Temperature and humidity control system in a lunar base.

An increasing number of lunar base construction programs are in the process of developing lunar resources such as helium 3. The objective of the present work is to evaluate the temperature and humidity control system, which will allow man to live and work on the moon while developing lunar resources. The results of thermal load calculation show that the load of electric lighting is a 80 to 90% of the cooling load in the habitat module and that only the cooling function is required for temperature control. Due to this, a fluorocarbon refrigerant heat pump system was selected to satisfy reliability, energy consumption, size and weight requirements for the lunar base equipment. According to the load calculation, occupants will feel discomfort due to radiant heat from lighting fixtures. To resolve this problem, an air conditioning system, used in combination with forced convective cooling and panel cooling on the ceiling, was adopted in the living space. Moreover, the experiment on the ground was carried out to evaluate the effects of panel cooling.