Lunar Habitats Protection Against Meteoroid Impact Damage

Abstract

The establishment of human habitats on the Moon and on Mars will require protecting them from the hazards of near-Earth and interplanetary space. in addition to solar radiation, another hazard to be faced by these habitats is the damage that can result from the high speed impact of a meteoroid on a critical structural component. Therefore, lunar habitats and their accompanying support facilities need to be designed with adequate levels of protection that will allow them to also withstand the damage that can result from a meteoroid impact. in this paper we discuss some approaches to shielding for lunar habitats, focusing on shielding that is intended primarily to provide protection against meteoroid impacts and on shielding approaches that use resources mined or extracted from the Moon. the Moon's mineralogy is discussed, and suggestions are presented for materials and material combinations that can be used to develop shielding for lunar habitats and which are comprised primarily or entirely of lunar materials. Several shielding mechanisms are also presented that could be effective against impacts by meteoroid particles having diameters on the order of that which are likely to strike a fairly large lunar habitat at least one or two times per year. the paper concludes with recommendations for continuing work in optimizing the design of meteoroid shielding for lunar habitats.

Department(s)

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

978-142008333-0;978-142008332-3

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2024 Taylor and Francis Group; Taylor and Francis, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2010

Link to Full Text

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