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Space architecture is already a bona fide specialty within THE PROFESSION. its lessons will infiltrate the mainstream, changing the way we DESIGN, build, AND … THINK

By Sara Hart

The hard core is designed for ultimate flexibility. It bears the shear loading at launch. According to Kennedy, once in orbit, the core can be reduced to a tensile stabilizer by removing the internal trusswork and using the truss components as interior framing and outfitting elements. The truss is made of modular, graphite-composite shelf units with universal attachments so the entire system can be reconfigured for different functions.

The inflatable shell is a spectacular innovation. Created out of about two dozen layers, it is folded and compressed around the core at launch and inflated and deployed in orbit. The layers fall into four types. The innermost layer is made of Nomex, a fireproof material that also acts as a scuff and scratch barrier. Air is contained by three pressure bladders made of Combitherm, a material used in the food-packing industry. A structural restraint layer of woven Kevlar maintains the module’s shape. Successive layers of Nextel (commonly used as insulation under car hoods) and open cell foam make up an orbital debris shield. Space debris and small meteorites shatter when they hit the shield, losing energy as they penetrate the layers. Finally, an external thermal-protection blanket insulates the module from temperatures that can range from 250 degrees Fahrenheit in the sun to minus 200 degrees in the shade.

Kennedy learned that the key to the successful application of unproven technologies rests squarely on what is often called the “spiral approach” to engineering. Great technical and managerial benefits come to those who “build a little and then test, evaluate, and learn. Incorporate what you learn as the design matures.” With successful hypervelocity-impact testing and other shell development tests, TransHab proved to meet or exceed all the requirements for application in space. Although the U.S. Congress cancelled the project, lessons learned from TransHab are invaluable, especially the innovative endoskeletal technology, which will have many applications on Earth.

Education: learning by doing

As shown by the complexity of the research projects viewed here, it’s obvious that tomorrow’s space architect will be a specialist with extensive interdisciplinary knowledge and skills, an inevitability not lost on the symposium participants. As Constance Adams, workshop leader, stressed in her preamble to the Millennium Charter, space architecture expands the role of terrestrial architects. “Design for space requires specialized knowledge of orbital mechanics, propulsion, weightlessness, hard vacuum, and the psychology of hermetic environments,” she says, as well as tertiary understanding of medicine, law, and transportation design, to name a few. Because those who teach are often space architects themselves—the “learning by doing” approach so crucial in both commercial and federally sponsored space research—students are indoctrinated with the “hands-on” methodology of learning.

Texas Spaceport The Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture (SICSA) at the University of Houston is providing design support for a commercial spaceport in Texas. Schematics show several proposed facilities, including operations and control (above), security (below), and servicing (bottom). The spaceport will support the operation of advanced reusable launch vehicles for commercial exploration. Renderings: Courtesy of the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture (SICSA)

The Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture (SICSA) is a research, design, and teaching component with the University of Houston’s Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture. Besides offering programs to advance space technologies, SICSA pursues planning and design for difficult and extreme environments on Earth. Students benefit from proximity to the Johnson Space Center, local aerospace companies, research institutions, and other commercial technology companies in the area.