A new ‘origami-inspired’ foldable shelter designed for the next generation of moon explorers is about to undergo testing in the harsh conditions of Greenland.
The ‘Lunark’ shelter, created by two Danish ‘space architects’, is a compact habitat that folds down to a manageable size to allow easy transportation before being extended in its final location.
The battery-powered, two-person home consists of a strong aluminium frame as its exterior, which is covered in solar cells to maximise energy generation for the inhabitants.
The comfortable interior of the module comes complete with a bathroom, living quarters with desks and shelving and an on-board 3D-printer to produce new parts
The two designers of the module, Sebastian Aristotelis and Karl-Johan Sørensen, will be living inside Lunark in northern Greenland for three months staring this autumn.
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This origami-inspired moon home is set to be tested later this year. The Lunark is a compact habitat designed to fold down to a size that allows easy transportation. here, a full-scale mock-up of the habitat used to experiment with different interior configurations
The project is the brainchild of two Danish space architects who say they have the dream that it can one day can sustain life on the moon
Lunark will be put to the test against Greenland’s hurricane winds and -22 degree Fahrenheit conditions, which will replicate the barren and freezing conditions on the moon.
The team’s ultimate mission is to make life in space liveable with their origami-inspired temporary home and help inform moon habitat designs, including NASA’s upcoming Artemis mission in 2024.
‘By combining the ancient Japanese art of paper folding with the method of biomimicry we have come to a lightweight and strong foldable structure,’ the Lunark project says on its website.
‘The final hinge design is a compliant mechanism it’s lightweight, strong, airtight, simple to manufacture and to maintain.
‘With thousands of hours spent designing, researching, and prototyping, we are now ready to build our Lunark habitat – a simulated Moon habitat for research, with the aim that it one day can sustain life on the moon.’
Three-stage folding process demonstrated in design sketches. By using the ancient Japanese art of paper folding, the designers say they have created a lightweight and strong foldable structure
Bird’s eye view of the design shows space for working, including two desks, a toilet and a small shower. The habitat is designed to land on-site equipped with everything in its core, including furniture, food, water and other resources
The habitat is designed to land on-site equipped with everything in its core – even food and water – when it deploys, locking its rigid aluminium frame ready for the crew to move in.
The duo have turned to Kickstarter to raise funds for the project and build a full-scale version of Lunark before their scheduled expedition date later in the year.
‘We will live in complete solitude, cut off from the rest of the world, to test the architecture, ourselves, and technologies for future Moon missions,’ they say.
The exterior of the Lunark cabin consists of 328 individual panels, connected by an airtight flexible seam, which contribute to its resilience
The module could potentially go from supporting the two designers stationed out in northern Greenland to home for moon-based astronauts
‘Arctic Greenland is one of the most Moon-like places on Earth – a strange desolate white planet.
‘By going there we don’t have to pretend. It will feel real.’
The 1,700kg foldable home, which can expand from an impressive 102 cubic foot to 607 cubic foot, can withstand temperatures as low as -49 degrees Fahrenheit and wind speeds of 55 miles an hour.
As the inhabitants won’t be able to leave the windowless cabin in unforgiving Arctic temperatures, a lighting system in the ceiling slowly changes in hue and luminosity over the day to replicate natural light and maintain a circadian rhythm.
Looking like something fresh from the first half an hour of the 1980 film The Empire Strikes Back, Lunark combines an exterior like a tank and interior like a home
The designers are also developing a weather simulator, so instead of living in a pod where every day is the same, inhabitants may wake-up to an artificial storm, rainbow or balmy summer’s day to break ‘the monotony of space’.
Concept images of the final design show two floors with different areas dedicated to working, sleeping and washing – separated by walls to ensure a degree of privacy between the two inhabitants.
Among the other features set to be included on the final product when it reaches its Kickstarter target are solar panels on the exterior shell, which will make use of the snow’s high reflectiveness to maximize energy generation.
A challenge for the designers was scaling up the paper concept to a full-sized liveable chamber with walls resident enough to withstand powerful and freezing winds
In the Inautumn of 2020, Sørensen and Aristotelis will embark on a journey to Northern Greenland to carry out a three-month simulated Moon mission
Sørensen (left) and Aristotelis (right) are part of a design firm called SAGA Space Architects, which has a number of space-inspired projects in development, including a ‘Mars Lab’ and a reduced gravity experiment
The pod will also recycle as much waste as possible and also feature a ‘zero waste ecosystem’ to ensure it leaves no trace of human activity.
While the architect-explorers won’t be facing the risk of being hit by a meteor, in Greenland, they may ‘get hit by a polar bear’.
Aristotelis and Sørensen are part of a design firm called SAGA Space Architects, which has a number of space-inspired projects in development, including a ‘Mars Lab’ and a reduced gravity experiment.
NASA will land the first woman and next man on the Moon in 2024 as part of the Artemis mission
Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo and goddess of the Moon in Greek mythology.
NASA has chosen her to personify its path back to the Moon, which will see astronauts return to the lunar surface by 2024 – including the first woman and the next man.
Artemis 1, formerly Exploration Mission-1, is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration to the Moon and Mars.
Artemis 1 will be the first integrated flight test of NASA’s deep space exploration system: the Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the ground systems at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Artemis 1 will be an uncrewed flight that will provide a foundation for human deep space exploration, and demonstrate our commitment and capability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond.
During this flight, the spacecraft will launch on the most powerful rocket in the world and fly farther than any spacecraft built for humans has ever flown.
It will travel 280,000 miles (450,600 km) from Earth, thousands of miles beyond the Moon over the course of about a three-week mission.
Artemis 1, formerly Exploration Mission-1, is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration to the Moon and Mars. This graphic explains the various stages of the mission
Orion will stay in space longer than any ship for astronauts has done without docking to a space station and return home faster and hotter than ever before.
With this first exploration mission, NASA is leading the next steps of human exploration into deep space where astronauts will build and begin testing the systems near the Moon needed for lunar surface missions and exploration to other destinations farther from Earth, including Mars.
The will take crew on a different trajectory and test Orion’s critical systems with humans aboard.
The SLS rocket will from an initial configuration capable of sending more than 26 metric tons to the Moon, to a final configuration that can send at least 45 metric tons.
Together, Orion, SLS and the ground systems at Kennedy will be able to meet the most challenging crew and cargo mission needs in deep space.
Eventually NASA seeks to establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon by 2028 as a result of the Artemis mission.
The space agency hopes this colony will uncover new scientific discoveries, demonstrate new technological advancements and lay the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy.