Due to the lower gravity of the moon, space elevators are more feasible there. I am wondering if Luna City had a space elevator, it may be an efficient way to transport astronauts from the Deep Space Gateway to the Lunar surface?

One of the major questions we need to answer is: how many settlers should Luna City initially support? It is a city, and not a village, after all. But it may help to start with a modular design, that begins as a village that can grow into a metropolis.

As a systems integrator, I tend to view things in terms of structure and functions. How is Lunar City laid out? What subsystems make it work? How many people choose to live there , and for how long? What kind of life support is needed? Things like that, and more. Overall, what's the mission for Lunar City?

To expand on Craig's point about what's the mission for Lunar City? I'm curious what Luna City's economy will likely be based on. Resource extraction, R&D, manufacturing, and/or tourism would all shape its structure and development differently.

Just finished listening to a podcast episode of StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson interviewing Andy Weir (author of The Martian) on his new book, Artemis, a near-future thriller heist story that takes place on a lunar base. Andy explains why the city’s governance works like an 1800s-frontier town, the currency used in the novel, and why he chose Kenya as the global center for the space industry.
https://www.startalkradio.net/all-access/a-conversation-with-andy-weir-special-bonus-episode/

I see people asking "what's the mission?" The mission is the one we collectively come up with!

There's no asking for permission here. Luna City is a blank slate at the moment.

(perhaps, we should have began this with the thread "Mission Objectives Gathering" as that should be the first part of the space mission engineering process....)

It is always good to write something down to be able to iterate and have constructive discussions.

Any kind of Moon base would allow most of the applications like mining, manufacturing, research and tourism. One location might not be the absolute best for one specific application, but a good compromise can be found. Just like with large cities on Earth.

Objectives:
* Develop a cost-effective and safe large Moon colony capable of growing to 10000 residents
* Use as many existing technologies and as few solutions as reasonable to speed up the initial development and construction to increase the likelihood of success.

Information:
* Peaks of eternal light (constantly sunlit locations) are not known to exist on the Moon.
* A location for multiyear average direct-to-Earth communications is not known to exist.
* Closest known lava tube to a Moon's Pole is located about 550 km from the North Pole.

Requirements:
* Luna City shall be located at or less than TBD km from Moon's Pole.
* Luna City should be located in a lava tube.
* Luna City shall be located less than 20 km (TBC) from the primary water source.
* Luna City shall survive all impacts with higher than 1/10000000 (TBC) probability during a millenia.
* Luna City should not require nuclear energy or power-beaming from orbit during lunar nights or eclipses.
* Luna City should not require communication satellites to communicate with the Earth.
* Luna City should support precision landings without a lunar GPS network.
* Luna City should have 2-4 solar power stations located such that at least one is always illuminated.
* Luna City should have 2-4 ground stations located such that at least one has always direct-to-Earth visiblity for communications.

Please continue.

Funding

Obviously, we would like to do this for free, but we will need to figure out how to monetize to pay for existing operations and expansion. The team may have already thought about some of these options but leaving them here for further discussion and blueprinting.

1) Content

Remember how the moon landing was one of the most watched events...ever? As a first mover, the mission will have unique content that is hard to impossible to duplicate. The team can grow awareness around the project and further monetize by granting access deals to content distributors (Netflix, Disney, etc.).

This monetization aspect should be done in direct collaboration with the Hollyworlds Mission.

Some ideas:

• Reality series, this could go on for multiple seasons, as it follows the team from blueprinting, all the way up through launch, sustained operations, and expansion. Should be done in a classy, BBC documentary style.

• Control your own drone! Token holders can pay for the right to control their own drone and drive it over the surface, looking for mineral deposits or any new exploratory areas of interest. Token holders will win a bounty percentage of the profits of any mineral deposit they locate.

• Unveiling events. These could be live events that take place when they team has major events, such as liftoff, touchdown, discovering something new on the moon, etc.

• Content available only to token holders.

• Lots of free content that grows awareness of the network.

In summary, content is something this group can offer that nobody else can touch. The group should not be shy about monetizing that content. The key is to keep viewer expectations in check as we do not want to hype up so hard and then leave viewers feeling letdown.

