What will the new moonbase look like?

I'm watching Sky News at the moment and theres an astrophysicist talking about the proposed moonbase.

She was discussing the design of the buildings and said it was most likely that they would use dome shaped buildings or similar for thier strength. It was also mentioned that these buildings would have to withstand the force of meteorites that the moon is subjected to.

Now i'm no architect or engineer, thats why i'm putting this question to the floor.

Are we able to build something that can stand up to meteorites? I can think of very few if any buildings on earth that are totaly indestructable (please correct me if i'm wrong there) so i'm real interested in what they might be thinking of. So what design do you think they'll go along with and what materials would be most probable?

CX.

They'd probably go with domes further in the future, but I'd imagine the first base to be set up would be very small and able to be launched on rockets. I sort of envision something similar to what the USSR was planning back in the day when they were trying to get the Moon. I'm thinking of the cylindrical tubes seen on the right side of this site. www.russianspaceweb.com... It's similar to the ISS and it's cylindrical sections.

If it were up to me. I think the best option for future lunar outpost designs would be to build them underground with minimal surface structures. I think you'd get better natural shielding from radiation and meteors (depending on the meteor size and how deep your outpost is of course).

She was probably referring to micro-meteorites, and possibly something only a little bit bigger than that, maybe small sand size grains.
Tiny, but with a high velocity punch.

It will probably look like a bunch of giant tin cans buried under dust. I imagine they will bury (or at least berm) them to protect from radiation and micrometor strikes. The "can" shape makes sense since it would be easy to launch on the new ARES rockets and tow behind the CEV.

JRA - "If it were up to me. I think the best option for future lunar outpost designs would be to build them underground with minimal surface structures. I think you'd get better natural shielding from radiation and meteors (depending on the meteor size and how deep your outpost is of course)."

I agree, I too think the best option for the US right now and down the road would be to bore into the martian soil for Permanent and less radiation, overall it would be better living conditions than living on the outside.

What we should do is send 3 or 4 massive earth movers over to the moon and have them dig some "bases" for us.

Here is a link to a pic of an earth mover

www.scienceandsociety.co.uk...

Originally posted by Low Orbit
I agree, I too think the best option for the US right now and down the road would be to bore into the martian soil for Permanent and less radiation, overall it would be better living conditions than living on the outside.

I just want to clarify, that I ment further in the future. I think it would be too difficult/costly for them to do it right now, but perhaps once going to the Moon and back becomes more routine. Then start digging.

I say do it now, and do it before you send the manned crew there. Think about this as an investment, sure it will cost boat loads of money but a tunnel on the moon will last hundreds of years, so whatever the total investment is lets say it costs 2 trillion and take 400 years for the duration it could last it, the cost isn't as much as it first appears. Then start adding in other countries such as Russia, UK, EU, Au, Canada, Etc. and their contributions to it it truly starts to become affordable and realistic to do.

Russia is already showing interest in joining us in building a permanent moon base.

www.space.com...

There is no good reason other than it costs too much money to NOT build it now.
Another reason we should spend this money on a quality Permanent Moon Base is if we don't spend the money on this, we will spend it on something else, also put, the more we invest into space the less we will invest in war.

Finally, a project such as this, an endeavor as grand and noble as this, taken on as a partnership with both friend and foe could help take national stereotypes and hatred for each other and could replace them with a new found respect and purpose. Projects such as this as far as I'm concerned help mankind become closer to world peace.