Tag Archives: Space architecture

Science

Upcoming Lunar Space Station to Feature Tiny Living Quarters

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An illustration of the lunar gateway in orbit around the Moon.
Illustration: NASA

Architects designing the living space for the upcoming lunar Gateway did their best to make it comfortable for astronauts, but technical constraints forced them to create a tiny, noisy corridor with no windows and barely enough room to stand upright.

The European-built international habitat, or I-Hab, is meant to provide living quarters for astronauts on board the Lunar Gateway, a future outpost that will orbit the Moon. The purpose of Gateway, a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and other international partners, is to provide a place for astronauts to conduct science in lunar orbit and to transfer from one spacecraft to another, such as a lunar lander. But an architect involved in I-Hab’s design recently revealed the claustrophobic conditions for the orbital habitat that’s supposed to house up to four astronauts for around 90 days at a time.

Related story: What to Know About Lunar Gateway, NASA’s Future Moon-Orbiting Space Station

During the Czech Space Week conference in Brno, Czechia (the country formerly known as the Czech Republic), René Waclavicek, a space architect and design researcher at Austria-based LIQUIFER Space Systems, stated that the Lunar Gateway will be roughly one-sixth of the size of the International Space Station (ISS), Space.com reported. Waclavicek, who was involved in I-Hab’s design, said that the architects behind the lunar living quarters were constrained by the amount of material that can be transported to the Moon, requiring them to make some sacrifices.

I-Hab “will have habitable space of about 8 cubic meters [280 cubic feet] and you will have to share it with three others,” Waclavicek said during the conference. “In other words, that would be a room 2 by 2 by 2 meters [6.6 by 6.6 by 6.6 feet], and you are locked in there.”

By comparison, the ISS stretches for about 357 feet (108 meters) from end-to-end, and is essentially a five-bedroom orbital complex complete with a gym, two bathrooms, and a 360-degree window with an enviable view of our home planet.

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A view of the Moon wouldn’t be bad either, except I-Hab won’t be equipped with the same luxury. “We always get asked ‘where is the window?’,” Waclavicek said. “The moon is a thousand times farther away [than the ISS] and each window is a disturbance in the continuity of the structure. Also, glass is very heavy so a window is the first thing that gets canceled.” The Gateway will have windows, although not in the living quarters. Instead, the refueling module ESPRIT will have small windows, according to Waclavicek.

With an extremely curtailed view of the surrounding cosmos, the astronauts will have a hard time relaxing during their downtime—especially as they’re being serenaded by the robotic hum of onboard machinery. “Actually, you are living in a machine room,” Waclavicek said. “The life-support systems make noise, they have a lot of fans, and you have [a tiny amount] of private space where you can close the door and tame the noise.”

The architect admits that they began with a design for larger living quarters but had to shrink it down due to mass restrictions for the lunar outpost. As a result, astronauts will be cramped inside a tiny tube for the duration of their mission around the Moon. “[The I-Hab] really is just a cylinder with a hatch on each end and two hatches at the sides and a corridor going through the length axis,” he said. “Even if you want to pass one another, it’s already quite difficult, you have to interrupt whatever you are doing in the moment to let the other [person] pass by you.” It will be a cramped environment, no doubt, but it’s important to remember that a capsule, namely NASA’s Orion spacecraft, will be attached to the Gateway station during these missions, which will allow for some added elbow room. Lunar landers, such as SpaceX’s upcoming Starship, will also dock to Gateway.

NASA’s Artemis program is officially underway, having kicking off in November 2022 with the launch of Artemis 1. Unlike Apollo, Artemis is designed to establish a sustainable presence of astronauts on and around the Moon, with the Lunar Gateway being an essential part of the mission objective.

The first components of the Lunar Gateway could reach orbit as early as 2024, but I-Hab isn’t expected to make it up there until 2027. The living quarters may not sound like it would provide for a pleasant experience on board, but it will likely contribute some valuable science on Earth’s natural satellite and beyond.

More: Texas Company Wins $57 Million From NASA to Develop Lunar Construction Tech

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Science

You Can Help NASA Get to Mars

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Photo: JACK GUEZ (Getty Images)

NASA—the National Aeronautics and Space Administration,—would like to send astronauts to Mars, and it needs your help to do so. Especially if you have a novel solution to the problem of recycling waste in space.

