BSA to open out-of-this-world high-adventure base in 2019
Fifty years — to the day — after an Eagle Scout was the first human to set foot on the moon, the Boy Scouts of America will create a permanent high-adventure base there.
Tranquility High Adventure Base — the fifth jewel in BSA’s high-adventure crown — will open July 20, 2019.
It’ll be tough to top the BSA’s four earthly high-adventure bases. Everyone should try to visit Northern Tier, Philmont, Sea Base or the Summit Bechtel Reserve at least once in their lives.
But I’ve seen the artist renderings released to the public today, and I’m stunned. Tranquility is, quite literally, out of this world.
Sure, Tranquility will have just 17 percent of the gravity of the other bases. But it’ll have approximately 83 percent of the fun.
Here’s what we know so far about Tranquility High Adventure Base.
Getting to Tranquility
Tranquility’s geographic coordinates are 00°41′15″ N, 23°26′00″ E.
Note: These are lunar coordinates — not Earth coordinates. To the team from Phillips Space Construction Corp. that tried to drive to these coordinates and ended up the Congo, the BSA would like to apologize for the miscommunication.
Now’s probably a good time to remind you that one cannot drive a car to Tranquility High Adventure Base. Because it is on the moon.
So how will you get there? As with all high-adventure bases, visitors are responsible for their own transportation. Bon voyage!
Once in space, consult the following highly detailed map to find your way to Tranquility.
Tranquility’s 12 domes
Tranquility High Adventure Base comprises 12 pressurized domes. The domes are “oxygenated and gravitated,” according to the designers’ schematics. In English, that means Scouts and Venturers can walk around inside without wearing a space suit.
Each dome is named after one of the 12 men who have walked on the moon — 11 of whom were Scouts.
There are nine domes for housing, two for activities and one that stores sewage and trash.
The activity domes are named for the two Eagle Scouts who have walked on the moon: Neil Armstrong and Charles Duke. The nine housing domes are named after the nine other moonwalkers who have a Scouting background. And yes, that trash dome will be named for the one moonwalker who wasn’t a Scout. Sorry, famous astronaut James Irwin.
Each residential dome sleeps about 150 people, meaning when Tranquility is running at max capacity it can house 1,200 participants and 150 staffers.
Fun fact: Tranquility also has a minimum capacity. It is designed to operate in the offseason with just a single crewmember, as long as that crewmember is Matt Damon.
What you’ll do at Tranquility
Scouts choose to go to the moon not because it is easy but because it is hard.
Nothing is easy at a BSA high-adventure base, and Tranquility is no exception.
Take the orienteering course, for example. Earth compasses won’t work on the moon because the moon has no consistent magnetic field. So imagine the fun Scouts will have trying to navigate to the Descartes Crater with a worthless compass.
Other highlights:
- Get stellar views of Earth from the top of the climbing tower
- Fly down the Little Zip zip line (a smaller replica of the Summit Bechtel Reserve’s Big Zip)
- Skip moon rocks across John Glenn Lake
- Earn Space Exploration merit badge just by showing up
Compass/orienterring
— climbing, hiking, zip-lining, swimming —
For the BSA to open its next high-adventure base on the moon makes sense when you consider that 10 of the 12 men who have walked on the moon’s surface have a Scouting background.
The activities
The food
Transportation
The patch
The two primary domes are named after the two moonwalking Eagle Scouts — Neil Armstrong and Charles Duke.
There’s also Edgar Mitchell Lake and David Scott River — named after those Life Scout moonwalkers.
Other buildings bear the names of other former Scouts who stepped on the moon’s surface.
Tranquility High Adventure Base will be located in the Sea of Tranquility — not far from where Apollo 11 crewmembers landed on July 20, 1969.
Base renderings by Marcie Rodriguez. Patch design by Kevin Hurley.