NewSpace 2060 Moon Pitch Competition Gets Novel Proposal for the Building of a Lunar Base

February 13, 2019 – A recent competition sought ideas for putting humans on the Moon and developing a lunar economy. Called NewSpace 2060, it held its award night and gala in November of last year in Los Angeles. A moon base concept featured a novel idea, picking a building site within a crater, assembling housing modules from inflatables delivered to the lunar surface, and then burying the community under regolith.

The site chosen, a small crater near the Moon’s south pole. The regolith, acting as shielding and maintaining a stable internal environment for lunar inhabitants. And the regolith, also protecting the habitation from micro-meteorite strikes.

The idea would be to stack three inflatable modules atop one another with the one closest to the surface becoming the airlock, waste-treatment facility, and service bay for extravehicular missions.  The middle one would serve as the research and communications centre. The lowest module would contain living quarters. Each would include a self-contained life support system. And the three would be connected by an elevator operating through a central tube.

The location chosen would be near other craters which could then serve as new places in which to place modules and bury them. The expanding village would be connected by tunnels.

The presenters led by Angelus Chrysovalantis Alfatzis, an architectural engineering student at the National Technical University of Athens, were answering the call by the European Space Agency (ESA), to develop plans for an International Lunar Village. When asked about the design, Alfatzis stated, “my focus is on using unprocessed lunar soil for construction and the architectural applications of this.”  The submission took a multidisciplinary approach to designing the lunar village concept taking the best ideas from aerospace engineers and biologists who were part of the team.

ESA has been working on the idea of an International Lunar Village on the Moon for several years and has invited Russia’s Roscosmos, and NASA to join in the venture. China has also indicated its interest in establishing a permanent base on the Moon. The timetable for the European venture is by the end of the next decade.

The NewSpace 2060 competition awarded Alfatzis and his team a prize of 1,500 Euros (about $1,700 USD). I guess they weren’t in it for the money.