Martian Habitat Concept

grabcad

A concept to support Marcelo in his quest to teach engineering via practical examples. Here is a concept that could be transported and robot assembled. The concept engineering is pretty simple, mostly a case of making the correct operational assumptions and designing the details so that a responsive error tolerant design with environment robustness is realised. Edit: Things like the sliding masses would be containers filled with martian sand, possibly with a fixer mixed in to make them set. Or poly lining. Made in halves that clipped together, two sizes so can nest in transport. Drives need to be accessible, perhaps a single centre-mounted drive at the base with dog-clutches to engage the required mass for movement. Depends on response rate needed. Perhaps gyro speed is changed during adjustments. Think it through, you will get there!Edit 2: This sketch relates to Conceptual Design Challenge: Artificial Gravity for Human Colonies on the Moon and MarsPlease also consider my additional comments below when developing this concept into something beautiful we can all enjoy :).I didn't mention in comments is I consider it worth examination if the modules should be rigidly attached or flexible? You see on the right side of the cross-section is illustration of a pin. This is because I thought it may be better if the modules operate like the fun rides you see at the fair, so they swing out when spinning and hang vertical when stationary. Which means the joints between them need to be flexible, like you see between hinged full width busses and trains. So the catenary seal is fixed to one side, then the other module positioned adjacent and the sleeve is a loose fit, until a pin is pulled or a chemical expanding foam released and they are fully sealed. An overlapping set of semi-circular fingers would deal with the variable tilt angles so can walk through. What this concept means is the floor level is always much closer to apparent horizontal, so adaptive means like tilt-down levellers at workstations wouldn't be needed. Re access point, probably every module (or every second? due to mass efficiency) has an access assembly attached it lowers before use, or is fixed and misses the surrounds but is at a good height when the modules are stationary, perhaps a small mound at step-on point, or irrelevant to jump a bit due to low gravity (Ok if carrying things?). So many choices! Note 2 modules a habitat makes, work up to max in pairs.