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By Peter Rejcek
A new building joined the McMurdo Station cityscape this
past austral summer. It took less than an hour to erect.
Quick deployment is one of the key components that NASA
is after for a space habitat that will shelter astronauts
on long-term missions to the moon and beyond to Mars.
One leading concept is an inflatable building.
A team from NASA brought a terrestrial version of the
structure to McMurdo in January to test a number of variables,
including its resiliency in the tough Antarctic environment.
NASA scientists and engineers often use Antarctica as
a testing ground for such projects, as the continent serves
as an easy and inexpensive substitute for the real rigors
of outer space.
“Some of the strategic challenges [for housing]
we have are very similar to what you have in the Antarctic,”
said Larry Toups, with NASA’s Constellation Program
Lunar Surface Systems Project Office at Johnson Space
Center.
Those challenges include developing a berthing design
that is reusable by multiple crews and multiple missions,
as well as one with a modular design that can be expanded
and reconfigured for a variety of uses. The workhorse
for the U.S. Antarctic Program for decades has been the
Jamesway hut, not unlike the tents featured in the popular
television show MASH.
Gerard Valle, project manager for the team from NASA’s
Johnson Space Center, noted that an inflatable habitat
is lighter, offers more space and can be deployed much
quicker than the Jamesway.
“There are benefits there for going to remote field
stations, especially if lower mass is required, and quicker
deployment,” he said.
So the National Science Foundation (NSF), looking for
alternative housing for fieldwork, has provided the real
estate and support to NASA to the test the air-filled
building for the next year. A private company, ILC Dover,
is the third partner in the venture and manufactured the
prototype. (See related story: To the Moon.)
The habitat is but one component of a return mission
to the moon by 2020. The entire adventure is under the
umbrella of the Constellation Program, the nation’s
next major human space-flight program. It includes the
design and development of a new spaceship called Orion
that will replace the current space shuttle.
“Imagine, if you will, Apollo on steroids. It can
carry as many as six crew members,” said Toups, referring
to the cone-shaped spacecraft that carried Americans to
the moon from 1969 to 1972.
The 1970s retro look — but with 21st century avionics
— includes the launch vehicle, dubbed Ares, which
would carry the crew and cargo in Orion to a low-Earth
orbit, where it would rendezvous with the lunar lander,
named Altair. NASA plans to test the flight system with
early missions to the International Space Station by 2015.
In the next four years, Toups said, the space agency
would begin work on a final design for a lunar habitat,
where crews will eventually stay up to six months at a
time. The inflatable building is only one concept of many
on the drawing board. Other ideas involve hard-shelled
modules, or hybrids that blend hard and soft concepts,
like an expanding accordion.
“One of the largest challenges we have is protecting
the crewmembers from not only galactic cosmic radiation,
but also from solar flare events that may occur while
they’re staying on the surface,” said Toups,
an architect by training.
Toups said NASA has little experience with planetary
housing, as the Apollo landings lasted only a few days.
Valle noted that in essence spacesuits represent an inflatable
— and proven — subsystem.
The habitat package weighs in at less than 1,000 pounds.
Actual inflation time after the stakes are in place is
about 10 minutes. The team outfitted the building with
a variety of instruments and monitors, such as wireless
sensors to track pressure and temperature, along with
air quality and power consumption.
A power hog is no use to NASA or the NSF, Valle noted.
A key system is the pump that maintains air pressure after
the initial inflation. “It occasionally turns on
and re-inflates the structure,” he said.
Might something similar really pop up on the moon someday?
“I definitely think it’s a credible system,”
Valle said.
If so, there would be some historical serendipity involved
if all goes as planned. That’s because NASA is eyeing
the Shackleton Crater at the moon’s south pole as
its first landing site.
“The reason for going to Shackleton is that the
rim of Shackleton Crater has a great deal of sunlight
available to it a majority of the year,” Toups said.
Engineers hope to harness that free and weightless energy
with photovoltaic cells. Hydrogen signatures in the crater
indicate there may be ice and hence water for use, he
added. The moon’s basaltic content could, in theory,
be used to fire bricks for construction.
Toups compared the venture to that of the early Antarctic
explorers, gesturing to Robert F. Scott’s century-old
Discovery Hut, a stone’s throw away from McMurdo
Station. Built in 1901, the square-shaped cabin housed
several expeditions during the early 20th century. It
is now a historical monument.
“You’re allowing crewmembers to live in very
Spartan environment initially, and then to live off the
land as time goes on,” he said.
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Antarctic
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