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SOM's new Moon Village concept brings us one giant step closer to human settlement on the lunar surface

2019-04-12T10:31:00-04:00

In light of a recent breakthrough within the topic of space, the architecture design firm Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill (SOM) shares their partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in designing the first "full-time human habitat on the lunar surface." All three teams are working towards the planning, designing, and engineering of the settlement known as "Moon Village." According to SOM design partner Colin Koop, "the project presents a completely new challenge for the field of architectural design. The Moon Village must be able to sustain human life in an otherwise uninhabitable setting. We have to consider problems that no one would think about on Earth, like radiation protection, pressure differentials, and how to provide breathable air.”

Moon Village master plan. Image © SOM

Aerial view rendering of Moon Village. Image © SOM | Slashcube GmbH

Berm rendering in Moon Village. Image © SOM | Slashcube GmbH

With this new venture, ...

European space scientists experiment turning lunar dust into building blocks

2018-08-24T16:25:00-04:00

Scientists with the European Space Agency (ESA) have created a terrestrial simulation of moon dust to practice making bricks with. And it appears lunar “soil” is significantly different from its terrestrial equivalent, as it can be crushed, burned and compressed to form building materials, or used as the raw material for 3D printing.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is experimenting with lunar dust as a building material with goals to avoid lifting hefty materials from Earth into space. Lunar dust is electrically charged and primarily composed of basalt (like volcanic rock) with 40% of its mass made of oxygen. ESA is testing this unique material to create solid blocks, which could potentially construct launch pads or lunar habitats.

European Space Agency's first resident artist is planning a temple on the moon

2016-08-16T14:34:00-04:00

[Jorge Mañes Rubio] plans to 3D print portions of the temple; other sections will incorporate an existing boulder, creating a cross between a building and a cave...The work will engage with a wide swath of architectural history, including the Pantheon, Mayan temples, and the Egyptian pyramids, [he] says. But when considering the possibilities on the moon, 18th-century French utopian architects like Étienne-Louis Boullée or Claude-Nicolas Ledoux have been the most influential.

For his current endeavor called Peak of Eternal Light, artist Jorge Mañes Rubio is working with the ESA to build a temple on the moon, as a way to “examine the potential social and anthropological aspects of colonizing celestial bodies”.

ESA proposes a village on the moon

2015-07-22T14:50:00-04:00

"I propose a Moon village on the far side of the Moon.” –Professor Johann-Dietrich Woerner, Director General of the European Space Agency

The Director General of the European Space Agency Johann-Dietrich Woerner has proposed creating an international village on the moon, partly as an apolitical way to bring more countries into the space program, and partly as a way to realistically pursue new frontiers in cosmic exploration.

Although NASA is currently investigating 3D printing a base on Mars, Woerner's proposed village would also enable scientists to test print much closer to home. The idea of 3D printing on the moon is not new–Foster + Partners previously worked with the ESA to design a 3D printed lunar module for four people from layers of regolith–but the village would be considerably more complex. As the BBC reports, Woerner said that “A Moon village shouldn’t just mean some houses, a church and a town hall. This Moon village should mean partners from all over the world contributing to this community with robotic and astronaut missions and support communication satellites.”

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