network will include landing and launching pads for spacecraft. Each landing area will need to have an area of approximately 45 square meters (Sadeh, 1992, pg. 229). The landing area needs to be at least two kilometers from any critical facilities. This will keep dust from being blown into the other structures by the landings and launchings of the spacecraft. However, this large distance between the landing area and the rest of the base will require a lunar transportation network. This network will begin as a series of roads, which will created by fusing the regolith into a hard glasslike surface (Mendell, 1985, pg. 402). The last new facility to be built at this time will be the agricultural facility, which will be the main source of food for the base. Various vegetables will be grown within the structure. The selection of these vegetables will be based upon . (Conerly, 2008). At this stage in the base development, the base will cover 4,214 square meters and require just over a megawatt of power. This is also the phase during which the nuclear power facility is introduced. 2.7: Phase IV he initial stages of the base have been successfully completed. The mining and refining of regolith have been implemented, and a reliable source of oxygen, helium-3, and various metals is now able to be stored and used. The ability to use metals, such as titanium, aluminum, iron, and magnesium, means that the base can be expanded using materials already found on the moon. The need for raw materials or even prefabricated materials from earth is now a thing of the past since the lunar base has access tonew building materials. saving money, the by exporting excess oxygen to low earth orbit (LEO) and helium-3 to earth for use in .
Equipment Mass Power Use [kW] Mining Lunar Mobile Miner 40 200 Load-Haul-Dump (2m3) 4 20 Picks & Shovels 0.05 - Explosives 2 - Drills & Drillsteel 0.5 10 Tube Conveyer 10 30 Processing Plant Grizzlies (Sifters) 0.5 - Electrolysis Cell 10 625 Forms 2 - General Return Vehicle 18 - Ventilation 1 25 Air Locks 3 - Communication 1 40 Tools 0.75 - Space Suits 0.7 - Parts 8 - Survey Equipment 0.05 - Medical Supplies 0.1 - Lights / Illumination 0.05 5 Power Cables 6 - Nuclear Powerplant 10 - Solar Mirrors 4 - Tunnel Liners 1 - Totals 123.7 tonnes 965 kW Such an RFC system take advantage of any excess or surplus water and put it to use in the form of storing excess energy, which could be used in case of emergency. Such a system would likely be dangerous if not properly kept under control as the hydrogen and oxygen gasses (or liquids of cryogenically stored) are The fuel cell will ensure this is happening at a controlled rate so as to avoid any spikes in heat or energy. 5.6: Distribution of Power 8 Table 8 is an overall distribution of the power and weight requirements of the mining and production facility. 5.7: Suggestions Overall, the base will require at the very least a megawatt (1 MW) to power its many components. The mining and production facilities alone will require the bulk of this energy,
about 965 kW (0.965 MW) of power, and the living quarters requiring about 3 kilowatts of power per person (72 kWh per day) which equates to about 30 kW of power for the 12 person crew that is described (360 kWh per day). On an aside, a kWh is a kilowatt-hour, which is the amount of energy consumed by a device over a course of time. The 3kW per person translates to (3kW)*(24 hours/day) = 72 kWh. Another component of the base, besides the living quarters and the mining and production facility will be the many experiments being carried out on the moon. The nuclear power plant will be used mainly to power the regolith mining and processing because of the massive amount of power needed perform these tasks. This will require a nuclear power plant capable of generating at least 965 kW of power when the mine and production facility will be in operation. Such a power station would need to be isolated from the inhabited sections of the base so as to limit radioactive contamination. The most economical way to shield such generator from harming life forms would be to shield it with regolith, and allow only those with proper protection to access the plant for supervision, maintenance, and repairs. The solar cells will need to be folded packed in such a way to minimize their volume for ease of transportation, and since the solar cells will be powering the vital functions of the base, there will need to be backup generators or batteries to supply the base with power should the solar grid fail altogether (which is not very likely because of its size).