Architecture on the Moon: The Importance of Human Factors Considerations in the Design of a Lunar Base

The process of designing a lunar base involves architecture in a pure sense, with detailed programming, design and arrangement of peoples' living spaces and working interactions rigidly defined by programmatic function and site location, and coordinated closely with multiform complex feats of engineering. L-bAS (Lunar-based Astronomy Station) is a hypothetical test-case facility that must comfortably accommodate 30 people on the moon for a period of 24 months. Its crew is the critical human element in a masterplan for the operation or various types of astronomical observatories, remote sensing stations and other robotic scientific installations which will eventually be deployed on the lunar surface. As an exercise in creative thinking, the purpose of the design has been to explore, define and demonstrate the importance of humanist architectural design philosophy in the development of facilities engineered for long-duration missions in harsh extraterrestrial environments.