By Julie Power
Imagine it is 2069, a century since astronaut Neil Armstrong took one small step for [a] man and a giant leap for mankind on the moon. A ridge near the moon’s South Pole, Shackleton Crater, has been identified as the site for a new home for 30 crew staffing a base for exploration to Mars.
This is not a screenplay for another Star Wars, 2001: A Space Odyssey or Tintin story, but the premise of the inaugural Australian Space Architecture Challenge (ASAC), which asked entrants to create a human outpost on Earth’s only natural satellite.
From a field of 83 entries, the winning project, Happy Homesick, asked how humans would farm, procreate and sustain life without going crazy in a place far, far from home, where daily temperatures fluctuated from minus 120 degrees to 120 degrees plus. On the moon, there is no atmosphere, no noise and deadly levels of cosmic radiation.
Team members Eric Luan, Claire Basso, Dr Robert Cameron, and JD Otto from the University of Western Australia designed dome-like structures focused on the “everyday experience of future lunar settlers” – who continued to have hobbies and celebrate birthdays – that cultivated a sense of place unique to the lunar landscape.
Cameron, a lecturer in architecture and design, said there was hype and expectation that the colonisation of the moon and Mars was around the corner, but the team had discovered most proponents had largely ignored critical questions around the psychology and health implications of living in deep space.
“There are a lot of things about space that most people aren’t aware of – the loss of bone density caused by low gravity, the impacts of radiation on the body, or the abrasive and toxic materials that permeate the lunar and Martian soil,” said Cameron, speaking on behalf of the team.
The design challenge was organised by the University of Adelaide’s Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources (ATCSR) and was open to Australian university students of any discipline and recent graduates. It was endorsed by the Australian Space Agency.
Second prize winners Bowen Yang and Carol (Yichan) Wei, studying for a master’s in architecture at the University of Queensland and the University of Sydney, respectively, submitted their work Lunar Urbanism, which considered other aspects of life on the moon.
Yang said most architecture on earth was boring. In contrast, he said, going to the moon or going to Mars was inspiring. “It is understanding where humans can go instead of war and chaos. It is about seeing magnificent things humans can achieve, and hopefully, we can be part of that,” he said.
Bowen Yang and Yichan Wei from the University of Queensland won second prize with their Lunar Urbanism concept.
Their design, which included a nuclear power station, also considered how humans would survive the moon’s silence by imagining a buffer zone of greenery and vegetables accompanied by a soundtrack of noises similar to those on Earth.
“Space is extremely quiet, [the] moon has zero noise because there is no atmosphere,” Yang said.
Sydney Airport design manager Ihab Shamseldin, who recently completed a master’s in Architecture at the University of Technology, found that the challenge raised an entirely different set of problems than constructing in the Earth’s atmosphere, where most buildings have sharp edges and angles.
With team member Samer El Sayary, they won third prize for their concept Lunarium, the moon’s version of a terrarium.
“When you design in the lunar environment, there are restrictions and challenges, gravity and radiation,” he said. Inspired by pine cones, they imagined a series of modular rounded buildings that would withstand the pressure that would crack traditional buildings on earth.
Do Dang Quang Nguyen from the University of Adelaide received an honourable mention for Alteon VII, a concept that supports long-term living and research to fuel the “human dream”.
The University of Adelaide’s Dr Amit Srivastava said the challenge aligned with the goals of the Australian Civil Space Strategy and the Moon to Mars initiative to advance Australia’s position in the global space economy.
“Space architecture is an interdisciplinary endeavour, which brings together capabilities across the entire range of STEM fields, as well as creativity and culture,” said Srivastava, the head of the Lunar Architecture Research Group.
The competition aimed to increase national capacity and inspire the next generation of the space workforce. Another competition will be held next year, ahead of the peak conference, the International Astronautical Congress 2025, which will be held in Sydney.
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