Artificial cave

Automated mine drilling

Drilling an artificial cave 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 be stabilized. For automated construction the usage of segmented rings can be considered, made from sintered regolith or concrete.

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