A Vision of the Future: Inflatable Moon Base

By European Space Agency (ESA) October 8, 2022 A vision of a future Moon settlement put together from semi-buried inflatable environments. Sited next to the lunar poles in areas of near-perpetual solar lighting, mirrors located above each environment would show sunshine into greenhouses within the doughnut-shaped environments. Credit: Pneumocell This artist’s principle portrays a vision of a future Moon settlement put together from semi-buried inflatable environments. They would lie near the lunar poles in areas of near-perpetual solar lighting. Mirrors placed above each environment would show sunshine into greenhouses within the doughnut-shaped environments. Pneumocell in Austria, an inflatable structures professional, carried out a system research study of an inflatable lunar environment, based upon premade ultralight structures. When pumped up, these environments would be buried under 4-5 m (13-16 feet) of lunar regolith for defense from radiation and micrometeorites. A truss holding a mirror membrane would be set up above each environment. It would be developed to turn to follow the Sun throughout the sky. Sunshine from the mirror would be directed down through a synthetic crater, from which another cone-shaped mirror shows it into the surrounding greenhouse. The research study was supported through the Discovery component of ESA’s Basic Activities. It happened after Pneumocell sent their concept to the Agency’s Open Space Innovation Platform, OSIP, looking for appealing concepts for area research study from all possible sources.
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