{"id":677,"date":"2011-10-06T17:28:39","date_gmt":"2011-10-06T09:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sepiadesign.com\/?page_id=677"},"modified":"2025-06-24T18:27:25","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T10:27:25","slug":"and-now-for-something-completely-different-lunar-architecture","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sepiadesign.com\/newsepiasite\/project-portfolio\/and-now-for-something-completely-different-lunar-architecture\/","title":{"rendered":"Lunar Hotels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

LUNAR RESEARCH HABITAT \/ HOTEL<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Winner of the 2011 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)<\/em> Technical Feasibility and Elegance Award<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Thomas Schmidt’s award-winning lunar habitat proposal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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OVERVIEW<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sepia Design Consultants Limited<\/em> founder, Thomas Schmidt, AIA, LEED AP<\/strong>, was the first prize co-winner of the AIAA’s “Technical Feasibility and Elegance Award”<\/em> in an international competition which sought submissions from around the world for the creation of a technically-viable architectural design concept for a second-generation 60-person lunar research habitat to be constructed in the year 2069, commemorating the 100th<\/sup> anniversary of mankind\u2019s first lunar landing.  The international competition, organized by ShiftBoston and sponsored by AIAA, required participants to produce a conceptual architectural design for a second-generation 8,000 sq m self-sustaining lunar scientific research base at the moon\u2019s South Pole.  The competition assumed an automated first-generation facility with material fabrication capabilities would already be in existence and that a regular earth-moon system of transport would already be in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schmidt\u2019s winning modular design concept provides a pueblo-style subterranean facility open on one side along the rim of Shackleton Crater to allow for consistent Earth views due to the synchronous rotation of the two bodies, yet shield the bulk of the facility from long-term doses of radiation above with a 3-meter layer of lunar regolith.  The design of the modular subterranean facility revolves around an agricultural core at the heart of the facility, surrounded by accommodation, laboratories and various support facilities.  In addition to supplying the residents with a source of fresh vegetables and agro-research areas, the agricultural core would be naturally lit from above through a network of vertical light tubes illuminated by a rotating array of reflectors and photovoltaic cells at the lunar surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Above grade facilities include surface access units housing facilities for In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) and extravehicular activities (EVA), a lunar hotel for short-term visitors and space tourists, and a scalable array of commercial laboratories and research facilities for private entrepreneurs.  The surface facilities encircle a rotating array of photovoltaic cells, reflectors and solar monitoring equipment which would track the sun on its 29-day horizontal course across the horizon of the proposed polar location, providing natural light to subterranean areas below, and capturing solar energy to assist in the power generation requirements of the facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A polar site was selected for its near-continuous exposure to sunlight, and potential for harvesting nearby water from the large quantities of permanently-shadowed polar surface water ice discovered in 2008 by the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.  Schmidt\u2019s winning design of providing exterior Earth views and interior views of the agricultural core from the surrounding accommodation and laboratories coupled with maintaining human circadian rhythms through the admission of controlled amounts of natural filtered sunlight was closely aligned with the competition\u2019s criteria of maximizing human comfort for the occupants who might be deployed there for extended periods of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The award-winning concept was presented to the space community at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)<\/em> Space 2011 Conference & Exposition<\/strong><\/a> on 27-29 September 2011 at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, CA, USA — the world’s premiere forum on space technology, space colonization and human spaceflight.  The concept was also presented to student, professional and public audiences at Boston’s Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)<\/a><\/em>, Worcester South High Community School<\/em><\/a>, Boston Society of Architects<\/em><\/a> and the McAuliffe-Shepard Space Discovery Center<\/em><\/a> in Concord, NH, USA in September 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A partial mock-up of the facility is currently proposed in collaboration with Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) at a facility in Worcester, MA, USA for educational and research purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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RECENT AMENDMENTS<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Since 2011, Schmidt has further refined the design of his lunar habitat relative to challenges in pressurization and redundancy. The architect proposed providing two side-by-side habitats relative to redundancy, in addition to providing a smaller multi-story option based on interlocking hexagonal modules relative to pressurization, minimizing exterior surface area as well as allowing for multi-story agricultural pods for greater flexibility<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A smaller, more compact habitat revolving around a central suntracker assembly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Multi-story agropods illuminated by light tubes provide more flexibility in vertical hydroponics systems and a wider range of plant materials.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Schmidt’s lunar habitat is proposed to be located at the lunar south pole with Earth views, and situated along the edge of a crater containing polar ice deposits which could be harvested for water, oxygen, and hydrogen fuel to sustain the habitat operation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

PRESENTATIONS<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Architect Thomas Schmidt continues to provide presentations of his lunar habitat and space tourism concepts to an international audience:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

June 2025<\/strong> – Kristin School<\/em>, Auckland, New Zealand<\/p>\n\n\n\n

June 2021<\/strong> – Chinese University of Hong Kong<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

December 2020<\/strong> – American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics (AIAA<\/em>) Webinar<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

March 2015<\/strong> – Chinese University of Hong Kong<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

November 2011<\/strong> – American Chamber of Commerce<\/em> Hong Kong<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

September 2011<\/strong> – American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)<\/em> Space 2011 Conference & Exposition<\/a>, Long Beach, CA, USA<\/p>\n\n\n\n

September 2011<\/strong> – Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)<\/a><\/em>, Boston, MA, USA<\/p>\n\n\n\n

September 2011 <\/strong>– Worcester South High Community School<\/em><\/a>, Boston, MA, USA<\/p>\n\n\n\n

September 2011 <\/strong>– Boston Society of Architects<\/em><\/a>, Boston, MA, USA<\/p>\n\n\n\n

September 2011<\/strong> – McAuliffe-Shepard Space Discovery Center<\/em><\/a>, Concord, NH, USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For more information, please contact us.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LUNAR RESEARCH HABITAT \/ HOTEL Winner of the 2011 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Technical Feasibility and Elegance Award OVERVIEW […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":68,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-677","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PgwalJ-aV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sepiadesign.com\/newsepiasite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sepiadesign.com\/newsepiasite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sepiadesign.com\/newsepiasite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sepiadesign.com\/newsepiasite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sepiadesign.com\/newsepiasite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/sepiadesign.com\/newsepiasite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1539,"href":"https:\/\/sepiadesign.com\/newsepiasite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/677\/revisions\/1539"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sepiadesign.com\/newsepiasite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/68"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sepiadesign.com\/newsepiasite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}