Is this project an undergraduate, graduate, or faculty project?
Undergraduate
group
What campus are you from?
Daytona Beach
Authors' Class Standing
Jose Gonzalez, Junior
Lead Presenter's Name
Jose Gonzalez
Faculty Mentor Name
Rafael Rodriguez
Abstract
Currently, both governments and private corporations are developing lunar exploration projects for scientific research and spaceflight operations. However, a viable plan for a lunar base is yet to be developed. The goal of Project Themyscira is to design a self-sufficient, sustainable lunar base capable of supporting five crew members for a period of six months. The feasibility study is two-fold. It will test the effectiveness and efficiency of the life-support systems to accomplish the mission, as well as evaluate its financial and logistic feasibility. In order to study the required systems to support human life, the team conducted an extensive literature survey on previous designs for human settlements in space and their limitations. This assessment yielded a series of constraints for oxygen production, atmospheric modeling, energy production, water treatment, and thermal regulation. Preliminary findings show that while some of the necessary support systems have the technology required to provide the necessary outputs, the logistics to set up the lunar base are not financially feasible. Nonetheless, artificial atmosphere models, artificial photosynthesis and radiation-protected photovoltaic cells are some of the existing technologies that would allow the lunar base to sustain human life. Consequently, optimizing the technologies so that they can be taken to space in smaller dimensions could result in logistical feasibility. The team will focus on developing testing methods to optimize the systems necessary to sustain the lunar base.
Did this research project receive funding support from the Office of Undergraduate Research.
No
Project Themyscira
Currently, both governments and private corporations are developing lunar exploration projects for scientific research and spaceflight operations. However, a viable plan for a lunar base is yet to be developed. The goal of Project Themyscira is to design a self-sufficient, sustainable lunar base capable of supporting five crew members for a period of six months. The feasibility study is two-fold. It will test the effectiveness and efficiency of the life-support systems to accomplish the mission, as well as evaluate its financial and logistic feasibility. In order to study the required systems to support human life, the team conducted an extensive literature survey on previous designs for human settlements in space and their limitations. This assessment yielded a series of constraints for oxygen production, atmospheric modeling, energy production, water treatment, and thermal regulation. Preliminary findings show that while some of the necessary support systems have the technology required to provide the necessary outputs, the logistics to set up the lunar base are not financially feasible. Nonetheless, artificial atmosphere models, artificial photosynthesis and radiation-protected photovoltaic cells are some of the existing technologies that would allow the lunar base to sustain human life. Consequently, optimizing the technologies so that they can be taken to space in smaller dimensions could result in logistical feasibility. The team will focus on developing testing methods to optimize the systems necessary to sustain the lunar base.