When the first thing that came to mind was Habbo Hotel?

To remember the puncture repair kit?

Like a bouncy castle, only more sophisticated.

(Okay, the Latin's probably bollox, but it's the thought that counts.)

"Game of darts anyone?"

on the moon then. I wouldn't want to live in something with no protection against physical impact (I suppose solar radiation has been dealt with !!!)

*roll up sleeves*

*step up to mike*

"Trojan Moon Intruder.

Ribbed for your satisfaction; Hermetically sealed for your protection.

Before you begin your final descent on a frequently bombarded celestial body, make sure you have your Trojan Moon Intruder!"

Thank you. Thank you. My coat? Thank you. Good night to you all..

Does it have any windows - of the useful looking out of sort?

I imagine they'll build a shield over the top. It's probably easier to construct an impact shield above a structure than make the entire structure impact proof. They could even partially bury it, like a kind of space anderson shelter.

Or maybe they have a really cool laser defense system in mind. I have no idea.

Fart Cathedral, because you couldn't open a window to let the smell out and the ribbed walls look sort of like the interior of some cathedrals.

I mean really, what are the chances of getting a mortgage for a moon house?

The only name for a moon balloon!

"no protection against physical impact"

It's bouncy!!!

WTF do you propose they build!?!? For god's sake - what is going to stand up to something that blows chunks out of the moon's surface?

Don't forget they've got to get this bloody thing there - as the article says, there's a 125kg overhead for every kilo they get there; launching a 10in reinforced steel bunker (lead lined) is *not* an option!

...Hubble Bubble.

I can just see hundreds of people at NASA smaking there forheads right now. "Oh shit. We forgot. This is a moon landing, not a holiday camp"...

Im sure they have thought of such things.

what _will_ the toast king have to say about it?

And so this must be called 'Mr Windypants'

However if it were up to me I'd probably go for 'iSchlocker', with apologies to Mr Abrams.

"mobile oppression palace"

500 quatloos to the man who identifies the source of the above!

Or "Lunaloon"?

They spent tons of cash developing a space pen, but forgot about a little something called a pencil. Sure they remembered a little detail like impacts.

Hmm I suspect being in a vacuum this model of the Mobile Opression Palace would show up much better on an infra red missile than the original model, though you'd need to adjust the fuel system to run in a vacuum too.

Mine's the one with the FingLonger on the back.

Results 1 - 10 of about 126,000 for "mobile oppression palace" with Safesearch on.

(0.34 seconds) ...

*yawn*

Futurama?

Meteor Protection: The NASA have tested multi-layer fabric modules and found that they are more protective Kg for Kg than metal because the resiliency dissipates the energy from micro meteorites. Tests for the TransHab have confirmed this.

Big ones are infrequent these days and, as mentioned in a previous post, there is no feasible protection.

Oppression Palace: Futurama "A Taste of Freedom".

Yes, I *know* it's a schlep, just do it!

To send a rocket to the moon these days? Didn't India just manage it for £45 million? Thats peanuts compared to what NASA have sitting in a coffer. Surely they can afford to put an inflatable millenium dome complete with hot tubs, a sushi bar and a roller coaster for less than a billion?

"lunetastic castle of joy" - that'd be my choice title.

iBlow...?

http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp

Myth Busted.

"Moonbounce"

http://www.google.com/search?q=moonbounce

Paris, cause she's also bouncy.

"The Rabbit on the Moon lives in a bounce house."

"The bounce house is rubbery."

"It puffs up when you blow into it."

Inflatable insularium

Astro auditorium

My First Moon Base

Big bag O'Astronauts

OK, OK, I'm going, quit pushing!

MOONBASE ALPHA?????????

D'ahh, f'crissakes, it should be pretty obvious to any parent who's taken their kid out on any kind of party outing... it's the friggin' "MOON BOUNCE"!!

Surely it should be "Selloon" for Selenic Balloon.

ObJoke: "Two yanks walk into the selloon..." ^_-

TAN: "All your (moon) base are belong to us".

SUNBURN: And where will the Interceptors reside?

My guess is that they risk it. As noted by Chris Richards any form of shielding would probably be too heavy. I further estimate that the risk of actually getting hit by rocks is fairly small. How often do you hear about satellites being knocked down by meteors? It is a fair amount of them up there, and they are not protected. They get hit with space debris all the time, but that is a local manmade problem, not a lunar problem. Furthermore they will probably settle on the side of the moon facing the earth so they will get some shielding from the earth. How much I have no data on, but I guessing it would be quite a bit, at least from rocks falling straight down. It is quite a long time ago the "lakes" on the moon were created, and it isn't covered up with craters yet. If they want some shielding from other angles they can always dig up a ditch to place it in, or build in fairly deep crater.

So to sum up, my guess is that they risk it, but that the risk is fairly small and can be lowered by other means than physical shielding. Any NASA dudes care to correct me?