Homesteading the moon: Lunar pioneers and their robot companions will need a cozy place to call home

Abstract

SKID MORE, OWINGS & MERRILL is the architectural firm known for designing and engineering Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, such iconic structures being one of the firm's specialties. But at its New York City office, architects are working on something even more striking—drawings for SOM's first extraterrestrial assignment. The firm is designing a moon base in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and MIT. • Daniel Inocente, the lead designer, presents schematics and renderings of white puffy pods scattered across the lunar landscape, connected by tubular walkways and surrounded by robots and solar panels and astronauts, all overseen by a recognizable blue orb in the sky. These visions may never come to be, • but they're, helping ESA think through possible futures. The moon offers many opportunities. Planetary scientists want to study its composition to learn about the early solar system and Earth's origins. Astronomers want to build radio telescopes on the far side. Medical researchers want to understand how the human body reacts to extended stays in low gravity. Explorers want to test equipment or produce propellant for voyages to asteroids, Mars, and beyond.