The Module

Our next step is to come up with a module. The idea is: if you have a limited number of "primitives" with a set of rules governing how they interact, you have boundaries to work within. Examples include music, where in the Western scale we recombine twelve tones with a time matrix. And language, where a set number of sounds are recombined to create words, which are further modified by grammar.

Dafne and I talked about the nature of building. In the videos on robotic, self-building structures, we noticed that there were two aspects to pay attention to. These aspects are the JOINT and the FILL. Essentially, Tinkertoys (a Playskool product).

Your FILL can be as dumb as you like. It can be a stick, or a plane - something structural. The Fill and Joint work together to make a system.

We saw some robotics which were, essentially, a very fancy set of joints and fills. These robots could find each other, lock together to make form, move across each other cooperatively. The fills, in turn, could be compartments for other mechanisms or walls. It was pretty keen. The downside of these smart joints is how much effort goes into making them smart. How much coding does it take to get them to find each other, navigate, climb and assemble into shapes?

Here is where I plug architect and smarty-pants, A Scott Howe. Check out his website: http://bureau.west.cmu.edu/~ash/

We started bouncing ideas off of each other. What would be robust, expandable systems which would be transported efficiently AND/OR easily fabricated AND/OR self-replicating?

The problem with the moon is getting stuff there. But once there, solar energy is abundant. There is no life, so environmental concerns are minimal (within reason- we probably want to preserve a water table, if there is one).

Also keep in mind that gravity is 1/6th that of earth. Structures won't need to resist as much force, so building elements can be much smaller than our typical trabeated construction. This opens the door for tensile structures - why use a girder when a cable will do?

This also means that joints, typically being weak points in construction, will be less of a concern. I mean, on earth, a structure made of joints would be pretty weak. But if we use the same materials with 1/6th the load to support, that weakness is less of an issue.