NASA’s tournament lab and HeroX’s newly launched “Waste to Base” challenge is looking for suggestions on how to “recycle, repurpose, or reprocess” waste material—specifically trash, fecal waste, foam packaging material, and carbon dioxide—during a two to three year mission to the Red Planet. Ideally, space-trash will be converted into base material like propellant or feedstock for 3D printing.

“The challenge is looking for your ideas for how to convert different waste streams into propellant, and into useful materials, that can then be made into needed things and cycled through multiple times. While a perfectly efficient cycle is unlikely, ideal solutions will result in little to no waste,” NASA/SpaceX says on the challenge website.

How to enter NASA and SpaceX’s Waste to Base challenge

Entering the challenge is easy. Just head to the Waste to Base Materials Challenge: Sustainable Reprocessing in Space page, log in, and show those rocket scientists who’s a real genius. The challenge is open to any individual or team in the world, as long as everyone involved is over 18 and lives in a jurisdiction that is not under United States federal sanctions.

This isn’t an anything-goes kind of project. NASA is looking for (vaguely) practical ideas, so make sure your blue space-recycling-bin design is no bigger than a refrigerator and can work in zero gravity environments. Check out the guidelines page for more details and for a fascinating look at the problems waste creates during a long space mission.

What do I get out of helping some astronauts recycle their space-waste?

If potentially helping Humanity’s first interplanetary mission deal with astronauts’ troublesome poo and pee in a responsible manner isn’t enough incentive, NASA and SpaceX are giving out $24,000 in prize money, with individual prizes up to $1,000. At least two and up to 14 prizes will be awarded in five categories, and the winning ideas will potentially show up in a NASA whitepaper that will act as a “roadmap for future technology development work.”

When are we sending people to Mars anyway?

We are sending people to Mars when we are damn good and ready. NASA has no set date for a Mars mission—it’s more of a hope at this point—but they are running a Mars simulation on Earth (and looking for qualified people to join it), and speculate we might be ready to rock by 2037.

The space agency is working on sending people back to the moon first. That mission, Project Artemis, is more concrete, and aims to send the first woman and first person of color to the Moon in 2025. Don’t be surprised if this date gets pushed—it’s hard to send people to the moon. The first launch of an unmanned Artemis vehicle could happen this summer, though.

 

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Business

Blue Origin Plans Its Own Space Station, ‘Orbital Reef’

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Illustration: Blue Origin

Blue Origin has big plans for its own space station, a project called Orbital Reef that would be “mixed use business park” and the “premier commercial destination in low Earth orbit.” Sort of like a cruise ship that fits 10 people and doesn’t travel to multiple destinations. It’ll be a little smaller than the International Space Station, Blue Origin says, and would open for business between 2025 and 2030.

Ten people. That’s still higher than eight people, the total number of people Blue Origin has carried just beyond the minimum threshold of space before turning back around after a minute or so. That’s also far less than 1 trillion people, the number Jeff Bezos anticipates will eventually live in tremendous space colonies that he’s described as the off-world structure in Interstellar.

To make it happen, Blue Origin is partnering with various companies—primarily Sierra Space, a space habitat corporation that’ll provide the Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE) module, the human living quarters with three floors, beds, a kitchen, and an astro garden, as well as a spaceplane to shuttle passengers and cargo to and from Earth. Blue Origin would handle the launch system, utility systems, and core modules. Other parts are to be provided by Boeing, Redwire Space, and Genesis Engineering Solutions. Arizona State University will lead a “global consortium” of over 12 academic institutions, to advise on research and education.

The vaguely worded press release is a luxury tourism ad, promising “human-centered space architecture with world-class services and amenities that is inspiring, practical, and safe.” There will be, according to Brent Sherwood, senior vice president of Advanced Development Programs for Blue Origin, “a vibrant business ecosystem” that’ll generate “new discoveries, new products, new entertainments, and global awareness.”

In an email, Blue Origin declined to expand on what amenities or “new entertainments” entail. But a Sierra Space spokesperson elaborated: “We are creating a mixed-used business park. This means we are opening space business to new tenants and participants, creating a vibrant economy in space with new people living and working in space.” Target customers would include “manufacturing, space tourism, pharmaceuticals and any company who can see benefits of being in zero gravity,” the spokesperson said.

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They said that it’s to be determined whether researchers will get lower rates for tickets.

So, fine to ignore until it’s large enough that we can’t. For now, here’s a cool rendering:

Illustration: Blue Origin

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