The Kingdon of Tycho

The use of Bioplastic and Desktop Manufacturing will allow our Moon base to become self sufficient in spare parts at a relatively early stage.

Bioplastics are plastics made from renewable biomass sources, such as vegetable starch or microbes, rather than petroleum as traditional plastics are made from. Obviously we don’t expect to find petroleum on the Moon but by growing crops to produce plastic we will be able to produce our own plastic.

When combined with Desk Top Manufacturing bioplastics will allow us to manufacture a large number of different items, from spare parts for equipment to every day objects such as cups and plates, and so reduce the amount of items we will need to import from Earth. Importing stuff from Earth will be very expensive and in the initial phases of our Moon base we expect our budgets tom be exceedingly tight.

Bioplastic is also biodegradable and so used parts, and items such as broken plates, can be added to our composting system and used to grow new plants. Thus we can completely recycle components and items from everyday use. This also means that if items imported from Earth are also made from biodegradable bioplastic we can use them to increase the biomass of the Moon base.

All in all bioplastics are good for the long term success of our Moon base and all plastic items used in all stages of the Moon base development, right from day one, should be made from bioplastic so that used and broken equipment can be recycled and added to the amount of Biomass on the Moon.

It is important to maximize the amount of biomass added to the Moon base in order to create as big an ecosystem as possible for our CELSS. The bigger the ecosystem the more robust it will be, and remember our ultimate goal is not an “arctic research station on the Moon”, but a city and an entire country, so we will need really big ecosystems to support tens of thousands, if not millions, of people.

By maximizing our use of bioplastic in our designs even for the first mission we will help our long term goal of building a new country by firstly reducing the amount of mass that has to be expensively imported from Earth, and secondly “dual purposing” that mass as biodegradable plastic that can be added to our CELSS.