MSNBC published a neat article outlining what is being done to design habitats for the moon colony. NASA's Constellation Program Office seems to be coordinating the effort.

The main thrust of the lunar habitat projects are inflatable dwellings. The reason for this is that the planned payload of the Orion ships are only 13,000 pounds. Space Station modules, which are apparently the only other option for lunar habitats, weigh up to 30,000 pounds.

Beyond talks with Lockheed and Boeing, NASA is talking with several other private contractors to help design and possibly build these inflatable habitats. One company is Bigelow Aerospace, who has already launched one of their inflatable habitat designs into orbit, and has a second test launch planned for April, 2007. The second company is ILC Dover. They have built a prototype for a NASA funded test in Antarctica.

Remember how I said that I wanted to know more about the material being used by Norman Foster in the Astana tent project in Kazakhstan? Well, I took the extraordinary step of looking it up. Turns out that the material is called ETFE (Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene). It has been used in some other similar applications around the world - notably the Eden Project and a few sports stadiums. Evidently it is very lightweight and relatively strong, making it a good material where the transparency of glass is needed, but weight is an issue. People also use this material in the creation of greenhouses.

Who gave Kazakhstan all that money?

Kazakhstan is building a huge tent in their capital, Astana. The tent is supposed to trap in heat from the sun to keep the temperature inside some 60°F above the ambient outdoor temperature. One of the keys to this giant tent is a 'special material that abosorbs sunlight to creat the effect of summer inside.' I really want to find out more about this 'special material'. Not only is it transparent, but apparently it is very strong - or at least I assume that it is.