• SOM _ Slashcube GmbH

    SOM _ Slashcube GmbH

  • SOM _ Slashcube GmbH

    SOM _ Slashcube GmbH

  • SOM _ Slashcube GmbH

    SOM _ Slashcube GmbH

  • SOM _ Slashcube GmbH

    SOM _ Slashcube GmbH

  • SOM _ Slashcube GmbH

    SOM _ Slashcube GmbH

  • SOM _ Slashcube GmbH

    SOM _ Slashcube GmbH

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Transport

Visionary designs for living on the moon from SOM and ESA

Memorandum of Collaboration signed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and the European Space Agency to advance moon village research

by Georgina Johnston 25 February 2020 Future Projects

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) joined the European Space Agency (ESA) to sign a Memorandum of Collaboration (MOC) at ESA’s headquarters in Paris. The announcement will expand the scope of SOM and ESA’s existing research into longterm habitation on the Moon.

Since 2018, SOM has been in partnership with ESA and faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop the concept for Moon Village, a multipartner open concept, as a framework for the first permanent settlement on the lunar surface. The large scale, integrated development is envisioned near the Moon’s South Pole, with large habitation modules with inflatable structural shell technology emplaced on the rim of Shackleton Crater.

The newly signed MOC will build on this existing partnership by introducing a new study within ESA’s Concurrent Design Facility, to focus on the development of the settlement’s habitat modules. Upon its completion, the study will be made public, with the goal of inspiring technological developments related to long term and sustainable exploration of the lunar and Martian surfaces.

Our partnership with ESA represents a new way of approaching the industry’s most complex problems. Together, we are creating a new kind of architecture, one that can sustain human activity in a place that was, up until now, considered uninhabitable.

C. Koop, Design Partner at SOM

The settlement is designed to withstand the extreme conditions of a lunar environment, with a central focus on self-sufficiency and resilience. The site at the South Pole on the Moon receives near-continuous daylight throughout the lunar year, to help the settlement harness energy and set up the required life support systems, as well as in situ resource utilization experiments, which could generate useful elements using the Moon’s natural resources. Water-ice deposits nearby could be extracted to produce breathable air and rocket propellant for transportation and industrial activities. Clusters of modules would be connected to enable easy mobility between structures, with communications towers located on the highest ridges of the terrain. 

The pressurized, four level habitat modules can house four to six people and feature systems such as environmental controls and life support systems, logistics management, scientific workstations, and a robotic control station. The structural design is a hybrid system comprising two key elements, a rigid composite frame composed of three columns, and an inflatable structural shell. Unlike other inflatable designs, which center structural and mechanical systems, this solution creates an interior that is free and open.

The Moon Village concept is distinctly interdisciplinary. SOM will do the master plan and take charge of the designing and engineering of the settlement. ESA will provide expertise from the European Astronaut Centre and the European Space Research and Technology Centre, from its headquarters, and faculty members from MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics will provide expertise.


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