2) Mining

This is the other obvious source of income that has been well-written on.

• The team can form agreements with purchasers of Helium 3, which is an element exclusive to the moon, that can be relatively easily extracted for shipment back to earth.

• Titanium is also another abundant mineral on the moon, though the extraction and transportation costs may be much higher due to weight and existing supply curve available on Earth.

• The team should also send out exploration drones to locate any new sources of valuable minerals which can be mined for further monetization.

3) Research

The moon provides a unique environment for conducting research for other space-bound agencies that may need to outsource some of their research operations. The team can solicit offers from other agencies in order to fund operations and some profit to expand future operations.

In all efforts, a percentage of profits should be loaded into a legal fund, considering there may be nation-states which may claim mineral rights on the moon, along with how those resources are being distributed back to Earth. This current restriction takes place with rare earth elements, along with intellectual property like cryptography, so the team needs to make sure an ever-changing legal and political landscape back on earth is covered.

We may need a separate political and legal arm for compliance reasons.

Great points Erik, and the list you started looks great! To expand it, how about these requirements as well:
* Luna City shall be capable of sustaining its residents without resupply for [TBD] months
* Luna City shall be capable of evacuating all of its residents to Earth within [TBD] months
* structures within Luna City shall not be constructed of combustible materials
* the storage, distribution, and disposal of combustibles, explosives, and other potentially hazardous chemicals within [TBD] kilometers of Luna City shall be regulated
* the storage, distribution, and disposal of potentially hazardous biological agents within [TBD] kilometers of Luna City shall be regulated

Some governance requirements that are interesting to think about, although they won't drive the hard engineering side:
* notwithstanding national or regional laws, residents shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the United Nations unless noted otherwise
* Luna City shall extradite residents if convicted of a crime
* Luna City shall provide a breathable atmosphere, potable water, rations, and secure housing to all residents

I definitely salvaged some of these ideas from Andy Weir's Artemis. That book is excellent.

Your suggestions are awesome Derek. I like how you approached content as a way to also take advantage of tokens in particular.

Yalda,
OK, I'm here. To answer your question about Space Elevators, the answer is a clear Only if the DSG is located at EML1 or EML2. Any other location (including selenosynchronous) is either not very useful for supporting missions to Mars or is a moving orbit.
Marc

Actually, I just noticed that the title of this party line is Requirements Gathering. Yet most of the comments are proposing various methods or models of solution, rather than thinking about requirements.

I engaged in a similar exercise about 8 years ago when I wrote the design brief for the Moon Capital Competition sponsored by the Boston Society of Architects.

http://www.shiftboston.org/competitions/2010moon.php

Where would you like me to post the Design Brief? I would put it in ASANA, but I presume that people joining this thread may not have access to it.

Marc

Also, I had a contract serve as the External Reviewer for the Destination Moon Architecture Studio at the Technical University of Vienna (TU-Wien, HofBau-2) about six years ago.

http://www.hb2.tuwien.ac.at/en/publications/books/destination-moon-p8.html
https://issuu.com/hochbau2/docs/dm_booklet_web

What do we mean by requirements?
Ivy Hooks (yes, that's her real name) published a great paper called Why Johnny Can't Write Requirements. If anyone can find a copy, please share it. Here is a variation:
http://homepages.laas.fr/kader/Hooks.pdf

This goes far beyond requirements but forgive me as I had a lot of thoughts in my head so wanted to get them down. Hopefully they could spark some ideas or confirm others.

This is my amateur opinion on how I would do it. I see alot of these ideas already mentioned so that is awesome to see many of us are thinking on the same page.

I really think commodity, small scale technology is going to be needed to augment existing big bang launches. Not only from an affordability standpoint, but also to de-risk and complement missing capability.

If we follow the Steve Jobs/Elon Musk formula, each stage builds up enough capital and momentum in order to fund the next stage.

• iPod - iPhone - iPad - iCloud
• Roadster - S - X - 3 - Semis - Pickups

Short Term (Discovery)

Timeframe: 1 year

Goal: Identify gaps in the project for prioritization and procurement.

