Artificial gravity only solves half of the dosing and debilitation problem. For any progress in Human Space Flight to happen a sea change regarding radiation shielding is required. As we set sail on this new sea we are going to have to take our own little ocean with us. This fundamental change is accepting massive shielding as unavoidable. There is simply no way around the basic physics of heavy nuclei. The “Parker Minimum” is a 5 meter layer of water and this is the starting point for HSF. For a small capsule this equates to about 500 tons of water. This is simply not practical for long duration missions with more than a couple astronauts, not because of the mass, but due to human psychology and the inefficiency of the ratio of shielding thickness to crew space. As the sphere gets larger the inner sphere crew space geometrically increases. Constructs between 60 and 80 feet in diameter, with inner spaces between 26 and 46 feet, with shields massing approximately 3000 to 6000 tons, are likely the lower limit.
Starting with that 5 meters of water several concepts appear as solutions. The first, to deal with microgravity debilitation, is a tether system with roughly equal masses at either end and lesser tuning and dampening masses moving along the multi-tether. A rate of one revolution per minute would prevent the severe difficulties inherent in faster rates and require a 6000 foot long tether system. Second comes the wet workshop, a structure already made to handle one gravity of centripetal acceleration or, since the double-hulled structure will be spherical or ovoid, the “Fat Workshop.” Third, due to their large size, comes a Super or Ultra Heavy Lift Vehicle to loft the workshops. Fourth is some form of Nuclear Propulsion, not nuclear thermal, to move these multi-thousand-ton constructs once they are complete. And fifth comes an off-world source of water shielding. Twenty three tons of water can be lifted from the Moon for every ton from Earth. Using a lunar rail gun it may be possible to economically launch water containers from the Moon, as originally envisioned by Gerard K. O’Neill.
To “establish a basic model” of a Moonbase I see two models, based ether on roofing over craters and covering with regolith, or finding a suitable lava tube.
Either model would allow inflatable habitats to provide very spacious accommodations while shielding occupants from radiation and micrometeorites.
The crater model near the ice at the poles would likely be a grid set up, then covered with a suitable material, and then a small earthmover pushing regolith over it. All robotically constructed long before any astronauts land.
My view is that water robotically lifted from the lunar poles into orbit for shielded Space Stations and robotically constructed bases should happen before astronauts ever leave Earth.
Ice on the Moon 