Where will Serenity Base be Located?
When planning Serenity Base it is very important that the correct location is chosen for the base to be established. Certain locations are able to provide a wider variety of advantages compared to other available locations. Factors that will effect the base locations are:
- Duration of available Sunlight hours: Used to determine the period in which solar energy will be available.
- Duration of Longest Continuous Night Period: Used to determine the required energy storage and non solar power generation requirements for the base.
- Temperature Maximums and Minimums: The temperature fluctuations allow for the design of the Active Thermal Control System for the module.
- Access to Water Resources: Easy access to water will allow a large saving in the requirements of a primary water sources being delivered from Earth. Water sources are able to supply water for crew consumption, Oxygen production, Fuel Source for Hydrogen Fuel Cells, Hydrogen for Methane generation,
- Access to Rich Mineral Deposits: Access to certain mineral deposits will allow materials to be produce on the Lunar surface which in turn will allow manufacturing facilities to be established.
- Scientific Tasks or Opportunities: The locations of research stations will be dependent on the type of research that needs to be carried out. E.g. Radio Astronomy would be better suited to regions in which Earth is not in a direct line of sight.
Lunar Illumination
Illumination periods on the Lunar surface can vary greatly depending on the location. At equatorial areas the illumination periods are regular with intervals of around 14.5 Earth days in sunlight followed by 14,5 days of continuous darkness.
At the polar regions these duration's can vary greatly depending upon the season and the local topography. The picture showing the Total Illumination on the Lunar South Pole' shows that certain locations can receive higher periods of illumination than other locations. Black is 0%, white is 100% of illumination. The squares indicate the 5 points in the region that receive the most illumination in the analysed period. These locations offer the best locations to enable long duration missions over longer than usual continuous illumination periods. Also note that these same areas are also located near regions which experience continuous darkness.
Total Illumination of the Lunar South pole
Lunar Illumination - Topographic Effects
At the Lunar South Pole the Sun path is relatively low in the sky hardly exceeding 3 degrees on the elevation. This make the local topography in the surrounding areas very influential on the total illumination received by a location over a year.
By selecting an appropriate location we will be able to maximize our exposure to the sun and allow energy generation via solar power to be more effective and for longer duration than 14 earth days as would be the case at the equator.
Unfortunately at the Lunar south pole the longest periods of complete darkness at these locations are also extended to reach close to 21 Earth days with certain location's inside craters not being able to receive any sunlight at any period during the course of a full year.
Sun tracking at Lunar South Pole CR1 with local topography
Lunar Illumination - Effects of Maximizing Energy Utilization.
By maximizing the the use of solar energy generators and secondary non solar energy generators along with batteries we will be able to extend the duration of a mission whilst at the same time keeping the the mass of the module to a minimum.
The picture shows how the longest period of quasi-continuous period of illumination can be achieved by designing the Electrical Power System with certain criteria.
a) Time history of the visible Sun fraction, for 12 synodic periods (~29.53 days) starting from lunar southern winter solstice (defined as the epoch of maximum sub-solar latitude) of 2018 (October 22, 2018);
(b) Pattern of illumination and darkness periods after thresholding to 50% of Sun fraction;
(c) Pattern after filtering of illumination periods shorter than 10 hours;
(d) Pattern after filtering of darkness periods shorter than 60 hours. The Longest Quasi-Continuous Illumination Period is the longest illumination period in (d).
In some locations this value can reach over 200 Earth days.
Time history of the visible sun
The LQCIP map for the six best Region of Interest. Colour-code is in days, height above the surface is 2 m, filter for short darkness periods is 60 hours, filter for short illumination periods is 10 hours. the locations from Top to bottom left to right are Connecting Ridge 1 (CR1), de Gerlache Rim (GR1), Leibnitz beta Plateau (LP1), Malapert Peak (MP1), Malapert Peak 2 (MP2), Shakelton Ridge (SR1).
Map for regions which experience higher periods of illumination.
Connecting Ridge
Connecting Ridge is locate between Shackelton Crater and de Gerlache Crater as and forms the ridge that connects these two craters together.
The illumination capacity of this region is very high and offers the best location to place a base that will mainly function using solar power with a secondary non solar power generation unit and batteries for dark periods.
CR1 - Illumination Periods for varying thresholds
LQCIP maps for the Connecting Ridge, simulated for year 2019, for different values of the darkness/illumination threshold (left to right) and darkness filter (top to bottom). Grid spacing is 40m. Coordinates are in polar stereo-graphic projection. It can be seen that for both values of the darkness filter, the extent of the area is practically not affected in almost all cases, while the duration of the LQCIP decreases slightly (up to ~3% difference) when going from 25% threshold to 75%.
Even during periods where no darkness and illumination filters were added the total amount of continuous illumination periods was still relatively high with periods of up to 120-150 Earth days.
CR1 - Illumination Periods for varying height above ground
Map showing the LQCIP duration (in days) at the Connecting Ridge, simulated for year 2019, for different values of height (left to right) and short darkness filters (top to bottom). Grid spacing is 40m. Coordinates are in polar stereo-graphic projection.
If the design of the module can be adapted to allow longer duration of energy storage or an alternative to solar power generation then the period in which the module can remain active can be increased considerably.
Another observation is that the higher off the ground the solar generation unit is placed the longer the energy generating unit can function. As such if the solar panel array can be design to sit on the top of the module and be extended vertically it may be able to still receive solar energy even though the module is in darkness.
Lunar South Pole - Maximum and Minimum Temperatures
The maximum and minimum temperatures allow the Active Thermal Control System (ATCS) to be effectively be designed. The location of the module on the Moon will determine what temperatures will be experienced by the module.
Equatorial regions have temperatures ranges from 400K to 100K.
The Lunar South Pole Region has a variety of temperature ranges in different regions within a close proximity of each other. Maximum temperatures can range from 200K to 25K depending on location.
Lunar South Pole - Water Sources
Potential Water sources in the Lunar Southern Pole are based on the detection of Hydrogen molecules on the Moon's Surface and potential sources of Water Ice on the Lunar Southern Pole Surface located in cold spots in craters.
Lunar Resources - Iron Sources
The distribution of Iron Resources show that higher concentrations of up to 14% of the resource is located near the equatorial region of the lunar surface facing the earth.
Iron Deposits can still be found in all regions of the Moon in lower concentrations.
Lunar Resources - Titanium Sources
The distribution of Titanium Resources show that higher concentrations of up to 10% of the resource is located near the equatorial region of the lunar surface facing the earth.
Scientific Research Stations
Certain Research Stations will required to be placed in regions that are facing away from the Earth or in areas where the temperatures are near Absolute Zero.
- Radio Astronomy: Radio Astronomy equipment would be required to be installed in areas that are not facing the Earth or any radio broadcasting device so that it will be able to monitor EMF signals and not pick up any interference from terrestrial sources.
- Infrared Astronomy: Infrared Astronomy equipment needs to be kept at below cryogenic temperatures. The Best locations for these systems would be in the Lunar Southern Pole craters which may be able to accommodate the very low temperatures required.
- Optical Astronomy: The largest operational optical telescope on Earth is a 11.1 x 9.8m mirror array with larger installations of up to 39.3m planned. All these Optical telescope suffer from atmospheric pollution. The largest space telescope currently planned has a mirror array of 66.5m diameter. An observatory can be built on the far side of the Moon to rival the Earth based telescopes and be able to delivery a higher quality picture than any earth based telescope since it will not have any interference from an atmosphere.
