Constructing airtight, human suitable facilities in (near) vacuum (Moon, Mars etc)
So, we've reached The Moon/Mars. Our band of intrepid Colonists/Lunatics will almost certainly start by working out of prefabricated facilities (ship, habitat etc) but they will eventually run out of space.
Trivially they will want enclosed space for fields of potatoes, industrial facilities or a few spare rooms so they can have 10 minutes of private peace and quiet. Thing is, how do you build such a room?
The issue is keeping it airtight. Ignoring the issues of an airlock, the simple problem of making a room seems incredibly hard. A metal room would require the full purification of iron or metal alloys that can be welded (?) into something that doesn't leak like a sieve.
Our fiction is full of geodesic domes, transparent glass and other incredible complex structures. I'm having problems imagining the construction of a simple box room on the surface. Let alone pipe in air, power and water, and pump out air and waste water. Or an airlock built in situ.
So - how do we do this?
Edit: Additional constraints, based on comments.
- Near future tech. Assume anything we can make or nearly make now.
- Local resources where possible.
- Local labour, 2-3 people with some mechanical assistance
- Limited production space. You've got the ship they came in, a few dozen cubic meters of space. You don't have a large airtight hanger you can build smaller things in and wheel out into position
Hard science appreciated but not tagged. Happy to take soft suggestions.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/152881. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1 answer
Laser Syntered Regolith
First the dust and rock on the surface of the Moon would need to be passed through sieves, to enable the grade of material suitable for printing to be fed to the printer head.
The process itself would be very much done as a 3D printer does it now, but being heated by lasers instead of a small scale heater element:
building up products layer by layer in a semi-molten state until they set into stabilize in solid form.
This produces a porous but mechanically stable material in any shape that you can conceive of. The final step of making it airtight would be achieved by increasing the temperature in a process known as Selective laser melting.
There are companies - Regolight being one, among probably several which are developing 3D printing techniques for the express purpose of building habitats on the Moon/Mars. (No affiliation to the author of this answer).
Although presumably someone could go to the trouble of building separate life support systems for each cabin section, perhaps a centralised oxygen production facility would be more appropriate, both from water found on the Moon, and by the plants in the horticultural/hydroponics areas. A system like a Central ducted air system, could be used to distribute fresh air and control temperature. This would be in a fern like structure branching out from the central areas to living quarters. This has the advantage that it can grow outward indefinitely as demand dictates. A "stale air" return ducting system would be build along-side it.
Emergency respiration systems/spacesuits would always be available, with emergency bulkheads to close in case of a breach and perhaps hatches on the roof of every room to allow rescue.
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