5 ms·
The night is 14 days long and is deeply (cryogenically) cold, which is really bad for lots of hardware. Military component ratings are something like -55°C[1].
by Oxidation 4y ago
The night is 14 days long and is deeply (cryogenically) cold, which is really bad for lots of hardware. Military component ratings are something like -55°C[1]. Lunar night is more like -130°C.
Ideally you keep as much equipment as close to an even temperature as you can, or it might never turn on again when daylight comes.
[1]: the exact definition varies, but it's in that general area. Industrial is -40°C and commercial is 0.
- rini17 4y agoRight, everything except solar panels should be underground, not only because of temperatures but to keep the regolith away too.
- throwaway14356 4y agohumans use to build with mud, sometimes with walls meters thick. Underground or natural caves would be even better. It doesn't get any less sexy. Not sure how it works with such extremes but on earth it takes months of heating or cooling to get through a few meters of soil.
- mumblemumble 4y agoThere's another bootstrapping issue there: how do you get the underground base installed and functional in less than 14 days?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- rini17 4y agoWhy must the build be done all at once in one go? Humans will land at the dawn, leave before dusk, working in 14 day shifts set up the base. This will repeat for several months till the base gets self-sufficient enough. Some stations in Antarctica were built that way only during summers, in winters they were left empty till finished and operational.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]