Designing for outer space
With NASA planning permanent bases in space and on the moon, MIT students develop prototypes for habitats far from planet Earth. Mateo Fernandez, one of the students involved in the project, is a 2024 MAD Design Fellow.
By Maria Iacobo — School of Architecture and Planning
Jul 4, 2024
A new MIT course this spring asked students to design what humans might need to comfortably work in and inhabit space. The time for these creations is now. While the NASA Apollo missions saw astronauts land on the moon, collect samples, and return home, the missions planned under Artemis, NASA’s current moon exploration program, include establishing long-term bases in orbit as well as on the surface of the moon.
The cross-disciplinary design course MAS.S66/4.154/16.89 (Space Architectures) was run in parallel with the departments of Architecture, and Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro), and the MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiatives group. Thirty-five students from across the Institute registered to imagine, design, prototype, and test what might be needed to support human habitation and activities on the moon.
The course’s popularity was not surprising to the instructors.
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