Self-deployable Habitat for Extreme Environments

Motivation for the SHEE project

Future planetary human exploration calls for habitats which are constructed in efficient and safe ways to provide a secure base for humans to venture on EVAs and conduct scientific research on planetary surfaces. The current paradigms of NASA’s TransHab or NASA’s Habitat Demonstration Unit (HDU), Bigelow’s inflatable prototype for a space hotel are directed towards self-deployable habitats. The difficulty with these paradigms is the mounting of external hardware such as antennae or integrating the technical infrastructure inside the habitat.

SHEE offers a solution in combining the advantages of a robotic exoskeleton (self-deployment at remote places) rigid structures (easy mounting of hardware), and an inflatable pressurized interior skin for hermetically sealing the habitable environment. The robotic architecture or architectural robotic concept of SHEE offers new possibilities in architecture and space exploration providing not just a technology but an integrated system of guidelines for a space habitat design for celestial bodies with fractional gravity conditions (moon, Mars), 1-g (earth), and offers new principles for microgravity structures deployment, too.

The SHEE project addresses the fairly unexplored area of rapidly deployable habitat structures using robotics and integrating the main subsystems within the structural components. The SHEE project presents one solution for a feasible, safe and spatially effective habitat architecture and thus supports a safer human exploration of the near earth celestial bodies and extreme environments on earth.

A lunar or Martian base will be deployed in the future, maybe in 25 years from now. To find the right solution for habitat systems, investigation and exploration into the optimum structure needs to be started now. Typically, testing and training need to be started eight years before the launch of a human-rated system. The remaining 17 years of the 25 will be needed to develop the technologies required for such a secure base on extra-terrestrial planetary surfaces. Most of the technologies are at low TRL levels. In order to reach a mature status, a crucial number of functional prototypes and sufficient number of diverse and feasible concepts need to be developed.

The principles of integrated architecture design were partially explored in the past, e.g., in Scott Howe’s TRIGON concept, but were never investigated in depth. The consortium identified the SHEE concept as fully applicable to terrestrial conditions thus providing results not only for the space sector and human spaceflight but also for areas related to research in Antarctica, in the desert, in post-disaster management or any other scenario where a rapidly self-autonomous habit is need in surface terrestrial environments.

The SHEE project is thus, in a very rational way, interconnecting human needs for space exploration and human needs for occupying hostile places or places without technical infrastructure on earth. The SHEE project interconnects provisions for space research, habitation safety, habitation emergency and innovations in design, autonomy, robotics and architecture.

Concept for SHEE

The SHEE concept follows a new paradigm applying the combination of robotics, rigid structures and inflatable structures that, as an integrated system, has not been previously explored sufficiently and for which no functional prototype has yet been built.

In the field of modules or habitats with fully-integrated robotics there has been limited research to date and there is currently no rapidly-deployable habitat system that could be stowed in a small volume of a rocket shroud, effectively deployed on a given surface and provide at least a partial autonomous system for its inhabitants. Current trends tend to provide only rigid or inflatable structures.

Experimental steps following one direction have been done to date using one type of inflatable design. Additionally, past and current concepts often refer to ultra-light structures but often with a need for specialized heavy equipment or human operations for its deployment. The optimal solution for habitat and living on another celestial body is actually still being explored with only partial success, while not many functional prototypes are being designed and tested worldwide.

The requirements for a pressurized volume lead to the need for a strong and rigid structure to withstand the pressure difference between the internal habitable pressure and the extremely low ambient atmospheric pressure and withstand the micrometeorite impacts and radiation. The simplest solution, but the least effective habitat system regarding the ratio of habitable volume and mass, is to use a rigid cylindrical volume. The inflatable structure is more convenient with regards to its low mass and provision of large habitable volume. Additionally, there are major difficulties for integrating subsystem structures—attaching and fixing it to the sensitive inflatable layers.

File:Shee.jpg

Figure B.1 1: SHEE preliminary concept idea [green – folded habitat, blue - deployed]

As shown in Figure B1-1 the SHEE habitat will benefit of deployable lower mass systems and the deployed exoskeleton will provide a platform for mounting subsystems and shielding.

SHEE general objectives

Self-deployable autonomous or partially autonomous habitats for harsh environments (for lunar, Martian and earth’s surfaces) without infrastructure are not being implemented, tested or developed. The general objective of the SHEE project is to address this gap which will lead to a better understanding of living in an environment that integrates robotics and architecture as a whole while utilizing miniaturized systems and subsystems that can be integrated into the habitat structure. The general objectives include the development of a suitable methodology which can be applied for self-deployable habitat concepts with hybrid structures for multiple environments.

The SHEE project will not only provide new expertise for science and technology but also public awareness and outreach for the field of space habitat structures and its importance not only for the space sector advancement but, most importantly, also for humanity and knowledge advancement.

To be able to test the methodologies and technologies a full-scale, self-deployable habitat technology testbed and a high-fidelity computer model will be developed which will give proof to the concept. SHEE will be representative of an actual habitat which could be launched and landed on the lunar surface in the near future. The need for testing and validating functionality of a completely unique habitat architecture on a 1:1 scale testbed is thus apparent. The high fidelity of the testbed is provided to examine the human-machine interaction and improve the research results. The SHEE testbed will be a platform which will provide a knowledge base for development of an advanced lunar base. It is thus important to develop the SHEE testbed as high-fidelity hardware which can serve as a demonstrator of different technologies and most importantly their innovative integration in a single entity. A lifetime and travel schedule for the SHEE testbed will be developed for future use to perform numerous tests worldwide in a number of research centres and the feedbacks from its use will be collected for lunar base scenario and for terrestrial applications.

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