Moon base stations

NASA has plans to resend people to the moon, but this time on a more permanent mission. They have to solve a lot of problems for this project. The most important problems are around the distribution, management and storage of electricity and heat in order to maintain a permanent human presence and the start of industrial activities.

The most logical choice for getting energy is solar energy which is very much there, but the problem is a night that lasts 350 hours. During the night the temperatures drop very low, so the temperature collected during the day needs to be saved for use during the night.

The most logical solution for the accumulation of thermal energy is to heat the air during the day and transfer that energy in to the ground. Using water as a fluid is not convenient because water can easily freeze. During the night, this accumulated heat energy in the rocks would be used to heat the space where people live, or to grow food plants. For this, it would be enough to drill holes in the ground in which plastic or aluminum pipes would be placed, through which the air flowing on the surface through the solar collectors for heating the fluid would flow.

Accumulating electricity generated by solar photo panels is much more difficult. Batteries have their own weight and are difficult to bring from the ground. Therefore, another solution is needed for electricity generation. Around the base stations, in addition to the collector for heating the fluid, it is necessary to install photo panels that would provide enough electricity during the day. In order to get electricity even at night for 350 hours, it is necessary to place small satellites with large spread aluminum foils in a suitable orbit around the moon, which would reflect sunlight towards the base station. Several such satellites set up around the moon could illuminate the space around the base stations enough for normal photocell operation even in the dark. Along the way, this reflected light would also heat the space around the base station, and allow plants to grow through 350 hours of night in the food growing space.

Other of my technical analyzes and innovations can be found in this book.