The moon rotates on its axis only once in every 27 days.
So, while there are about 13 24-hour periods of "day" and 13 24-hour periods of "night",
there is no atmoshphere to spread the temperature around, thus meaning that when the
temperature changes, it can change very quickly and by a huge, 250 degree Fahrenheit
(107 C) margin!
When temperature increases, pressure
increases and vise versa. So, any enclosure on the moon would have to take
precautions.
Whatever precautions any permanent enclosure
on the moon will ultimately take will probably be related to existing technology. Today,
astronauts' spacesuits--small and mobile space enclosures--use layeres of fabric,
reflective materials and internal cooling systems to combat these temperature and
pressure fluctuations.
There have already been some
preliminary studies done by contractors seeking NASA contracts for lunar enclosures.
Some of these are available in pdf form from the NASA Technical Reports
Server.
One such report recommends using liquid hydrogen
cooling plates and heat-sink/radiator technology--much like the CPU on your computer is
cooled using a heat sink that absorbs the heat generated by your CPU, transfers that
energy to a cold plate and then allows it to radiate a way passively or with the aid of
a fan.
A complete pdf copy of this report may be found at:
href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=512684&id=2&as=false&or=false&qs=Ntt%3Dlunar%2Benclosure%26Ntk%3Dall%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ns%3DHarvestDate%257c1%26N%3D0">Lunar
PMAD technology assessment
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