Ailiailia wrote:
This simple method occurred to me while walking up to the shops. Pretend the soil behaves like a liquid. That's the worst case scenario.
Lunar gravity is 1/6 of earth gravity
Lunar "soil" is 3 times the density of water.
Depth of water to add 1 atmosphere of pressure. Turns out it's 10 metres almost exactly.
Lunar atmosphere adds negligible pressure.
10 m ÷ 3 x 6 = 20 meters of soil.
I'm not sure if that's enough. So you could use higher pressure inside (2 atm, 40 meters) or perhaps bring some glue and after inflating the dome, slather the outside with lunar concrete. Then cover it over.
That is actually... practical! Twenty metres is a lot of protection from cosmic rays and micrometeorites, and enough to ameliorate temperature changes.
That said, I'm a bit fan of natural lava tube caves - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_lava_tube
Because I'm lazy and moving dirt is too much like hard work, even with robots.
If we could find a lava tube near the poles, it could become humanity's first permanent base offworld.
Even if we had to name it "Sarkozyville" or "Putinburg" to get the funding, it would be worth it...