The Lunar Lantern is a design concept commissioned to by ICON for Project Olympus, as part of NASA’s Moon-to-Mars Planetary Autonomous Construction Technologies (MMPACT) program. In 2020, ICON employed SEArch+ to develop design schematics for mission-critical surface construction elements for a lunar settlement, including concepts for surface-site deployment, construction sequencing, and structural design. The design process was informed by discussions with key ICON engineers and NASA collaborators. The exchange not only ensured the constructibility of designs according to hardware and material processing limitations, but also enabled the architectural process to influence and shape hardware requirements as they were being defined.
The ensuing habitat design, titled the “Lunar Lantern” for its double-protective outer shield structure, celebrates and promotes a design approach driven by human factors principles to ensure the safety and security of future crew. As a whole, Project Olympus envisions the construction of durable, self-maintaining, and resilient surface structures enabled by advanced 3D-printing technologies.
The ground floor features private programmatic areas: individual crew quarters for four astronauts, a lounge area, bathroom, and a convertible health-lab / medical station. The hatch on this floor connects to the pressurized rover and also functions as an emergency exit. The second floor features a dedicated area for communications and mission control activities, a restroom/commode, a rack area for environmental control and life support system (ECLSS) hardware, and an exercise area. This mainly public floor has two airlocks to connect to other modules such as the lab or logistics (which again, remained out of scope for the current project). The third and top floor of the habitat features a galley and communal recreation area, kitchen, storage, as well as an aeroponic garden that cascades to the second level of the habitat. The top floor is adaptable in that it can shift from being a public gathering space to a more private space observation and contemplation area. A window is located on every floor of the habitat and positioned to ensure constant visibility to Earth
The risk of extreme temperature fluctuations and seismic activity on the Moon will cause extreme material fatigue. Particular attention must be attributed to assigning factors of safety to structural design. Benaroya et al. have made significant progress modeling temperature extremes at the South Pole, such as between lunar noon and night. The following structural technologies have been introduced in the project to mitigate risks leading to structural failure: parabolic base isolators, discrete whipple shield panels, and post-tensioning of the habitat shell.
The Associate design team comprised of Melodie Yashar, Michael Morris, as well as Rebeccah Pailes Friedman of SEArch+. Collaborators with SEArch+ included: Waleed Elshanshoury, Mahsa Esfandabadi, David Gomez, Alexander Guzeev, Vittorio Netti, and Albert Rajkumar.
I would like to thank Jason Ballard, Evan Jensen, and Michael McDaniel of ICON for their support and guidance of this research, and for enabling work that will shape and influence the future of Lunar habitation for years to come. I would also like to acknowledge Dr. Raymond Clinton, Mike Fiske, and Dr. Jennifer Edmunson for their support of SEArch+ throughout the MMPACT project and in earlier collaboration phases as well.