Whatever cities on the moon become, they won't be sleepy little hick towns.

The top tourist destinations of the 22nd century, the lunar bases of the future, will be entertainment meccas for the world, offering low-gravity games of skill and of chance, sports and recreation of every imaginable sort and continuous splendid views of Earth.

Mines and factories there could be the supply stations for various metals and gear needed for exploration efforts farther out in the solar system, and sophisticated observatories on the "far side" of the moon may take advantage of the two-week lunar nights to make spectacular astronomical observations of the cosmos.

Richard Seabra's lunar city "Tranquility" would house 5,000 inhabitants, offering them splendid views of Earth and great hiking.

To say that Seabra is designing lunar cities understates his work. It is more that he's designing the guidelines for lunar construction. He is creating the master plans for development and colonization of the moon.

The pursuit grew out of an almost involuntary sketching that he used to do of futuristic lunar settlements. Having grown up in Brasilia, Brazil from the time he was seven, Seabra developed a knack for design. An exercise in complete urban engineering, Brasilia was touted as the "city of the future" when it was begun in the late 1950s.

"Brasilia made me into a designer," Seabra said. "All during my teenage years I was redesigning Brasilia because it was too flawed. I grew up in a utopian vision that was all wrong."

It may have been flawed, but it was certainly focused on the future. That focus led Seabra toward thinking about moon bases and the colonization of space, but with a strong desire to get it right.

One of the features of a moon town that would give it a good deal of livability, Seabra said, is a complex for sports and the arts. He imagines an arena that would host a lunar Olympics. Some of the events would be the traditional games from Earth, perhaps modified for the lower lunar gravity (e.g., heavier javelins, higher basketball hoops), but other games would be entirely new, developed specifically for the moon.

The Lunar Olympiad would bring loads of visitors skyward to watch and participate in the annual event. Low-gravity dance, theatre performance and variety shows would showcase talents impossible on Earth.

With gravity just one-sixth as strong as it is on Earth, keeping in good physical shape would be a major concern for those spending anything more than several days at a time on the moon. In order to maximize the amount of exercise that all lunar inhabitants get, Seabra has eliminated mechanized or mass transportation from his cities. Stairs are tall, and buildings are spread out so that people are forced to exercise just to move around the city.

For speedy travel, "moonies" would use skipping halls -- long hallways with tall, vaulted ceilings where people could jump up to a fast skip, leaping along great distances. Large nets would likely hang at intersections to prevent collisions and slow out-of-control skippers.

SPACE.com talked recently with Richard Seabra about his planned lunar cities, and how design could be advanced on the moon.

SPACE.com:
How would architecture be changed in a zero-gravity environment, or in an environment like the moon where gravity is much weaker than on Earth?

SEABRA:
I think you can be more audacious in design. I think what future architects should think a lot about is the loosening of so many limitations. So for example, on the moon, there's no wind. You can make an extremely tall building that won't sway.

I think views are going to be very important on the moon. If you're going to go to the moon, then you want to know you're on the moon. So I think it would be nice to have very tall buildings so you have views way off into the distance, so you have a large view of the moon. You can be more audacious with height, you can be more audacious with spans, suspended areas. Architecture could just really skyrocket. It could be really beautiful on the moon.

I tend to think more of form follows emotion, or form follows the spirit, as opposed to form follows function on the moon. Because the spirit and emotion -- you're really going to have to cater to those two things on the moon. You're just so far away from home. And it's just so adverse up there, the conditions. Open up a window and you're dead. I would imagine that staying up there for a long time could cause a person a lot of anguish and a lot of homesickness. So I've always built into the design of these cities relief to these aspects of being away from home.

SPACE.com:
What kind of features would help a person to overcome these feelings of despair?

SEABRA:
I think a view of the Earth is very important. To always have it in view. This is why I design each city like a Greek Mediterranean city -- a terraced city like those towns you see that spill down cliffs into the sea. That's the basic principle behind these designs. Instead of keeping the cities down in valleys, keeping them horizontal or making them look like a mall essentially so that only people on the perimeter have views to the outside, I've terraced them up against hills and mountains so that every floor of the city will have a view to the outside, will have a window. And obviously you'll be able to see the Earth.

SPACE.com:
And you're not afraid that that view of Earth all the time will make people feel homesick?

SEABRA:
That's why a view of the spaceport -- the airport -- is also very important. That should also be in view, within a couple kilometers off in the distance. This gives you a sense of a way to get out. Just there in your subconscious, The view of another city -- a twin city is also very important.

It gives you an alternative. And also, just in case you have a catastrophe, some major catastrophe in one city, you can evacuate people and send them to the other. So the view of a place to go is very important, I think, psychologically. I think that's very important: a little emerald city off in the distance, kind of glistening in the night.

I would say those are the most important aspects. Whatever design you choose to carry out, I think those guidelines should be followed no matter what design you use, no matter what architect you get.

Only one architect is allowed to design for one, let's say neighborhood. But not the whole city. I grew up in a city that was designed by one man.

I lived 17 years in Brasilia, and I tend to think of it as a design dictatorship. Everywhere you go you see the hand of one man. We lived in habitational sectors, not neighborhoods. It was a very sci-fi city. My address was Northern Individual Habitational Sector, Internal Quadrant 8, Conjunction 10, House 27. That was my address growing up. It doesn't have to be that way.

And for something as big as a lunar project -- instead of giving it to one privileged person to design, give it to a commission of architects, and let each one interpret their vision of what a lunar city should be and separate those visions into neighborhoods, maybe. So at least there's some variation.

SPACE.com:
Have you actually surveyed the sites and chosen mountain slopes that you have fit your plans to?

SEABRA:
No, that I still haven't done. There are some mountains that the Apollo missions had visited that are really beautiful, beautiful areas. But through the pictures I still haven't surveyed the perfect places.

I think more in terms of latitude on the moon is most important. Because depending on the latitude a city is at, the Earth will be in a nicer view. If you're on the equator of the moon, the Earth will be directly overhead when it's in the sky. And you won't have that Earth within your field of view if you're just standing talking to somebody. I think it would be better to have the moon at a 45 degree angle. So you need to go up to higher latitudes to keep the Earth closer to the horizon.

SPACE.com:
What about Mars?

SEABRA:
I'm all for going to Mars, I'm totally for it. But as a designer, I'm just not into building for Mars. I think it's just too far. I'm too into the views of Earth. I want to go into space to see Earth. From the moon, the Earth should be pretty beautiful, because in the sky it should be about four times as big as the moon looks from Earth. Mars is too far. Earth is going to be just a little star.

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