Airbus - Habitat on the Moon V1

The following a single lesson in a larger series of Airbus - Discovery Space - Living on the moon tutorials

Project Overview:

Imagine being able to travel into space. Training for months to blast off into outer space and visit the international space station or walk on the moon. Imagine living and working on the moon looking back at the earth every morning when you wake up. In this project you will learn how to use Tinkercad to try and realise these dreams. Follow a series of steps in this tutorial to design and build a housing pod for your space exploration mission. Once you have learnt the basics try and complete a creative challenge to make your housing pod a feat of engineering. Enjoy.

In this lesson you will learn how to build a housing pod for your space exploration.

You will need to follow all of the Airbus tutorials to design and build your basics for your space mission. Once you are comfortable with the skills learnt feel free to be as creative as you wish using the challenges to apadt and build your own space exploration components in Tinkercad.

Instructions

1. Continue to the next step

Before you begin, take a moment to look at and identify the shapes in the model.

This will help you mentally create a plan of how the model should be created. The entire housing pod is built from a range of different shapes, including a Cylinder, Wedge, Icosahedron, Box, Polygon, Sphere and Text.

Instructions

1. Continue to the next step.

We will start by creating the entrance of your housing pod. You will use this section of the model to build the rest of your housing pod.

Instructions

1. Drag a wedge onto the Work plane and edit the dimensions to the following measurements; 12 (L) x 6 (W) x 6 (H).

2. Drag a Icosahedron onto the Work plane and edit the dimensions to the following measurements; 15 (L) x 15 (W) x 6 (H).

3. Drag a box hole onto the Work plane and edit the dimensions to the following measurements; 20 (L) x 20 (W) x 6 (H).

4. Align the box hole and the icosahedron and group them together. This will remove the bottom half of your first housing pod.

5. Align the ramp (wedge) with the new shape created in the previous instruction to complete the fist part of the housing pod.

6. Continue to the next step.

We will now be creating the first wing of your housing pod. This will be used to build the rest of your housing pod.

Instructions

1. Drag a polygon onto the Work plane and edit the dimensions to the following measurements; 5 (L) x 5 (W) x 20 (H). Rotate the polygon 90 degrees.

2. Make sure the ramp and first housing pod are locked in position. Now align the polygon with the centre of the housing pod and ramp.

3. Use the black arrow to pull the polygon off the work plane by 8mm.

4. Continue to the next step.

We will now be creating the first wing of your housing pod. This will be used to build the rest of your housing pod.

Instructions

1. Drag a cylinder onto the Work plane and edit the dimensions to the following measurements; 2.5 (L) x 2.5 (W) x 6 (H).

2. Use the view cube to change to the bottom view to make this instruction easier. Move the cylinder into place under the housing pod.

3. Copy and paste the cylinder from the previous instruction 2 more times, so that you have 3 supporting columns underneath your housing pod. Use your keyboard arrows and the work plane grid to evenly space your columns out. Once you have the desired position for your columns lock them in place.

4. Change the colours of the housing pod and ramp to suit the materials/space theme you are wanting to achieve in this tutorial.

5. Continue to the next step.

We will now be creating the second wing of your housing pod. This will be leading the way to the control centre and will house bunk beds for your astronauts.

Instructions

1. Firstly, make sure you unlock all components from the previous step. Select all the components apart from the ramp and copy and paste the first wing. This will save considerable amount of time as we continue modelling this housing pod.

2. Make sure all the first wing is locked again, so it doesn't move as you model the rest of the housing pods.

3. Select the pasted 'second' pod and rotate it 90 degrees CCW.

4. Align the second pod with the first pod. Use your keyboards arrows to edit the position of the second pod until you are happy with the position. Once in position lock all of the second pod and wing.

5. Continue to the next step.

We will now be creating the second wing of your housing pod. This will be leading the way to the control centre and will house bunk beds for your astronauts.

Instructions

1. Drag a sphere onto the Work plane and edit the dimensions to the following measurements; 36 (L) x 36 (W) x 36 (H). In the shape options change the shape 'steps' to 18.

2. Use the work plane grid and the align tool to place the control room into the correct place attaches to the second wing on your model. The keyboards come in handy here. Use the 'edit grid' option to change how accurately you want to move the component with your keyboard arrows.

3. Use the shape colour options to select a colour that best represents the material choice you are making for your control room. Lock the shape in position.

4. Continue to the next step.

We will now be creating the third and fourth pods of your housing pod. These are the final parts of the housing structure.

Instructions

1. Select all the components of the first and second pod. Now copy and paste them onto your work plane.

2. While all the shapes are selected, use the flip tool so that the new shape mirrors the first and second pods you copied and pasted in the first instruction.

3. Use your keyboard arrows to move the pods so they sit symmetrically with the other housing pods. Once you are happy with the position lock the components in place.

4. Continue to the next step.

As the first inhabitants on the moon, you need to name your housing pods. This will enable you to expand your housing/amenities as you build up a community on the moon.

Instructions

1. Drag a rectangle onto the work plane and edit the dimensions to the following measurements; 2 (L) x 20 (W) x 20 (H). In the shape menu change the radius of the edges to '2mm'.

2. Change the colour of your sign to represent the material selection for this part of your housing pod.

3. Align your sign with the control room of your housing pod and raise the sign to a position you are happy with. Once you have done this group the control room and your sign together.

4. Continue to the next step.

As the first inhabitants on the moon, you need to name your housing pods. This will enable you to expand your housing/amenities as you build up a community on the moon.

Instructions

1. Drag text onto your work plane, select the font you like and change the text to the name you would like to call your housing pods - in this instances the first word is space.

2. Resize the text to approx. 4 (W) x 9 (L). Rotate the text 90 degrees so that the text is in the same orientation as your sign created in the previous step.

3. Use the Align tool to line up your text with the sign and use the keyboard arrows to arrange your text into the correct place.

4. Repeat the instructions above to create more text if your name requires this. In this instance I have used 'station' as my second word.

5. Once you have all the text in the correct place use the shape tool to change the colour of your text to make it stand out from your sign.

6. Continue to the next step.

Well done on completing this tutorial. Now you should use all the skills covered in this tutorial to design and model your very own housing pods.

Things you could consider;

What ammenitities do you need on your trip?

How many pods will you need? Why?

How will you access the housing pods?

Be imaginative and enjoy modelling your own housing pod!

TOO INFINITY AND BEYOND!