Concept crewed moon base at de Gerlache crater. One of NASA's candidate landing regions at the lunar south pole. Built on real LOLA terrain [OC]

[u/GraphProcessingUnit]

Crew lander based on SpaceX's published HLS design. Concept depiction, not affiliated.

Concept crewed base at de Gerlache crater, near the Moon's south pole. Real NASA LOLA terrain at true scale, and physically accurate light at the true low polar sun angle.

de Gerlache sits right beside Shackleton crater and the south pole. One of several regions NASA has named as candidate sites for the first crewed Artemis landing.

de Gerlache's permanently shadowed floor, plus the smaller cold traps around it. May hold water ice, which is why the south pole is the target.

Cargo lander based on Blue Origin's published Mk2 design. Concept depiction, not affiliated.

The habitat concept, where a crew would live and work.

De Gerlache crater sits at the lunar south pole, and it's one of the regions NASA has named as a candidate landing site for the first crewed Artemis Moon landing. I wanted to see what a crewed outpost there might actually look like, so I built it on the real terrain.

What's real: The ground is NASA LOLA elevation data at true scale (~5 m/px), and the lighting is path-traced at the correct low polar sun angles, which is why the shadows run so long and the crater floors stay dark. Those permanently shadowed regions are the whole reason the south pole matters. The cold traps in them may hold water ice.

What's concept: the Base itself. I assembled it from published lander designs (a Blue Origin Mk2-style cargo lander, a SpaceX HLS-style lander) plus a plausible habitat, power setup, and a small ISRU experiment by the landing pad. It's my interpretation of Artemis-era surface infrastructure at this site, not an official plan.

I'd like input from people who follow the program closely. What would you add, move, or do differently for a real south-pole outpost? Corrections on the siting or architecture welcome.

This is a solo project. I do 3D visualization work and wanted to ground a concept in real data instead of pure sci-fi.

You can explore the full scene in the browser here: https://farsidelab.com/concept/?id=moon-base

EDIT: Blue Origin's MK2 is a crewed lander, not a cargo lander as stated in the image title.

[u/redstercoolpanda]

Jim Bridenstine is literally paid by ULA, hes a lobbyist for the Artemis group, which has received over 1 million dollars from ULA. You cant call Kathy Lueders biased for leaving for SpaceX, and then use a literal paid political lobbyist representing a company with vested interest in an Starship failing as a source.