FYI,

"Wanted: Home-builders for the Moon - NASA's post-2020 plan involves
the usual (and unusual) space suspects"
MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16871258

: Imagine a world where microwave-beaming rovers cook dust into
: concrete landing pads ... where your living quarters are dropped
: onto the land from above, then inflated like an inner tube ...
: where the grit is so abrasive that even the robots have to wear
: protective coveralls.

: It may sound like science fiction, but these are actually some of
: the ideas being floated as part of NASA's plan to build a permanent
: moon base starting in 2010. To follow through on those sky-high
: ideas, the space agency is turning to some down-to-earth experts,
: ranging from polar researchers to miners and earth-movers.

: "We will be looking outside the agency quite a bit as well as
: inside the agency," said Larry Toups, habitation systems lead for
: NASA's Constellation Program Office. "We have a lot of folks here
: who are very innovative and understand the space environment quite
: a bit, but you do have a lot of expertise outside NASA as well, and
: we intend to involve those folks."

: Those folks include the twin giants of America's space industry,
: The Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin. But some less conventional
: players are involved as well:

: - Illinois-based Caterpillar and allied companies have been
: advising NASA on the dynamics of dirt and the challenges of moving
: heavy equipment over the lunar surface.

: - Canada-based Norcat and Electric Vehicle Controllers are working
: together to develop a drill suitable for mining on the moon. Norcat
: is traditionally better-known for its industrial safety training
: programs, but this June the company is sponsoring a planetary
: mining conference, with the moon in its sights.

: - Delaware-based ILC Dover, which manufactures components for
: NASA's spacewalk suits as well as the airbags used by NASA's Mars
: rovers, is branching out to develop inflatable prototypes for lunar
: habitats. Nevada-based Bigelow Aerospace may offer its own
: inflatable modules for future moon outposts.

: - The National Science Foundation is working with NASA and ILC
: Dover to build and deploy an inflatable test habitat in Antarctica
: later this year.

: NASA announced the broad outlines of its plan for an eventual lunar
: outpost less than two months ago. The general idea is to set up
: shop on the rim of a crater near one of the moon's poles. Such
: areas would be in sunlight, with a line-of-sight link to Earth all
: year round. The first crews would stay for just a week at a time,
: but by 2025, six-month tours of duty would be the norm.

: The polar outpost would serve as NASA's base for lunar research and
: a test bed for Mars exploration. Some have even grander plans,
: envisioning the moon as an eventual platform for luxury hotels,
: astronomical observatories and helium-3 mining operations. The idea
: of a permanent platform is what distinguishes the future effort
: from NASA's previous moon program, said Dallas Bienhoff, manager
: for in-space and surface systems at Boeing Space Exploration.

: "Just getting there and getting home was a big deal for Apollo," he
: told MSNBC.com. "We know we can do that, even though we haven't
: done it in 30-plus years. What we want to do is prepare the
: beachhead for people other than NASA. Basically, the intent is to
: lay down the foundation for a permanent presence on the moon by
: whoever wants to be there."

: NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries cautioned that, for now, the space
: agency is focusing on the spacecraft required for moon trips rather
: than on lunar habitats. "Those don't do you a whole lot of good if
: you don't have a way to get to the moon," he told MSNBC.com.
: Nevertheless, NASA and its corporate partners are already building
: prototypes to test some of the more unorthodox ideas — like those
: inflatable habitats, for example.

: `Honey, I Shrunk the Space Station'

: Why inflatable habitats? Bienhoff explained that the metal-hulled
: modules used on the international space station couldn't make it to
: the moon because they're too heavy.

: The typical space station module weighs 30,000 pounds — but NASA's
: moonships, as currently planned, would have a maximum payload
: capacity of only 13,000 pounds.

: Inflatable modules could get around that limitation. Dave Cadogan,
: research director at ILC Dover, said the modules would be
: compressed to fit a smaller space on NASA's smaller spaceships,
: dropped off on the moon, and only then filled with air, equipment
: and all the comforts of a lunar home.

: Bigelow Aerospace already has lofted one inflatable test module
: into orbit and is gearing up to launch another one in April. Last
: year the company's billionaire founder, Robert Bigelow, told
: reporters that "we definitely have lunar architecture in mind."

: ILC Dover, meanwhile, has built one inflatable prototype for NASA's
: Langley Research Center, and it's in the midst of designing another
: for the NASA-NSF test in Antarctica. NASA's Toups said the new
: prototype would be shipped in compressed form to the South Pole
: this fall and inflated to full size for use by polar researchers
: — as, say, a dive shack or a meeting place.

