Current and future goals for human activities on the Moon could be facilitated by the creation of underground tunnels. Human habitation will require shielding from radiation, protection from micrometeorites, structures to maintain atmospheric pressure in living quarters, and a means to survive the cold lunar night. Locating a human habitat several meters below the lunar surface would provide greater protection from these hazards than a surface habitat covered in regolith, while also providing a more stable thermal environment than the surface. Design of a custom lunar tunnel boring machine (LTBM) specifically for use in the lunar environment and boring in lunar material can leverage decades of technology developed by the mining and civil tunneling industries. One advantage of a LTBM over lunar surface excavation for cut and cover structures (C&C) is that the cutting forces needed to penetrate the ground is provided by wall grippers as opposed to surface excavation that relies on the weight of the machine, which is only 1/6th the weight on earth. An LTBM could also be used to excavate an access ramp to Lunar Rilles (lava tubes) or skylights, providing a safer alternative than entry through collapsed sections. This would reduce the hazard of rock fall when exploring these types of lunar features. LTBMs could also be adapted for the icy-regolith in the permanently shadowed craters at the lunar poles, which may be an attractive option for access to lunar ice resources with minimal surface disturbance and the potential for volatile loss. This paper and presentation will discuss lunar base design concepts and other applications using a LTBM. Design constraints of a LTBM, such as cutter design, mass, and power, as well as potential solutions to address such constraints will be presented, including the potential use of lunar resources to fabricate heavier elements of the LTBM.
Lunar Tunnel Boring Machines
16th Biennial International Conference on Engineering, Science, Construction, and Operations in Challenging Environments ; 2018 ; Cleveland, Ohio
Earth and Space 2018 ; 240-252
2018-11-15
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
Proposal for a Lunar Tunnel-Boring Machine
NTIS | 1988
|Proposal for a Lunar Tunnel-Boring Machine
NTIS | 1988
|Soft Ground Tunnel Boring Machines
SAE Technical Papers | 1978
|Proposal for a lunar tunnel-boring machine
NTRS | 1988
|SAE Technical Papers | 1978
|