• Technology
• Personnel
• Strategies
• Materials
• Investment

Milestones:

• Curate existing orbital maps
• Curate existing surface maps
• Reach out to teams with experience in hostile environments
  • Arctic/Antarctic, cave divers, mountaineers
  • Recurring themes: Environment requires external life support, zero help available from base, lots of time spent around the same crew, isolation, high risk
• Research existing plans from agencies who have already done their due diligence and research:
  • NASA
  • Russian Federation
  • Tesla
  • European Space Agency
  • Private Contractors
  • Science Fiction authors
  • BlastOff.com
  • Previous space contests
• Study colony building memoirs for lessons learned (English Plymouth Rock, Spanish El Camino Real)
• Locate international treaties to understand limits of fair use for lunar resources (land ownership, mineral rights)
• Heavy recruitment of Subject Matter Experts
• Establish monetization strategies

Short Term (Blueprinting)

Timeframe: 2-5 years

Possibly a hyper-aggressive timeline.

Goal: Deliver a small scale win through recon equipment touchdowns.

Small win advantages:

• Limits investment risk
• Lowers capital commitments required
• Establishes the team and their working relationships
• Builds confidence, credibility, momentum, and excitement

Milestones:

• Update moon maps, both on surface and through orbit
  • Google possible co-sponsor? (Google Earth team now can claim Google Moon)
• Choose suitable building site
  • Close to mining resources
  • Sheltered from external environmental threats
• Choose mining sites

Medium Term (Prototyping and Testing)

Timeframe: 5-10 years

Goals:

• Heavy investment
• Derisking Go Live
• Build processes
• Buildout long term environment

Milestones:

• Establish basic infrastructure through drones, AI, and 3D printing
  • Life support
  • 3D printers should ideally be self-sustainable using local materials
  • Commodity building blocks for building structures
  • Tesla Boring Machine may be more cost effective in this environment vs. shipping materials
• Analyze soil samples for mining sites
• Confirm the mission will not violate international treaties and nation-state laws
• Recruiting
  • Skills
  • Physical Fitness
  • Psychological Fitness

Long Term (Go live, Post Go Live Support)

Timeframe: 10 to 20 years

Goal: Humans arrive

Milestones:

• Build sustainable environment capable of surviving indefinitely with no help from Earth
  • Agriculture
  • Medical support
• Supply missions on standby from Earth for emergencies
• Evacuation plan / escape pods
• Mining extraction returning to earth within 2 years

Stretch Goals (Upgrade)

Timeframe: 20+ years to infinite

Goals:

• Expand the colony to sustain larger population
• Governance, justice, and law enforcement
• Offer support to deep space missions
  • Launch infrastructure
  • Consulting expertise
  • Material procurement

I would suggest that THIS Luna City project should have a very practical, realistic, down-to-earth (sorry, down to the lunar surface) phase. So, not (yet) space elevators, but practical research in support of future lunar settlements. For example, prospecting for water and metals. Also, scouting the lunar surface to find the best candidate locations for lunar settlements, some proof-of-concept development of in-situ 3D-printed infractructure for future colonists.

Before requirements are generated a concept of operations (along with a mission statement) needs to be developed. I offer here the beginnings of a ConOps. In some cases, analogies to other endeavors are used, in others, more direct and succinct statements are provided. Turning this into a Luna City ConOps will be a worthy, and probably lengthy, collaboration for the team.