: "We'll have monitors and sensors built into it so we'll be able to
: track how it does with sustained use," he said.

: Antarctica and other extreme environments on Earth — such as the
: Canadian Arctic, the Arizona desert and the underwater Aquarius
: habitat — are becoming key proving grounds as NASA and its partners
: develop their exploration technologies.

: "What I see the Antarctic experience doing is actually being an
: analog for what we might do on the moon, and then once we get to
: the moon, keep in mind that we'll be using that as an analog for
: the operations that might be required for Mars," Toups said.

: More alien than Antarctica

: But there are some lunar challenges that go far beyond what
: Antarctic researchers have to deal with.

: For example, radiation exposure poses much more of a risk on the
: moon than it is beneath Earth's warm blanket of atmosphere.
: Habitats on the moon might have to be covered by heaped-up lunar
: soil, also known as regolith. Other shielding materials could
: include tanks of water, or strategically placed hardware, or extra
: layers of reinforced polyethylene.

: Then there's the dust: During the Apollo missions, abrasive
: moondust worked its way into every nook and cranny — even the
: joints on the astronauts' spacesuits. "After three days on the
: lunar surface, they had work through the metallic protection on
: their gloves, because of the abrasion," Bienhoff said.

: If too much dust gets inside the lunar habitat, it could pose the
: kinds of health problems suffered by miners and asbestos workers in
: the past. To keep the dust down, astronauts might have to wear
: disposable coveralls during surface operations, Cadogan said — and
: lunar robots might need coveralls as well to protect their
: mechanical joints and bearings.

: Living off the dirt

: Moon dirt isn't all bad, however. If you know how to treat it
: right, it can serve as a building material as well as a source for
: vital supplies — and that's where companies such as Caterpillar
: enter the picture.

: "When you're moving large pieces of equipment, using whatever types
: of devices you are using, how is the soil going to react?" NASA's
: Humphries said. "How is it going to compact underneath the wheels?
: Could it potentially get in the way and ball things up? What is its
: usefulness in terms of being bulldozed around to help make barriers
: to radiation, or even to flatten out the surface for ease of
: maneuvering things in an outpost-type area? They're looking at a
: lot of different things in that regard — in particular in the area
: of robotics, because they're anticipating that robotics will be a
: key component there."

: Construction and mining companies have been advising the more
: traditional aerospace companies on all those issues, said Larry
: Clark, senior manager for Lockheed Martin's spacecraft technology
: development laboratory. It turns out that a heavy-duty Caterpillar
: tractor probably wouldn't be suitable for the moon, he said.

: "We can't afford to launch a large vehicle like that, so we've got
: to make things smaller and lightweight, but just as efficient
: mechanically," he told MSNBC.com.

: Pint-size robo-tractors could be used to build up protective berms
: around lunar facilities, or dig up loads of moon soil for
: industrial-scale extraction of water and oxygen. Researchers have
: already started to map areas where frozen water may lurk — perhaps
: in the depths of permanently shadowed craters near the poles. And
: if the water is broken down into hydrogen and oxygen, that could
: provide rocket propellants as well as air for breathing.

: In addition to potential traces of frozen water, lunar soil
: contains oxygen-rich minerals.

: "It doesn't take a lot of soil to make the oxygen we need," Clark
: said. The way he figures it, processing the top 2 inches
: (5 centimeters) of soil from an area half the size of a basketball
: court could yield enough oxygen to keep four astronauts alive for
: 75 days.

: Moon dirt in the microwave

: Another neat trick involves cooking the lunar soil right on the
: surface to turn it into a concrete-hard crust. "You take a
: microwave and heat the soil up, and it actually fuses into a
: solid," said John Stevens, Lockheed Martin's director of business
: development for human spaceflight.

: Larry Taylor, a University of Tennessee planetary scientist, has
: proposed building "lunar lawnmowers" that could go back and forth
: to create hardened launch pads, roads and even radio telescope
: dishes.

: Over the long haul, such technologies could turn the moon into much
: more than a way station on the road to Mars, said Bob Davis,
: director of business development for space exploration at Northrop
: Grumman.

: "We're learning what the moon has to offer as not just an outpost,
: but as a location where we might derive economic benefit," he told
: MSNBC.com. "Who knows?"

Mark Reiff