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.

Wired magazine reports that NASA's moon base project may set off a race to the moon for nuclear fuel. The moon is rich in Helium-3, which can be used to power nuclear fusion reactors. The Fusion Technology Institute headed by Harrison Hagan Schmitt and Gerald Kulcinski have produced a small helium-3 fusion reactor in a basketball sized device. The device continually provided about one milliwatt of power.