Luna City Concept of Operations
Luna City, in its full implementation, shall be comprised of several activity nodes as follows:
1. Science and Research Node – as modeled after Antarctica
Several governments maintain permanent, widely distributed research stations in Antarctica Many of the stations are staffed around the year. A total of 40 countries (as of October 2006) operate seasonal (summer) and year-round research stations on Antarctica. The population of people performing and supporting scientific research on the continent varies from approximately 4,000 during the summer season (December) to 1,000 during winter (June). There are also approximately 30 field camps that support specific projects.
2. Tourism Node – as modeled after Antarctica
Antarctica has become a popular tourist destination. Since 1969, the average number of visitors to the continent has increased from several hundred to over 34,000 today. All activities in Antarctica are heavily regulated for environmental protection purposes and the industry is largely managed by the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO).
The Antarctic tourism industry begun in the late 1950s when Chile and Argentina started taking fare-paying passengers to the South Shetland Islands, just north of the Antarctic Peninsula, aboard naval transportation ships.
The first expedition to Antarctica with travelers was in 1966, led by Swedish explorer Lars Eric Lindblad. Lindblad wanted to give tourists a first-hand experience on the ecological sensitivity of the Antarctic environment, in order to educate them and promote a greater understanding of the continent's role in the world. In 1977, both Australia and New Zealand started to offer scenic flights to Antarctica through Qantas and Air New Zealand. The flights often flew to the continent without landing and returned to the departure airport. The experience was an average 12 to 14 hours with up to 4 hours flying directly over the continent. [ sort of like a swing-by on a free return trajectory from Earth ].
All has not gone smoothly, noteably Air New Zealand Flight 901’s accident on November 28, 1979, in which a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 aircraft carrying 237 passengers and 20 crew members collided into Mount Erebus on Ross Island, Antarctica, killing all onboard.
3. Industry and Manufacturing Node – to move towards self sufficiency
In order for Luna City to move towards self-sufficiency, there will have to be the required infrastructure that uses in-situ resources.
4. Logistics Node – for overall support
Any city requires logistics to provide various services, to include:
• Utilities
• Communications
o To and from to (a Deep Space Gateway in ) lunar orbit
o To and from Earth
o Across the surface
• Transpiration
o To and from (a Deep Space Gateway in ) lunar orbit
o On the surface
• For lack of a better word – peacekeeping services
o Police
o Emergency
o other

Luna City Concept of Operations
Luna City, in its full implementation, shall be comprised of several activity nodes as follows:
1. Science and Research Node – as modeled after Antarctica
Several governments maintain permanent, widely distributed research stations in Antarctica Many of the stations are staffed around the year. A total of 40 countries (as of October 2006) operate seasonal (summer) and year-round research stations on Antarctica. The population of people performing and supporting scientific research on the continent varies from approximately 4,000 during the summer season (December) to 1,000 during winter (June). There are also approximately 30 field camps that support specific projects.
2. Tourism Node – as modeled after Antarctica
Antarctica has become a popular tourist destination. Since 1969, the average number of visitors to the continent has increased from several hundred to over 34,000 today. All activities in Antarctica are heavily regulated for environmental protection purposes and the industry is largely managed by the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO).
The Antarctic tourism industry begun in the late 1950s when Chile and Argentina started taking fare-paying passengers to the South Shetland Islands, just north of the Antarctic Peninsula, aboard naval transportation ships.
The first expedition to Antarctica with travelers was in 1966, led by Swedish explorer Lars Eric Lindblad. Lindblad wanted to give tourists a first-hand experience on the ecological sensitivity of the Antarctic environment, in order to educate them and promote a greater understanding of the continent's role in the world. In 1977, both Australia and New Zealand started to offer scenic flights to Antarctica through Qantas and Air New Zealand. The flights often flew to the continent without landing and returned to the departure airport. The experience was an average 12 to 14 hours with up to 4 hours flying directly over the continent. [ sort of like a swing-by on a free return trajectory from Earth ].
All has not gone smoothly, noteably Air New Zealand Flight 901’s accident on November 28, 1979, in which a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 aircraft carrying 237 passengers and 20 crew members collided into Mount Erebus on Ross Island, Antarctica, killing all onboard.
3. Industry and Manufacturing Node – to move towards self sufficiency
In order for Luna City to move towards self-sufficiency, there will have to be the required infrastructure that uses in-situ resources.
4. Logistics Node – for overall support
Any city requires logistics to provide various services, to include:
• Utilities
• Communications
o To and from to (a Deep Space Gateway in ) lunar orbit
o To and from Earth
o Across the surface
• Transpiration
o To and from (a Deep Space Gateway in ) lunar orbit
o On the surface
• For lack of a better word – peacekeeping services
o Police
o Emergency
o other