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Design proposals for the Flight Crew Support Division at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) show architectural spaces for a large scale human rated test facility, a prestudy for the human mission to Mars.

http://advlifesupport.jsc.nasa.gov
 

ABSTRACT

In future space missions we will need to go on long duration missions requiring human life support. Therefore, we will have to provide life support systems which will be highly reliable and operate over long periods of time, such as closed cycle sustainable systems. A step in this direction is the BIOPLEX project at NASA Johnson Space Center. The designing and construction of a facility is being undertaken in which long duration (up to 425 days), large scale testing, involving human test crews can be performed. A complex biogenerative life support system will be installed, using a combination of higher plants, microorganisms, and physicochemical processes to recycle air and water, produce food and process waste, with minimum external supply. The multi-chamber facility consists of five identical chambers, each measure 11.38 meters in length and 4.61 meters in diameter. The habitation chamber, the laboratory and the processing chamber will have two decks, where as the two biomass production chambers (BPC) will only have one deck. Most of the food production will be automated. All the modules will be connected by a tunnel with an airlock situated at one end. Starting from the initial design of five linked modules, this investigation focuses on the habitation module and its design of the architectural spaces. The project deals with the redesign of the existing facilities and new design proposals for undeveloped areas of NASA‘s full-scale, integrated test facility. The project also deals with the close relation of architecture and psychology nd the design tries to reflect upon that. The detailed design of the space available in a confined system is very important for the well-being of the crew onboard. Their performance and interrelationships depend a lot on the designed architectural environment where people have to live and work.

1. Designing spaces which are 2 storeys in height and which offer possibilities for bigger maintainence equipment.
2. Establishing flexible, moveable walls to give opportunities for using the little space in many different ways.
3. Creating galleries for visibility and a perception of a more generous space – implies saving space somwhere else.
4. Redesigning and relocating the staircase
5. Moveable storage facilities - bin type
6. Moveable storage boxes in the connecting tunnel
7. To have less waste: bake eatable plates
8. Against the original proposals to have stairs when entering the tunnel from a biomass production chamber: all even floors
9. Having the crew design their own habitation chambers in an experiment when they are given some low weight building parts to experiment
10. Slanted floors for different perception of different spaces and gaining volume in some parts.
11. Shifting the whole layout of the 5 modules to gain more space, to be able to differenciate the space better and for the robots to have easy access to storage areas in the tunnel when they get out of the Biomass production chamber
12. Integration of the different programatic functions, like galley, work station, crewmember’s private room, hygiene facilities and training facilities on 2 levels of the habitation chambers.