Designing a habitat for the lunar surface? You will need to know more than structural engineering. There are the effects of meteoroids, radiation, and low gravity. Then there are the psychological and psychosocial aspects of living in close quarters, in a dangerous environment, far away from home. All these must be considered when the habitat is sized, materials specified, and structure designed. This book provides an overview of various concepts for lunar habitats and structural designs and characterizes the lunar environment - the technical and the nontechnical. The designs take into consideration psychological comfort, structural strength against seismic and thermal activity, as well as internal pressurization and 1/6 g. Also discussed are micrometeoroid modeling, risk and redundancy as well as probability and reliability, with an introduction to analytical tools that can be useful in modeling uncertainties.

The expansion of our civilization to the Moon and beyond is now within our reach, technically, intellectually and financially. Apollo was not our last foray into the Solar System and already science fiction is finding it difficult to keep ahead of science and engineering fact. In 1807, few people anticipated the Wright Brothers’ human flight a hundred years later. In 1869, only science fiction writers would have suggested landing people on the Moon in 1969. Similarly, other great inventions in mechanics and in electronics were not envisaged and therefore the technologies to which those inventions gave birth were only foreseen by a tiny group of visionaries.

The only work to date to collect data gathered during the American and Soviet missions in an accessible and complete reference of current scientific and technical information about the Moon.

Publisher Description

"Edge Books are published by Capstone Press."

Bringing together some of the most recognized and influential researchers and scientists in various space-related disciplines, Lunar Settlements addresses the many issues that surround the permanent human return to the Moon. Numerous international contributors offer their insights into how certain technological, physiological, and psychological challenges must be met to make permanent lunar settlements possible. The book first looks to the past, covering the Apollo and Saturn legacies. In addition, former astronaut and U.S. Senator Harrison H. Schmitt discusses how to maintain deep space exploration and settlement. The book then discusses economic aspects, such as funding for lunar commerce, managing human resources, and commercial transportation logistics. After examining how cultural elements will fit into habitat design, the text explores the physiological, psychological, and ethical impact of living on a lunar settlement. It also describes the planning/technical requirements of lunar habitation, the design of both manned and modular lunar bases, and the protection of lunar habitats against meteoroids. Focusing on lunar soil mechanics, the book concludes with discussions on lunar concrete, terraforming, and using greenhouses for agricultural purposes. Drawing from the lunar experiences of the six Apollo landing missions to the many American and Soviet robotic missions to current space activities and research, this volume summarizes the problems, prospects, and practicality of enduring lunar settlements. It reflects the key disciplines, including engineering, physics, architecture, psychology, biology, and anthropology, that will play significant roles in establishing these settlements.

This extraordinary book details how the Moon could be used as a springboard for Solar System exploration. It presents a realistic plan for placing and servicing telescopes on the Moon, and highlights the use of the Moon as a base for an early warning system from which to combat threats of near-Earth objects. A realistic vision of human development and settlement of the Moon over the next one hundred years is presented, and the author explains how global living standards for the Earth can be enhanced through the use of lunar-based generated solar power. From that beginning, the people of the Earth would evolve into a spacefaring civilisation.