Apollo Lunar Module Shelter

Apollo LM Shelter

Mission Profile

Apollo Lunar Module Shelter was a concept from the late 1960s for converting an Apollo Lunar Module descent stage into a pre-positioned surface habitat, delivered robotically to a lunar base site before crew arrival to provide additional pressurized living and storage space. Rather than carrying the crew cabin of the standard LM, the Shelter variant would carry supplies, equipment, and habitation volume activatable by astronauts through a connecting hatch, substantially extending duration and scope of surface operations. Like other ambitious post-Apollo concepts, the LM Shelter was never developed as NASA's lunar program was curtailed after Apollo 17 before extended-stay missions requiring such infrastructure were attempted.