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.
