Lenticular Moon/Mars Base Dome by FablabMoebius

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY-GGBmdz-c
This base concept has three building phases :
1) On the moon
2) On the way to Mars
3) On mars
Phase 1 : Moon
The base is build on the moon in craters. We use craters to gather rare minerals coming from meteorites & compression + heat from the impact. These valuable minerals are sold on earth to reduce the cost of the base. The base is checked and tested on the moon first.
During this phase, Helium 3 (see: http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/gallery/pdf/wisengr1111.pdf) can be harvested and stored for later usage (Trip to mars or on mars).
Phase 2 : Trip to Mars
The base can be extracted from the moon's dust, the dome is returned and the base can be attached to the central axe of a mothership propelled by a Q-Thruster (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M8yht_ofHc ). Rotation will bring artificial gravity during the trip to Mars.
Phase 3 : Mars
Robots have digged mars's soil during the trip. The base can be installed on its arrival. Craters will be chosen to procure more shielding from mars frequent dust winds/storms.
THE BASE
The dome
The base is build around a central axe (light well) fixed to a lenticular dome.
The lenticular shape is used for several purposes :
the shape gives less resistance to wind and dust wind.
it allows big surfaces for artificial gravity during the trip and big surface for solar panels on mars.
the shape can absorb more energy on micro-meteorites impact (see http://www.universetoday.com/12864/building-a-base-on-the-moon-part-3-structural-design/).
The dome will be made of a self-healing concrete that can absorb high energy impacts (see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJc8Xyk3w9o , http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-somerset-22773704 or http://www.shimz.co.jp/english/theme/dream/moonbase.html). The dome will be used for hydroponic cultures & cultures (plants need lot of surface to grow). A garden area will be used in part for cleaning atmosphere and O2 production, and in part for the pleasure & free time of the... martians ;).
The dome ceiling will be filled with high power leds to reproduce natural light (see http://www.leds.de/en/High-Power-LEDs/). This is SkyLED (Not Skynet ! ;) ). Some special LEDs with specific wavelength will be used to accelarate plant's growth.
Quadcopters robots will change the leds of SKYLED.
An iris door will seal the dome from the rest of the base in case of an integrity breach.
The lower levels are composed of:
2 working rings (around the central axe),
1 habitat ring (around the central axe),
1 ring for machinery & Generators (around central axe to distribute power),
1 food reserve & supplies storage (separate),
1 water decontamination/filtration & recycling (separate).
Working Ring
The working area will be similar to the ISS, supporting work, experiences & research. 3D printers with a special alloy, fully recyclable, will print all the mechanical parts and tools needed during the missions. This will save a lot of weight for the trip to mars and will grant flexibility by building the best tool for the right job when needed. MPL printers (see: http://www.rapidprototypingmachine.com/mpl/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZHTMHXr_6Q ) could also print completely functional objects with even more flexibility. Quadcopter drones will assure small transport (less than 2kg) in the base due to their low energy consumption and ease of maintenance (see: http://www.ted.com/talks/andreas_raptopoulos_no_roads_there_s_a_drone_for_that). On Mars possible strong quadcopter drones/robots (like: http://www.gameofdrones.biz but in kevlar or carbon nanotubes) could scout and work outside the base.
Habitat ring
The habitat ring is installed deep underground to shield people from cosmic radiations and benefit from natural geothermal heat. This ring is smaller because we spend less time in this area during the day.
Machinery & Generators
Energy production will be made here. It is protected deep underground as energy is vital to support life. Energy could come from several sources :
Solar panels from outside the dome
Geothermal energy
Wind farm on top of crater rim
Hydrogen Fuelcell (this could be useful as it produces water as byproduct and can now be stored safely in high volumes, see : http://www.mcphy.com/en/products/solid-hydrogen-storage/ , http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gassing-up-with-hydrogen/ and http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-2014-the-year-of-the-fuel-cell-car/)
Helium 3 reactor is also a possibility. It could be harvested during phase 1 on the moon for later usage. Big advantages are no high-energy neutron, non radioactive byproducts and potentially bigger yield than fission (see http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/gallery/pdf/wisengr1111.pdf).
This ring will also support air recycling and conditioning.
If you made it here, you've read the whole concept ! Thank you for reading ! Hope you've enjoyed this flawed concept (but dream is always the beginning of a new reality right ?) ;)
[UPDATE:] Printable separate parts are coming soon.
[UPDATE 06/06/14:] You can print the separate parts of the base & assemble them. The base on mars will be next.
[UDATE 06/08/14:] You can print the complete model. If I have time i'll try to do... the mothership too !
[UDATE 06/11/14:] Fixed holes in mars-ground.stl and mars-ground-optimised.stl. They are now completely manifold.
PS : If i won, the replicator 2 will be given to a fablab i'm starting in my community (http://www.fablab-moebius.org).