Habitats: Options and Mass
What kinds of habitat could house people on the Moon, how heavy are they, and what do they cost?
Chapter summary
Four families of habitat are under study: rigid metal modules derived from space station hardware (10–25 tonnes each), inflatable modules that pack small and expand to large volumes, landers used as temporary habitats (a Starship lander has a large pressurised volume), and structures built partly from lunar regolith.
Key takeaways
- 1
The first base habitats in the 2030s will be rigid or inflatable modules delivered by heavy landers and covered with regolith for shielding.
- 2
Setcoin estimates that housing four people permanently needs 100–200 cubic metres of living volume per person in the long run, or 20–60 tonnes of shipped habitat, costing $1–3 billion per module to develop and deliver at early prices.
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