For longer periods of weeks or even months, there is an increasing interest in sending crewed missions to the moon. A new type of lunar structure is needed for astronauts to live and work on the moon. How do you build a lunar habitat? Several space agencies and private companies are thinking about that. One idea shared by the European Space Agency is to make an inflatable lunar base.
The idea is to pre-fabricate lightweight structures that can fit in a small space for transport and then be inflated once on the moon. The structures would be buried under the moon's regolith to protect them from the effects of radiation. Plants could be grown in a greenhouse if the sun reflected off the mirrors placed on the surface.
The design from Pneumocell has several advantages over other concepts. There are strict weight limits on what can be launched into space and the lightweight nature of inflatable structures makes them an advantage. The modularity of the system makes it possible for different structures to be added for different missions.
The habitat could be launched with rockets, according to the report. The report states that we checked which of the existing or planned spaceships could be used to transport the material and astronauts to the lunar site. With the help of smaller rockets like the Ariane 64, our concept could be realized with the help of the European Large Logistics Lander.
According to the report, the next step is to build a prototype of the habitat on Earth to see how it performs in real world conditions.
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