Event Date
As a part of NASA’s Artemis program to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon, NASA will need to design and construct infrastructure to enable lunar exploration and science. The planned Artemis basecamp is anticipated to include infrastructure that will need to be supported by compacted regolith surfaces designed to resist all anticipated loads with appropriate factors of safety. Protection of these infrastructure elements from seismic activity (moonquakes) is paramount to ensure life safety, resilience, and mission objectives. While terrestrial civil engineering design will provide a baseline for lunar building and construction, new models need to be developed and tested to ensure appropriate resilience of lunar structures. As a part of evaluating the loads anticipated for these structures, Slate worked to develop estimates of seismic loading and hazard through the development of a lunar ground motion model and subsequently performing probabilistic and deterministic hazard analysis.
Biographies
Debra Murphy is one of the co-founders of Slate Geotechnical Consultants has almost 20 years of experience performing earthquake and geotechnical engineering projects throughout, CA, the US and abroad. Debra graduated with a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania and a MS in Geosystems from UC Berkeley. Katrina Watkins has over 11 years of experience working in geotechnical engineering consulting and specializes in urban infill development and seismic design. Katrina graduated with her BS in Civil Engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and her MS in Geosystems from UC Berkeley.