The Moon Village: first human’s habitat on the moon

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) have developed a concept project for the "first full-time human habitat" on the surface of the moon. Developed in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the new public project called The Moon Village is a "sanitized" and optimized for human needs space on the Moon.

The concept was presented by ESA’s CEO Jan Werner. The ESA, MIT and SOM will jointly develop all the main stages of planning, design and engineering work throughout the project.

The purpose of this plan is to ensure permanent residence on the Moon, which requires interdisciplinary cooperation and a completely new approach to solving the most complex problems of the space industry.

"The project presents a completely new challenge for the field of architectural design," said Design Partner Colin Koop.

"The Moon Village must be able to sustain human life in an otherwise uninhabitable setting. We have to consider problems that no one would think about on Earth, like radiation protection, pressure differentials, and how to provide breathable air," added Koop.

The Moon Village will be based on resiliency and self-sufficiency as key design principles. According to the masterplan, The Moon Village will be located on the edge of the Shackleton crater near the South Pole, which receives almost uninterrupted daylight during the lunar year.

The SOM will develop the project in three phases, offering several critical infrastructure components and livable structures that will allow The Village to use sunlight for energy production and will conduct experiments on the use of resources on site (ISRU) or food generation and other vital conditions, using the natural resources of the moon.

Images: © Slashcube GmbH and SOM

What’s important is this project will carry out much larger tasks in the field of science, industry and entertainment, as well as strive to achieve far-reaching goals.

Mastering other planets is a very hot topic today. NASA, for example, is hosting a 3Dprinting Habitat Challenge for the best habitat design on other planets.