Advanced Materials in Space Architecture: New Concepts for Space Tourism in the Coming Decades
- Paper number
IAC-06-E3.4.09
- Author
Dr. Luigi Scatteia, CIRA Italian Aerospace Research Centre, Italy
- Coauthor
Ms. Martina Pinni, Italy
- Coauthor
Dr.-Ing. Robert Goehlich, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Germany
- Year
2006
- Abstract
The recent achievements of private space initiatives have demonstrated that private entrepreneurship could strongly contribute to technical advancement in the space field, thanks to the higher drive for cost saving and overall financial efficiency in their potential market propositions. Among private space enterprises, the most interesting from both an economics and technical perspective is represented by the space tourism-directed initiatives. In depth market researches have shown the public interest for space tourism, and demonstrated the economic rationale for initiatives in this field for the coming decades. When talking about increasing the public target for space tourism, issues concerning architectural interior design of vectors and/or space habitats become crucial. The basic look and unfriendly interiors of current generation spacecrafts are not in fact designed to appeal the casual space travellers of the future, who claim exclusivity and high quality standards for habitation modules. Scope of this multidisciplinary paper is to provide an overview of the established space architecture concepts for interior design, with particular references to the currently employed interior materials, and the resulting effects on the vehicle’s inhabitant perceptions, from a human factors standpoint. This review will address past and current manned space vehicles intended for space exploration, and current private vehicle concepts conceived specifically for space tourism. Also scope of the paper is to address complementary issues related to human space travels, and to propose possible new architectural concepts for space vehicles and space habitation modules, based upon the adoption of non-conventional advanced materials able to provide weight and cost saving coupled to higher architectural standards, and user-friendly design. This will be done having in mind the specific target of possible space tourism initiatives, on the basis of the consideration that human factors and architectural issues in space habitats interiors may strongly contribute to their commercial success.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-06-E3.4.09.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.