Abstract
The subject of a lunar landing site/outpost/base implementation has been previously extensively studied. Due to cost and complexity, serious efforts have traditionally been the exclusive domain of government. However, as the “NewSpace” industry has grown, and technology advances, discussions have turned to exploring something fundamentally different – a commercial lunar development.
In this chapter, the input parameters used are based upon a premise of a privately financed development, put forth by a group of thought leaders and venture capitalists who met in August of 2014. These inputs are used to drive site selection criterion sufficient to enable further architectural design and cost estimation. The development would be permanently inhabited. Its unifying premise, requirements, and purpose is predicated upon economic development, industrialization, and settlement.
A primary candidate site is identified and explores how architectural factors associated with site selection lower the overall cost. The intent is to pick a site that covers four fundamental parameters: (1) power, (2) communications, (3) possible water (or hydrogen-based molecules) and other resources, and (4) mobility. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been transformational as an input, building on earlier missions, with its multispectral remote sensing instruments, and the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA), providing dramatically improved data for detailed site analysis. The ACT-REACT map from Arizona State University and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Moontrek are tremendous resources aiding such investigations.
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Wingo, D. (2022). Site Selection for Lunar Industrialization, Economic Development, and Settlement. In: Eckart, P., Aldrin, A. (eds) Handbook of Lunar Base Design and Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05323-9_51-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05323-9_51-1
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