Artificial cave

Automated mine drilling

Drilling an artificial cave, or tunnel habitat, is a concept to create room for an artificial habitat. If no usable natural caves are found an artificial tunnel can be drilled into a rock mountain. The walls of the tunnel must probably be stabilized. For automated construction, the usage of segmented rings or arch segments can be considered, made from sintered regolith or concrete. Sprayed foam could also be used to stabilize the walls.

sectional view of a tunnel, used as a greenhouse

For example, a tunnel with a diameter of 5 meters is drilled. The stabilization reduces the diameter to 4 meters. Thermal insulation leads to another reduction to approx. 3 meters. With such a tunnel of 1 km length it should be possible to build an underground greenhouse to feed 10 people.

Though the drilling requires a high sophisticated digging machine this concept allows the creation of virtually unlimited room with best protection against radiation and meteorites. Once the drill is in place the process is continual and easy to be remote controlled and is, therefore, considered to be part of the unmanned setup of a whole settlement.

It is also possible to use a roadheader type of machine to dig a non circular tunnel that might provide a more habitable shape. Roadheaders and tunnel boring machines can reach production levels of 30m3 per hour and more, depending on a large number of variable such as stone hardness and stone quality. A single unit may be capable of digging out 60 000 m3 per year or better.