LunarCraft or the exploration of the near-outer space by the Habrasociety

<banality> Recently on habr there was an article habrahabr.ru/post/167391 about a habroinitiative in the field of space exploration. I succumbed to the call “Therefore, I now propose to organize a“ brainstorming session ”” © and share my thoughts on this subject.

I'll start with the name - LunarCraft: it is assumed that the Russian project is therefore the moon, not the moon or selena (also hi to Google [1] ), Craft sends us to minecraf - how ,.

So, the LunarCraft project

includes the creation of a group of 3 robots and sending them to the moon to create the most remote (at the moment) outpost of MANKIND.

Loudly? Fantastic? Expensive?


Already, teams of 10-20 people are sending (at different stages of readiness) robots to the moon in pursuit of the prize [1] .
At a time when game developers collect hundreds of thousands of dollars from potential players, there is no such thing as “Need more gold” (c).

From lyrics to theory


The stated goal: the most remote (today) outpost of mankind (read the lunar base).
To begin with, a structure resembling an Eskimo igloo [2] , a person by 3,
will fit . We will build from blocks of various shapes, not very different from the parallelepiped, slightly rounded in some places [3] <joke> unless you need to make robots lick a knife (see video) .
We don’t need to bring bricks to the moon, we will build from improvised materials, i.e. from the past - regolith, dust.

Turning dust into bricks:


We use the principle of "Solar-sand 3D printer from Marcus Kaiser" [4] . Using the information from Wikipedia [5], we see that regolith is 20% silicon, 20% metal (Al and Fe) in different ratios and 40% oxygen (apparently it is in connection with metals) {Bottleneck No. 1. I think there will be noble metallurgists and they will write in the comments if it is possible to melt a thin layer of such a mixture and if so, how much energy is needed, to a first approximation in some understandable equivalent. If summer would creep out into the nearest sandbox with pipes, a file and a magnifying glass}.

Design: the installation of Marcus Kaiser is cumbersome, in it you have to move the box with the workpiece, we also need to reduce the load on the moving parts. The table is motionless, but the beam should scour and melt over the entire surface. We use the Fresnel lens and flexible optical fiber {bottleneck No. 2. Who worked with fiber, whether it can withstand numerous mechanical stresses, will it melt}.
T.O. we can have mountains of building blocks of various configurations and even with cavities or grooves like a designer’s. So the first robot is a 3D printer.

Regolith collection:


If the sun's rays fall on the printer themselves, then the regolith must be brought up and the longer the mission, the greater the distance. Therefore, the second robot should be a grader dump truck responsible for collecting, delivering and unloading regolith into the printer's hopper. Here, as a first approximation, there is nothing complicated (Write comments in the comments).

Construction building ©:


The third robot will, of course, beeler. His responsibilities include: take the finished unit from the printer’s warehouse, put it in the right place to solder again with sun rays (so that there are no drafts).

Thus, we get a grouping that provides a full cycle of construction of extraterrestrial buildings.

Of course, it will be possible to load sketches of necessary blocks from the Earth onto the printer.




Minimum program:


Suppose we didn’t have enough money or inventive ingenuity to create the 'Builder' robot, then we send 2 robots - a grader and a printer (we will definitely make them). Then you can sell bricks on the moon to state space agencies for the construction of a Russian house with caviar, bears ... or those who pay more because people buy pieces of paper saying that you bought a site from an organization that did not own a single speck of dust from the Moon. But the fenced area, let the height of the fence is only 1 brick - more substantial evidence of the right to property (who first got one and slippers). The grader can also deliver bricks.

Program maximum:


Again, suppose that the Lunar Engineering Habrahabr Team (LEHT - blows something German, but use a Google translator and turn out to be “leht” from the Albanian “Activity, activity”, which cannot but deliver), consisting of hundreds of professionals in various fields and several hundred enthusiastic activists coped with the task of constructing 3 robots and even raised more money than planned. Then the dilemma arises: we make 3 brigades or for the same money you can deliver 1 brigade and 10 sets of electronics and power units, and cases, chassis, manipulators can be made from the same regolith. Thus, we get not just a building (a miserable shack) on the moon, but a real plant with a service for replacing obsolete components (it is assumed that the electronics and power units {I mean motors and servos} have a much longer service life).

With the power of the program, it will be possible to build a whole moon village.

If nevertheless “Need more gold” (c)


Robots operate both offline and under the control of the operator, since the delay is not as large as with Mars.
Serious donors can be promised admission to the shift, staking a plot, for example, 1000 € for 1 linear meter of a brick-high fence (the first round sum taken from the ceiling)

Why build something, because you can live:


  1. in what flew like the Americans [6] .
  2. in inflatable modules, like a space hotel [7] .
  3. in the caves [8] .


Disadvantages (in my non-professional opinion):


  1. For full-fledged long-term work (not just a photo) and life (rest after work), a space larger than an Apollo capsule is required.
  2. The delivery price of kg is still high, and it is better to take more kg of edible, reagents, or astronauts than reinforcement for a hut (conditionally).
  3. Caves are not always where convenient, it can be spent in Moscow 2-3 hours on the way to work and back, the astronauts have air and food not so easily accessible. Therefore, you need to work within walking distance of living. Ideally a mobile station.


What will the construction give (possibly on a movable chassis, see paragraph “maximum program”) of the base:


Protection against radiation, meteorites, hard floors, walls, multi-storey buildings (high ceilings).
Tell me how to live in this needle, because it is probably not hermetic.
Yes, not airtight.

I see this:
A sealed bag with a lock system is placed inside the wigwam, the bag is pumped up with air, tables, chairs, beds (also made with a printer?), A tennis table, blackjack are brought inside.
Buildings are being built with technological holes for windows, doors, corridors to others blocks of the base, maybe already with walls dividing the room.

I hope there will be other articles on the topic of space exploration by the community.
I apologize for the clear text, without illustrations.

[1] www.googlelunarxprize.org
[2] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Igloo
[3] nemezund.ru/organizaciya-lagerya/ukrytiya-iz-snega/stroitelstvo-iglu.html
[4] www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN_rnVEqeFA
[5] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regolit
[6 ] ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Module
[7] www.membrana.ru/particle/3251
[8] globalscience.ru/article/read/19836

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