Recently we were asked a series of questions about the field of space architecture, and the space program in general. Several space architects in the community responded. We would like to share their thoughts, beginning with:
“What is spacearchitect.org?”
Lynn Baroff says, “spacearchitect.org is a professional organization and special educational society that we created to develop and promote the academic discipline of Space Architecture, and to inform the public about the principles and practices of our discipline as they’re used by the space exploration and development programs throughout the world. We’re very proud that we were able to create it.” Brent Sherwood explains that spacearchitect.org is “a registered non-profit organization that codifies the collaboration of the international community of space architects to establish shared principles and standards, exchange ideas, and jointly establish this field. The face of spacearchitect.org is a website containing many resources for those interested to learn more.”
“How fast would you say the field of Space Architecture is moving?”
Brent Sherwood explains, “The rate varies based on two types of drivers [which I will elaborate later]. Overall the rate of meaningful progress is gradual because the opportunities for space architects to execute their designs are rare.” Lynn Baroff says, “It’s moving pretty slowly right now except in the academic sense, in the academic world, at certain special universities around the world – the reason for this is the uncertainty regarding the direction of long duration human spaceflight, the relative scarcity of human spaceflight programs in the world, and the lack of an integrated focal point for the discipline until now.”
In the European scene, Barbara Imhof says, “The Human Spaceflight Programme in Europe is suffering from financial drawbacks and also probably from making the specific decisions and getting political support. In times of a financial crisis Human Spaceflight is the last thing people can promote to pay for. ESA (European Space Agency), however, is trying to establish within International partnership programs and studies for furthering Human Space Exploration. The director of Human Spaceflight at ESA Simonetta di Pippo is also trying to establish a European Union funded research programme for Human Spaceflight. If and when this will be introduced we do not know.”
Barbara further explains, “Thus the expansion of the field of space architecture in Europe has its limitations. Within ESA there is not enough awareness but also not enough possibilities for everyone interested to be included and an initiative of establishing a German ESA space architecture website has not been commissioned yet. Private enterprises are very few, too. These mostly involve companies or people who are/have established a brand such as Marc Newson for interior of the the EADS space plane (Philippe Starcke for Virgin Galactic). Galactic Suite, e.g. has recruited architects with no space architecture expertise who are learning about this field as they progress. (All examples where no space architects are involved; Foster is commissioned to do the New Mexican Spaceport and ESA is talking to him about some projects now….. I read in a Swiss online newspaper)”
Barbara continues, “For the time being, Europe is not on a fast pace and we will not accelerate if public awareness does not raise and politics does not intensify the support Human Spaceflight. However, the interest of architects/designers in working for space is quite considerable! We get a lot of applications and queries.”
Barbara, who is working with space architect Susmita Mohanty also give us a peep into space architecture in India, “ISRO (The Indian Space and Research Organisation) is currently establishing a Human Spaceflight Center and they will develop everything necessary in-house; so there, the market for space architects is limited, too.”
“What’s driving the pace of the Space Architecture field?”
Brent Sherwood gives “two factors that are only loosely coupled:”
- Significant progress in national or international space system development programs. ISS provided some steady work for many years as the design was re-done several times, but national commitments to deep-space exploration have been sporadic and are subject to politically-driven funding decisions and cycles. The U.S. SEI lasted from 1989-92, then went dormant. Now the U.S. VSE was just begun in 2004.
- Coalescence of the international community of space architects. 46 interested professionals worked together in 2002 to draft the Millennium Charter that established the common definition of space architecture (“The theory and practice of designing and building the human environment in outer space.”) among other principles. The international network has a few dozen active individuals, but there are several more who have graduated with a concentration in space architecture or closely related fields. Many work professionally in related fields but sustain their long-term interest in space architecture per se as an avocation, including publishing, so there is movement even without significant government-funded work opportunities in the field. The international network just published the seminal book in the field: “Out of This World: The New Field of Space Architecture” (AIAA, 2009).
Lynn Baroff explains, “Mostly the uncertainty regarding the future direction for human spaceflight. All space architecture is bound to these programs, whether they are government sponsored or commercial, and right now these programs are floundering because they are very, very expensive. Governments have a hard time justifying the cost when there are so many other problems money can be used to solve, and commercial organizations must have the infrastructure governments create to make their endeavors cost effective and profitable.”
“Why are you excited to be a part of the field of Space Architecture?”
Lynn Baroff puts it best when he says, “Because eventually Space Architecture will create the vehicles and habitats that allow human beings to live across the solar systems and the galaxy – that is our destiny, and I like being a part of making that destiny happen in reality.”
Barbara Imhof says, “Space architecture for me has always been a field of inspiration not only regarding material or forms but also regarding conceptual thinking, future scenarios and possible synergies or reciprocities. When you design for space you have to think about the basic interfaces which concern humans in a different way and that puts the subject of architecture into a different perspective. To view a design task from a different point of view gives new input to other projects and you can always discover something new. And there is always this ‘smell’ of future…. And this is what we are interested in: to shape the future.”
