www.themarsoutpost.com

the Lunar Lander Project

 With help from System Three - www.systemthree.com

 

 
A composite full size replica of the Lunar Lander.
The mission is to build a line of habitable space landers providing creature comforts with low impact on the land and high amazement factor. Some thoughts on the form of the original Lunar Lander. Typically a designer can look at any structure and in a few seconds describe to you what is going on with it structurally or as to its form. That was always impossible for me with the actual Lunar Landers.

Unit #1 will be placed a few miles from where the Apollo astronauts used to train for moon missions. It can be seen as an homage to those astronauts and that time.

Inside find an open space, with external modules for bath, galley, breakfast nook and storage.

On top is a clear geodesic dome with queen size berth under it. It is suspended by carbon fiber tensors so the light can stream in down all around the berth.

A foam/glass cover can be used to keep extreme heat or cold out of the dome.

Down inside is a soft lounging pit. On one side is an outside deck.

The systems are placed in the hexagonal ring that the living space rests on.

The Lunar Lander can rest comfortably on drastic, uneven terrain.

These off-the-grid outposts will use the latest marine technology to afford a strong, light, efficient and easily maintained structure.

Construction is plywood/epoxy/core/fiberglass. If this were production, or if I had a larger budget, it would be entirely fiberglass and core. The core is both for insulation and structure. It is vacuum bagged between the plywood faces. Everything is encapsulated in epoxy and sheathed in fiberglass cloth.

The first parts built are the systems ring and the legs attached to it. The plywood looked so good that I thought briefly about building it bright, showing the wood like a piano. Thinking about the UV damage sobered me on that thought though. One of the 6 systems ring parts are in the back of the truck below. Construction of the insulated hull panels begins next. As noted in the detail section below, it will be 2" thick structural foam with 5mm plywood on each face. This plywood is sheathed in fiberglass cloth and encapsulated in epoxy.

Below see one of the SIP panels being vacuum bagged. The largest will be 8' x 8'. Also, just before it, the 6 system rings with a dry fit before epoxy flowcoat and painting.

reach me at khughes@multihulldesigns.com

in my real job I design catamarans and trimarans. See www.multihulldesigns.com/

PDFs of some of the plans set: top, elevation 123, elevation 456, detail section, interior, construction