Cylindrical Habitats - Horizontal or

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Cylindrical Habitats - Horizontal or
Vertical ?

• Gary C. Fisher
• The Mars Foundation
• GFisher_at_MarsHome.org
• Rutgers University
• Symposium On Lunar Settlements
• Piscataway, NJ June 5, 2007

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Background and parameters of this work

• The Mars Foundations Mars Homestead Project is
  an ongoing effort to define the first
  self-sufficient settlement for Mars.
• This effort produced an initial design, The
  Hillside Base using habitat structures, mostly
  cylinders, constructed on site from in situ
  materials over the course of 6 to 8 years by 12
  people.

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The Hillside Base
Graphic by Georgi Petrov for the Mars Foundation
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The Plains Base
Graphic by Adam Burch for the Mars Foundation
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The Plains Base
Graphic by Adam Burch for the Mars Foundation
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Three Generations of Habitats (Benaroya 2006)

1. Prefabricated and preoutfitted hard shell
   modules.
2. Assembly of components fabricated on Earth with
   some assembly required and
3. Large scale building structures comprised
   substantially of indigenous materials.

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The criteria of interest then are

1. Ease of assembly both from the standpoint of low
   labor input, but also requiring minimal tooling,
   especially imported tooling.
2. Ease of transport of the finished structure.
3. Ease of deployment site preparation,
   positioning, attachment
4. Thermal characteristics
5. Radiation shielding ease of applying a regolith
   cover
6. Useful life
7. Useable interior space
8. Pressure retention
9. Site independence build and deploy these almost
   anywhere on the Moon.

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Why Cylindrical Habitat Structures ?

• For the purposes of creating in situ habitable
  spaces for a Lunar settlement, cylinder-shaped
  structures present the best near-term option over
  alternatives, such as
• - spherical or dome structures
• - excavated structures
• - lined lava tubes
• - inflated structures (noncylindrical)
• - regolith covered masonry vaulted arches.

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Cylindrical Habitat Structure Options

• - Length
• - Diameter
• - Hemispherical or flat end caps
• - Rigid or inflatable
• - True cylinder, ellipsoid or flattened
• - Single or multi-wall
• The primary consideration, however, is whether
  to stand the cylinder up vertically on an end, or
  lay it down horizontally on its side.

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Proposed

• That the simplest, safest, and easiest to deploy
  cylindrical habitat would be one that has a flat
  end on which it is stood up like a beer (or tuna)
  can, one story high, with the top end cap being
  hemispherical.
• These would be connected via smaller diameter
  cylindrical connector modules that can also be
  used as air locks.
• The modules would have domed solar tubes, that
  can double as emergency exits, to pipe sunlight
  down through the regolith cover into the
  structure to provide some of the interior
  illumination.

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Proposed
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Proposed
Lunar 2.5 m / Mars
Floor area is 6.05 m2 (65.12 ft2)
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Proposed
NASA Diameter is
3.65m
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So why not horizontal habitats?
lt- ISS Destiny Module
BIOPLEX at JSC -gt
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So why not horizontal habitats?

• They roll!
• 2. Footings are more complicated.
• They are hard to connect.
• 4. Hard to cover with regolith.
• 5. Limited full headroom.

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So why not horizontal habitats?
They roll!
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So why not horizontal habitats?
There are a number of alternative
approaches Attach legs (most likely attached to
U-shaped cradles) to the cylinder that rest on
pre-constructed footings and allow for some
height adjustment.
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So why not horizontal habitats?
Put the cylinder inside a box frame which is
then positioned on a pre-constructed footing.
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So why not horizontal habitats?
Consider this manageable size horizontal habitat.
Floor area is 18.77 m2 (202.04 ft2)
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So why not horizontal habitats?
Linear deployment has safety issues.
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So why not horizontal habitats?
Connectors help solve the escape route problem.
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So why not horizontal habitats?
Connectors help solve the safety issues, but how
do you cover this with regolith?
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So why not horizontal habitats?
Connectors in series allow for closer packing.
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So why not horizontal habitats?
What is a manageable size? How much headroom
depends upon where you put the floor.
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Vertical Habitat Arrangements
4 Connections 6 Connections
3 Connections
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Vertical Habitat Arrangements
2 Doors 6 Connections
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New Conclusion Put your cylinders in boxes!
Graphic by Adam Burch for the Mars Foundation