How can we build landing and launch pads on the moon?

[Admin]

If the future unfolds like some experts forecast, the moon is going to be one bustling spaceport. How can we handle all of that lunar traffic?

How can we build landing and launch pads on the moon? : Read more

 

[fj.torres]

Pre-built metal modules, raised above the regolith so the lunar vacuum reduces the heating. Designed to deflect the exhaust up and away from the surface and the vehicles. Say, 25ft wide hexagons interlocked.

Vacuum is very useful. And in the lunar gravity, much lower thrust and exhaust is needed. You can do a lot with 100Ton cargo landers if you stop to think moon, not earth.

 

[Unclear Engineer]

Useful thinking, but we still would have to provide support for those raised steel plates and whatever spacecraft rest on them and fire rockets onto them. That support must come from the so-far-poorly-understood subsurface of the Moon. So, we really do need to do some on-site surveys of the material properties of the surface as a function of depth. And, we need to realize that those properties are not uniform over the whole lunar surface. So, we need to do those studies where we actually hope to build the pads. So far, no missions have drilled very far into the surface.

 

[BT2024]

I wonder if these autonomous lunar construction machines will be able to work during the weeks of darkness and withstand the day/night temperature extremes. Will there be a repair shop where other autonomous machines fix the broken machines?

Steel plate deflectors sound great, but can you imagine the extra trips to transport that much mass? Maybe a crater the right size and depth would be a better starting place to build a launch/landing pad.

 

[JPL_ACE]

You need to take advantage of what ever you can, so I think combining ideas is the way to approach LLP's. Site your base next to 1 or 2 fresh craters, provides a safety berm for free. use Rhino Snot in conjunction with the hot exhaust during landing to fuse the regolith into a hard pad. Later, create a real pad maybe with cut blocks of deep rock.

 

[Cisventure Astronot]

Pre-built metal modules, raised above the regolith so the lunar vacuum reduces the heating. Designed to deflect the exhaust up and away from the surface and the vehicles. Say, 25ft wide hexagons interlocked.

Vacuum is very useful. And in the lunar gravity, much lower thrust and exhaust is needed. You can do a lot with 100Ton cargo landers if you stop to think moon, not earth.

Wouldn't using the vacuum as an insulator between the pad and the ground only make the pad get hotter?

 

[ChrisA]

Pre-built metal modules, raised above the regolith so the lunar vacuum reduces the heating.

I don't understand how the vacuum reduces the heating. I think it goes the other way. In a vacuum you only have radiative cooling,.

Possibly the easy thing might be to just let the loose stuff fly away. Maybe even hover over the landing spot and blast it for some time. I can imagine an unmanned lander whose only cargo is flue for hovering. This would work if the soil got more solid rather quickly.