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"This category [science fiction] excludes rocket ships that make U-turns, serpent men of Neptune that lust after human maidens, and stories by authors who flunked their Boy Scout merit badge tests in descriptive astronomy."
- Robert Heinlein
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| Igloo Inflatable Moon Habitat | ||
| An inflatable, portable lunar shelter that can be easily moved and set up. |
If you were doing some work far from a permanent settlement on the Moon, you would need a portable shelter that could be set up quickly next to your work site.
| ...it was now no particular hardship to live in a home that would fold up into a small trunk.
This was one of the latest models - a Goodyear Mark XX - and it could sustain six men for an indefinite period, as long as they were supplied with power, water, food and oxygen. The igloo could provide everything else - even entertainment, for it had a built-in microlibrary of books, music and video... In space, boredom could be a killer... Lawrence stooped slightly to enter the air lock. In some of the old models, he remembered, you practically had to go down on hands and knees. He waited for the "pressure equalized" signal, then stepped into the hemispherical main chamber. It was like being inside a balloon; indeed, that was exactly where he was. |
| Technovelgy from A Fall of Moondust,
by Arthur C. Clarke. Published by Harcourt, Brace and World in 1961 Additional resources -
|
Over time, the igloo lunar shelters evolved into comfortable quarters:
As the air generator pumped an atmosphere into the flaccid envelope, it expanded and stiffened in sudden jerks, followed by slow periods of consolidation... When it had reached the limits of its extension, it started to go upward again and the air lock popped away from the main dome.
Apparently, there was a Goodyear proposal to build an inflatable space station in 1961; the prototypes never made it into space.
...it had been divided into several compartments by movable screens... Overhead, three meters above the floor, were the lights and the air-conditioning grille, suspended from the ceiling by elastic webbing. Against the curved wall stood collapsible metal racks, only partly erected.
Here's a description of the process of inflating an igloo lunar habitat:
The sides of the box fell flat, revealing a tightly packed, convoluted mass of silvery fabric. It stirred and struggled like some living creature. The igloo [inflated] in only three minutes.
(Inflatable Station Concept)
In his 1939 short story Misfit, Robert Heinlein wrote about roofing a valley on an asteroid with synthetic spider silk, and inflating it with a breathable atmosphere.
See also an earlier version of this idea, the airtight tent from Raymond Z. Gallun's 1951 novella Asteroid of Fear and the igloo shelter from Collision Orbit (1943) by Jack Williamson.
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More Ideas
and Technology from A Fall of Moondust
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and Technology by Arthur C. Clarke
Tech news articles related to A Fall of Moondust
Tech news articles related to works by Arthur C. Clarke
Igloo Inflatable Moon Habitat-related
news articles:
- Clarke's Inflatable Lunar Habitats Now NASA's
- Moon Base Two Inflatable Lunar Habitat
- Space Habitat Has Inflatable Loft
- Bigelow To Offer Inflatable Lunar Bases
- Sierra Space Inflatable LIFE Habitat Burst Pressure Test
| 'If Anyone Is Watching Earth...' |
| Cloud Of Space Rubbish From China's Long March Rocket |
| ESA's Draco To Study Heat Of Reentry |
| The United States Space Academy Is Official |
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'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
