updated July 25, 2010

Draft Proposal for Moon Society Lunar Analog Research Station
PowerPoint Slide Show | PDF file Slide Show

NEW -  Survey of Past, Present and Planned Human Space Mission Simulators 2008


COMPLETED PROJECTS CURRENT PROJECTS
Artemis Moonbase Sim 1 The Moon Society,
Mars Desert Research Station
Crew 45, Feb-March, 2006

Cal-Earth
Nader Khalili, Hesperia, CA

Oregon Moonbase
Oregon L5 Society, Bend, OR
U-AZ/CEAC Lunar Greenhouse
Biosphere II,  Oracle AZ Calgary Space Workers,
Calgary & Drumheller, Alberta, Canada
PROPOSED PROJECTS Moon-Mine Project in Sweden
Mexican Lunar-Hab - updated 07/25/2010
COMMEXCEBA, Jesus Raygoza
RELATED PROJECTS
Hawaii Island Lunar Analog Facility  
- PISCES
Undersea Isolation Analogs
Moon Society Lunar Analog Program Goals Biosphereic Projects
Moon/Mars Atacama Research Station
Chile
Lunar Simulant Projects
Biosphere Project in Spain Research Station News
LARS - India

Discussion of Lunar Analog Program Goals & Future of
Moon Society Moonbase Analog Program

 

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Oregon Moonbase (lavatube site)
We hope to put online additional Oregon Moonbase articles from back issues of Starseed, former publication of Oregon L5 Society.

 

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Artemis Moonbase Sim 1 at the Mars Desert Research Station

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Calgary Space Workers

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Cal-Earth, Hesperia, CA

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Mexican LunarHab (MLH) - Mexican Space Society - updated July 25, 2010

Proposed facility - 2 locations being looked at
(a) location 120 km E of Ciudad Juarez.
(across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas)
(b) in the Yucatan near the tourist centers of Cancun & Cozumel

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Planned Hawaii Island Lunar Analog Facility

Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES)

PISCES is a collaborative project of the Japan-U.S. Science, Technology & Space Applications Program (JUSTSAP), the Hawaii State Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism (DBEDT), and the University of Hawaii at Hilo.

The volcanic soils and lunar-like terrain, diverse multiethnic population, and substantial scientific and technical expertise found in Hawaii make the islands an ideal location to support international programs for testing and evaluating innovative technologies to support future robotic and manned exploration of the Moon and Mars, as well as for training scientists, engineers and future astronauts for future space missions.

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U-AZ/CEAC Lunar Greenhouse / moonbase

This proposal is an outgrowth of the highly successful Food Growth Chamber built by Sadler Machine Co at CEAC, the Closed Environment Agriculture Center at the University of Arizona in Tucson. The FGC has been installed at the Scott-Amundsen (US) base at the Antarctic South Pole and providing two salads a day for each member of the stations 75 person crew. The chamber recycles its own biomass and human wastes and water, and is the most successful Biological Life Support System yet, at a time that NASA has given up on its own BioPlex project in Houston and stopped funding BLSS experiments at Purdue and elsewhere.

There is a photo gallery at the site linked above as well as two excellent PowerPoint presentations readers can download.

What works in Antarctica could work on the Moon and Mars. Phil Sadler presented his work and plans for an moonbase that would expand out of a single lander and use this system for life support, at ISDC 2007 in Dallas.

Watch these five Moon Society Video Segments on this project

These interviews were conducted at ISDC 2007, Dallas, TX over the Memorial Day Weekend. Video production by Moon Society member Chip Proser, Celestial Mechanics, Inc. \

  • CEAC/Sadler image of a Food Growth Chamber application on the Moon
  • Inflatable FGC designed for Mars or Moon
  • Photo of model of proposed FGC-incorporating Moonbase demonstrated at ISDC 2007. Six inflatable arms would expand out of the landed moonbase to provide habitat and green space. The lander would first release a remote operated bulldozer which would create furrows for the arms at the proper distance from the landing site. The landers legs would then "walk" the lander/moonbase to the prepared site, the arms would inflate over the prepared furrows, and the bulldozer would cover them with regolith. The model was fully operational and demonstrated all these operations to the utter amazement of ISDC goers.
  • Sadler and CEAC are looking for $115,000 to build their full size prototype at the University of Arizona or elsewhere. Sadler would like to erect a version at the Antarctic south pole where the snow has the same weight in Earth gravity as the regolith does in lunar gravity. NASA, having cut off all support for Biological Life Support research is disinterested if not hostile. It is up to the space enthusiast community to make this happen. This technology may not be needed for an intermittently occupied moonbase, but it certainly will be needed for civilian settlements. NASA can afford to be shortsighted. We cannot.

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Moon Mine Project in Sweden

Long time Moon Society member and Advisor Niklas Jarvstrat has secured rights to an abandoned mine in central Sweden and as ambitious plans to transform it into a comprehensive lunar analog facility, with specific projects for starters.

1) Habitation and agriculture design - layout and design for making an underground tunnel "feel" like outdoors and open space.
2) Artificial light agriculture - or even better, agriculture using fiber-transmitted sunlight.
3) Collecting and distributing sunlight for underground agriculture.
4) Low equipment production facilities. (Extracting iron from the low grade ore that might still be available in this mine and using the iron for producing metal parts.)

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Proposed Moon/Mars Atacama Research Station in Northern Chile

A Team of Advisers, including from the Moon Society, is assisting the Air Force in Chile in designing a modular analog research team to simulate activities on both Moon and Mars in the Atacama desert near the growing complex of world-class observatories there. This collaboration has been arranged by TATA, The Astronaut Teacher Alliance based in San Diego, already involved in planning outreach for the new Inca del Sol Observatory.

The command module will be the wingless fuselage of a surplus Hercules C130B cargo plane. Additional modules may be soil-shielded Quonset huts (simulating buried cylinders). The design is in flux, but they have a firm target date for initial deployment of March 2010. 

You can follow discussions on the MMARS Google Group

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Lunar Simulant: Production of Physical Analogs

(Here, the physical/handling properties are modeled rather than the chemical/mineralogical ones. This allows simulation of regolith-handling operations, dust control, shielding emplacement, etc.)

 

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Biospheric Projects

ISECCO, a CELS (biosphere) Research Project, Fairbanks, AK

Biosphere II: The Experiment

Living Machines

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Undersea Analogs of                    

Jules Undersea Lodge

NOAA's Aquarius

US Navy SEALAB - Wikipedia Article

The Scott Carpenter Space Analog Station

new - Atlantica Expeditions - First Undersea Colony

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Breaking News from India

There is the start of a movement in India, amidst enthusiasm after the launch of Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter and the announcement that India will start a Manned Space Program, to brainstorm a Lunar Analog Research Station in India

Breaking News from Spain - Canary Islands

STARS - "Space Tourism & Analog Research Station" -  collecting information on space analog research to be presented at http://www.congrex.nl/09c34/ -  an ESA site" - also involved with MSSE (Multipurpose Simulated Space Environment) - building something like a Biosphere II in Spain" - intend to create a worldwide network of analog research. Contact: Cayetano Santana

"The basic concept behind STARS is doing space flight research while, at the same time, arousing the interest of broad levels of the population in space topics. This idea has lead to a combination of space flight research and space tourism for everyone: a simulated space hotel on Gran Canary which is linked with a real space flight research area."





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