Bouncy Castles on the Moon. Inflated Habitats Might be the Best Way to Get Started on a Lunar Base universetoday storybywill
). They identified that the two best locations were the C1 “Connecting Ridge” between the Shackleton and de Gerlache craters near the south pole and the H0 area near the rim of the Hinshelwood crater near the north pole.
The team also evaluated these sites based on their access to solar irradiation, creating an illumination profile at the surface and the height of the solar mirrors – 10 and 20 meters . They calculated that the longest period of uninterrupted total darkness is eleven days at the north polar H0 site, while the south polar C1 site experiences only four days.
To save weight, all the mirrors are made of silver-coated foils that are bent into the correct shape by electrostatic charging. This takes advantage of a key characteristic of lunar regolith, which is its charged nature that causes it to stick to everything . The upper mirrors are positioned at an angle to reflect the nearly-horizontal sunlight into the geometric center of the torus.
“While this power is necessary to optimally facilitate photosynthesis, it would quickly overheat the greenhouse without an active cooling radiator. In our design, the cooling system operates with ammonia and water as working fluids. In this way, the temperature inside the greenhouse can be kept close to 26°C during the illumination phases. During dark periods, the active cooling is switched off and mirrored roller blinds cover the window in order to limit heat losses to a minimum.