Lunar Habitat Gets Antarctic Test

It looks like something your kids want to play in at the fair, but NASA's inflatable lunar habitat will have to survive harsher conditions than a few hundred toddlers' karate kicks.

To test the habitat under the most extreme natural conditions possible, developers of the prototype will deploy it for a year on the harsh, frigid landscape of Antarctica. Inside, the sophisticated inflatable habitat is heated, insulated, powered, and pressurized, with an eight-foot ceiling and 384 square feet of living space. It is also equipped with sensors allowing engineers to monitor its performance.

"Testing the inflatable habitat in one of the harshest, most remote sites on Earth gives us the opportunity to see what it would be like to use for lunar exploration," says Paul Lockhart, director of Constellation Systems for NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate.

The Constellation program aims to send humans back to the moon by 2020, first for short stays and then for longer durations, thus requiring a durable homestead. And because the habitat must be transported along with hardware and fuel—125 pounds worth for every pound of supplies launched—it needs to be lightweight as well as strong, according to Lockhart.

Partnering with NASA is the National Science Foundation, which will study improvements in packing and deploying the habitat, as well as its power consumption and damage tolerance. --Cynthia G. Wagner

Sources: National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia 22230.
NASA Innovative Partnerships Program,

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Environment
March-April 2008 Vol. 42, No. 2