Welcome to the Moon Hotel
Explanation:
The most detailed proposal
so far for a hotel and
resort destination
on the Moon (!) has been prepared by
Dutch
architect Hans-Jurgen Rombaut.
The harsh
lunar environment
posed serious
design challenges but the Moon's low,
one-sixth-Earth gravity,
and the absence of wind were an
architectural boon allowing a much more slender and fragile-looking
building than would have been
possible on Earth.
As illustrated here, the structure's two 160 meter high needle-like
towers soar over
the rim of a deep canyon as planet Earth hangs in the
lunar sky.
To shield the interior, Rombaut designed 50 centimeter thick walls
with two outer layers of Moon rock and a 35
centimeter layer of
water
held between glass planes.
The water absorbs energetic
cosmic rays and along with the
rock helps keep the temperature constant.
Windows are framed as holes in the rock layers.
Construction
materials are intended to be manufactured
on the Moon itself.
This Moon Hotel design is welcomed by the international Lunar
Explorers Society,
LUNEX,
who hope to construct a robotic
Moon base by 2015,
ultimately
supporting a lunar village by 2040.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
