Power: 2 liquid Floride Thorium reactors – I like nuclear power for space!
 Railgun: 11.6 km of rail?!?!
 Water: microwave to sublimate, cold plate to refreeze. Aeroponics for food.
Algae tanks for O2 production. 3-D printer to print medsAll these are
innovative
 3-D holodeck glasses- good.
4. Summary of Advantages:
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Tunnel boring machine was very innovative.
Commercialization good idea.
AE 426 Space System Design
Design of a permanent Lunar base
PTAR Presentations, November 6, 2014
Design Team No. __2___
Please use a scale of 0-10 (10 = best) to rate presentation and content.
1. Mission Design Introduction :
Presentation =___ , Content =___
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South pole – visibility of Earth good from a mountain nearby.
Good organization.
Shackelton crater – direct LOS to Earth
Start base with robotics – good. Build road?
Nuclear power – Thorium fission (long term).
Thermal pipe – ammonia – diagonal thru wall from bottom of crater to top
of crater wall.
Ring is long term goal Sectors connected to base
2. Trade Options Discussion:
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 Heat pipe to complement solar panels – interesting idea
 Inflated structures, aeroponics – good
 6 wheeled vehicle rover – automated
 Magnetic accel to lift cargo from Moon to orbit
 Centrifuge in orbit?? Interesting.
 Some charts have too many words
 Revealed only during Q&A
3. Design Description:
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 In-loop system transportation too complex.
 Magnetic accelerator – enough energy? Magnets are heavySolar power – 14
dark days?
 Is 1/6 g less harmful than 0-g?
 Suits that reverse charge to repel dust – good
 Mining operations – H2O and HE3. Good combo
4. Summary of Advantages:
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Not much here
Simple trade studies performed
AE 426 Space System Design
Design of a permanent Lunar base
PTAR Presentations, November 6, 2014
Design Team No. __3___
Comment & Evaluation Sheet for reviewers
Please use a scale of 0-10 (10 = best) to rate presentation and content.
1. Mission Design Introduction :
Presentation =___ , Content =___
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North pole, crater wall. Good reasoning for the location
3-D printing – good idea
Temporary inflatable to house astronauts
Outposts were a good idea
A good, crisp presentation
2. Trade Options Discussion:
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North over south? Constant sunlight at or near poles. Also poles have lower
temp fluctuation – good point.
Mine He3, extract O2 from common minerals
Good- aeroponic farms
Inflatable structure – good
ISS life support - good
3. Design Description:
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ISS-based life support – Good summary! Put some thought into it.
Lava tubes are interesting idea
Lego-like construction using sintering process – good
3-D printing may be more complex than they think.
Healing membrane and inflatables –good
Good discussion of trade for location
What does base look like?
4. Summary of Advantages:
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AE 426 Space System Design
Design of a permanent Lunar base
PTAR Presentations, November 6, 2014
Design Team No. __4___
Comment & Evaluation Sheet for reviewers
Please use a scale of 0-10 (10 = best) to rate presentation and content.
Please use the back of the page if necessary.
1. Mission Design Introduction :
Presentation =___ , Content =___
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Shackelton crater – good (close to 2nd largest crater
Can the dome be made like a clay pot?
Aeroponic farms & fuel cells
Lockheed Martin nuclear reactor, fuel cells
Location based on science
2. Trade Options Discussion:
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Good: Location, base function, energy, O2, H2O, food, transportation
Electromagnetic double-layer space suits for dust removal - good
Initially ; rockets full of robots and material
Showed trade tree!
Transport – NASA vehicle. Fail-safe environment discussed
3. Design Description:
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Chloroplasts mixed into a silk “leaf”
NASA Moon rover
Mentioned autonomous software
Power requirement?
4. Summary of Advantages:
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AE 426 Space System Design
Design of a permanent Lunar base
PTAR Presentations, November 6, 2014
Design Team No. __5___
Comment & Evaluation Sheet for reviewers
Please use a scale of 0-10 (10 = best) to rate presentation and content.
Please use the back of the page if necessary.
1. Mission Design Introduction :
Presentation =___ , Content =___
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They followed the outline – sort of.
H2O = biggest thing
Showed layout – Yea!
North pole – Peary crater – water from inside crater. Resources processor at
crater rim.
Inflatables – modular system
2. Trade Options Discussion:
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Location Peary crater
Inflatable structures – probably most suitable initially
Looked at extraction of materials from regolith. Can use regolith for
structure and roads (less dust)
Lots of plants for air recycling
3. Design Description:
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In-situ resources – good discussion
Microwave regolith to produce a glassy surface coat!
Good 3-D printing discussion
Best one by far – good analysis
Only group do far that did calculations in H2O processing and other
materials
4. Summary of Advantages:
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Advantages discussion was especially good
Score Summary
(Averaged Scores)
Team
Mission Design
Trade Options
Design
Summary of
Introduction
Discussion
Description
Advantages
Present. Content Present. Content Present. Content Present. Content
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
8.83
7.33
8.69
8.67
9.83
8.69
8.55
8.33
8.17
9.66
6.52
5.20
9.50
7.00
9.83
6.67
3.66
8.25
6.75
9.66
8.50
7.30
8.33
8.00
10.0
8.33
7.67
9.17
7.00
9.67
8.66
6.67
8.50
7.25
10.0
9.17
6.50
9.00
6.50
9.83
Overall Comments
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Team 5 came in first. Lots of analysis and calculation to back up their design.
They covered a boot-strapping plan
Team 1 came in second – although the trade studies were less systematic
Team 2 suggested the novel heat pump idea
Team 3 was good at the trade studies and had a good life support system
Team 4 had the good concept of why they wanted to be there (the base
functions)
Everyone showed good to excellent presentation skills.
Generally, it was felt that excavating into the regolith was premature for the
initial base of eight people. Digging/boring equipment and 3-D printing large
tunnels requires a lot of infrastructure. The idea may be good for later base
expansion, but at the outset, it is better to use pre-fab structures you can land
on the Moon and use at once.
 Overall Recommendations:
1. Use team 5’s design as the baseline.
2. In particular, keep the NASA “Chariot” rover, the use of inflatable
structures covered with regolith, and the life support ideas of Teams 3
and 5.
3. Investigate the efficiency of Team 2’s heat pump idea.
4. Refine the base function ideas of Team 4
5. Elaborate on the microwaving of regolith idea from Team 5.
6. Elaborate on self-healing structures that Team 1 introduced.
7. Investigate the Sabatier reactor – to save CO2