Brent Sherwood says, “We are excited to be a part of it because (1) it is inherently interesting to us as designers; (2) because we live in the unique historical age during which this domain of human endeavor will be established (over the next few centuries); and (3) because it is beginning to gain traction as a viable professional field.”
Scott Howe says, “naturally my mind races forward. There may be within us the capacity to be creators of new worlds, starting with exploration sorties, long-term outposts, large-scale colonization, and eventually terraforming. The first steps of this exciting destiny of the human race are being taken. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?”
“I have read a fair amount about TransHab. Are there other projects in the works that you are involved with?”
The TransHab project included the participation of several of the authors in “Out of This World: the New Field of Space Architecture”, including Kriss Kennedy in Chapter 8, and also Constance Adams. Brent Sherwood explains, “Each space architect is involved with one or more projects bearing on diverse aspects of space missions, space system development, academia, and/or terrestrial architecture and design. NASA per se is currently engaged in preliminary studies for alternative space habitat systems for deep-space exploration, including systems for use on planet surfaces; as well as advanced technologies for planet surface use such as mobility, deployment, and use of local resources.”
Scott Howe notes that “currently the baseline for the NASA Lunar outpost is being designed by a team that includes several space architects. Kriss Kennedy and Larry Toups describe some of the work in the book in Chapter 16. But in actuality, many of the work described in other chapters has influenced the work, and we mustn’t forget about the students and educational end of things, such as the work being done by Larry Bell and Olga Bannova at University of Houston’s SICSA, or Sandra Haeuplik-Meusburger in TU Vienna, or Madhu Thangavelu at USC and many others.”
Space Architecture projects are also being done in other venues. Lynn Baroff writes, “I’m the Executive Director of a California agency established to integrate the educational establishment with the space enterprise, and I’m also a Senior Research Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. I’ve just proposed to NASA a new Challenge program in Space Architecture, that would be open to architecture teams from elementary, junior high, high school, and college ages. NASA likes the idea very much and I’m working with them on it right now to get the approach developed. I’m also working as leader of a team that will develop a method and criteria for “human rating” automated and robotic systems, including possibly self-assembling systems. spacearchitect.org will be involved in both of these projects with NASA.”
“Why should the average person care about space architecture?”
Brent Sherwood gives two reasons:
- Space architecture is about learning how people can live and work in an accessible environment that is fundamentally different from the one we evolved in. Over the coming centuries, humans will be operating more routinely, and for extended periods, in this environment, and exploring and exploiting it will open it up to average people eventually. It will become part of the human sphere of common activity, yet being in it and being safe in it require a totally different architecture than what we are used to on Earth.
- Solving the extreme challenges of keeping people alive, healthy, productive, and happy in space will inevitably teach us important lessons and provide solutions for important challenges facing us on Earth. One example is that in the closed environment of a multi-year Mars mission, chemical contaminants or immunological degradation can easily become lethal. We have to solve these problems for space exploration and settlement, and when we do, that knowledge will be directly useful for mitigating harmful effects of our modern technological life on Earth.
Barbara Imhof writes, “Why should an average person care about architecture or design? Both are essential to human living when reached a certain stage of development. They are like food and water. On long duration missions when we start to live in space for a substantial time essential parameters of architecture come into play and have an impact on the performance of the crew such as: proportion, scale, space, texture, materials, shapes, light, and memory. Quoting Neil Leach (arch.writer UK) one can conclude that architecture is also about an attitude to life, namely about creativity, imagination and dreaming a better world for the future; and this should be everybody’s concern.”
Lynn Baroff says, “The average person probably doesn’t care about Space Architecture right now, and won’t until we start doing long duration human missions and putting them on reality TV shows. These missions will engage members of the public in ways they haven’t been engaged since the days of Apollo Program, and we can help make that engagement happen by showing the public how habitation is so critical for these missions. This will be engaging because it’s a shared experience – not everyone rides rockets, but everyone lives in a house or other habitation.”
Scott Howe writes, “Space Architecture is a bit of the future that is happening now. The person who does not project their mind dozens, or even hundreds of years into the future is bound to be inflicted by the petty problems of the present, such as economy, environment, and societal issues. On the other hand, the person who has vision will see a way out, and will even be able to help others.”
“America and Britain seem to be leading the way for space tourism with Spaceport / Virgin Galactic. But when it comes to space architecture, are there examples of international groups/companies/researchers working together?”
Lynn Baroff notes, “spacearchitect.org is an international organization, although incorporated in the United States, the members are scattered around the globe… NASA has been constructing an international habitation with many other nations for years: ISS.”
Brent Sherwood explains, “Various members of the international network of space architects have teamed to create design companies that cross borders and cultures. In addition, we expect that full-scale development of government-funded space exploration systems will depend on international collaboration as did the International Space Station.”
Barbara Imhof says, “There a collaborating architects within multi-disciplinary international groups, basically working groups which have established through international space organisations, such as the International Astronautical Academy (IAC) or the SATC (Space Architecture Technical Committee of the AIAA). Space architects are either employed by NASA or they work at Universities or freelance within their own established offices. ESA for example to my knowledge employs one space architect in the training of the astronauts not in architecture or design. Generally speaking I do think that space architects are represented in all kind of research and working groups all around the globe; these groups tend to be interdisciplinary.”
“Is there any little fun fact or tidbit of info about space architecture / near future of space travel that would blow the minds of the average person?”
Lynn Baroff writes, “Space Architecture is based on the human needs and the human dynamic, and that’s what makes it so interesting and challenging, because humans evolved on a benign planet that really helps us stay alive – and our communities make it easier for us to survive too. Long duration space flight to other planets, like Mars etc,, will require very large groups of people, not the three or four that most people imagine. We need large groups because of the many competencies involved (like electronics repair and dentistry and etc.) and because a larger community will help to defuse the little conflicts that come up and prevent them from being large, insoluble conflicts. My Human Factors colleagues and I once determined that the minimum number of crew that must be sent on a Mars mission is 18 – if we want to get them back again…”
Brent Sherwood says, “Recent science results indicate that about a liter of water is recoverable from each patch of the Moon the size of a baseball diamond. While this is not a lot, it is far more than we expected to find. More even than for the obvious uses, water is the key to rocket propellant being manufactured on the Moon, which would change the economics of space travel.”
“Do you a website that gives a good overview of who’s involved in the International Space Station; meaning, what countries are involved in the collaboration etc?”
NASA maintains outstanding public information for all its programs and projects, at www.nasa.gov. Specific information about the ISS can be found on http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
“Do you know what the latest estimate is for:
- human travel to Mars?
- extended stays on the Moon
- other?”
Brent Sherwood writes, “Assuming the question refers to timing, the estimates for all these things are most critically a function of the NASA budget. At its recent funding level, among the lowest since NASA was created and only 3% of the DoD budget, it will take NASA over 15 years to attain the capability for extended stays on the Moon. Human travel to Mars could easily be another 15 years beyond that at this rate of funding, because several key technologies are not solved yet.”
Lynn Baroff notes, “Cost estimate? No, no one really knows because no one really knows all the factors that must be considered until we start planning and doing these missions. Cost estimation is an iterative process.”
“Anything else you’d like to say about this exciting field, your involvement, space tourism, space business in general?”
Lynn Baroff writes,”Space tourism will do a lot to help the rest of the space program, because it will take new aspects of space travel and turn them into daily life. It’s the government’s role to send out the explorers, the Lewis & Clark expeditions, to find out what’s there – but the new territory isn’t really settled until the trading posts are there and open for business, which means commercial companies have to figure out how to make money in space without the national space agencies.”
Brent Sherwood explains, “Humans-to-planets (Moon, near-Earth asteroids, Mars, or main-belt asteroids) is only one possible goal of government-funded human space flight, although it has been the traditional goal for the past half-century. There are two other major alternatives, which offer different timetables and different ‘future worlds’, and people may be interested to contemplate them:”
- Invest in technologies to accelerate development of a commercial space travel industry. This would lead to hundreds of thousands of people traveling into Earth orbit every year, rather than six government astronauts walking on the Moon. The investments required are in areas like high-reliability, economical launch; high-dependability life support systems; large-volume space habitats; big windows; radiation protection; and approaches for fresh food, surgery, sports and public entertainment – in short, the elements of normal human architecture.
- Invest in capturing space solar energy for use on Earth. Space has inexhaustible energy 24 hrs a day, which can be captured and beamed down to Earth’s surface for use, without ecological damage. This would lead to true energy independence and the conversion of our energy economy to clean electricity. The investments required are in high-reliability, economical launch; very large space platforms; high-efficiency solar power conversion and transmission; as well as modernizing the energy grid on Earth
Scott Howe says, “If the human race hopes to survive the long term, we must learn to live away from the Earth, and become a space-faring civilization. Our architecture will be seeds planted in advance, that self-assemble and wait for the crews and populations to arrive. We must first develop self-constructing systems that we export out of the gravity well and robotically put together onsite, perhaps from multiple launches — this is the stage we are at now. Next we need to be clever with modularity and distributed systems to come up with self-assembling hardware that uses some in-situ materials, for advanced maintenance and construction. Third, we will have to develop compact packaged self-manufacturing systems that use a majority of found materials, only importing the hard-to-manufacture ‘vitamin parts’. Finally, we will achieve self-replication where the system is closed — all parts are manufactured from the dust of the site and local energy. At this point seed factories will first make copies of themselves and send the child products off to other locations as new seeds, after which the parent factories will proceed to produce cities, vehicles, and infrastructure awaiting our arrival and expansion. Along the way we can work on miniaturization. I suspect that our knowledge of nanotechnology, robotics, and genetic engineering will converge as we seed new biospheres — there will come a day in the not-too-distant future where our machines and the bio-organisms around us will be hard to tell apart. We will program buildings and vehicles to emerge from seeds just by manipulating the DNA. We are setting the foundation for that right here and now.”