Archinect - News

AECOM to provide ‘environmental restoration and compliance services’ for NASA

2024-04-11T13:16:00-04:00

Architecture and infrastructure consulting firm AECOM is to provide environmental restoration and compliance services to NASA facilities across the U.S. The five-year contract will see AECOM deliver environmental sampling, contaminants investigations, and human, health, and ecological risk assessments to NASA’s U.S. facilities.

“We are proud to continue building on our 60-year history of successfully serving NASA by leveraging our environmental restoration and compliance expertise, actively advancing our purpose to deliver a better world for the next generation,” said Frank Sweet, chief executive of AECOM’s global Environment business, in a statement. “The management and remediation of hazardous materials, such as PFAS and other substances, continues to be a key priority for our teams and our clients, and we look forward to our continued partnership with NASA on this shared mission.”

AECOM provided architecture and engineering services for the Integrated Engineering Services Buildin...

NASA tests autonomous construction robots for future use in outer space

2024-02-06T11:09:00-05:00

NASA has unveiled details of a robotic system designed to construct and maintain structural components in space. The system, developed by NASA’s Automated Reconfigurable Mission Adaptive Digital Assembly Systems (ARMADAS) team, consists of inchworm-like robots that may one day assemble, repair, and reconfigure structural materials in orbit, on the lunar surface, or on other planets, before humans arrive.

A Scaling Omnidirectional Lattice Locomoting Explorer (SOLL-E) builder robot carries a small building block called a voxel – short for volumetric pixel – as it maneuvers, stepping inchworm-style, along the exterior of a mechanical metamaterial structure. Image credit: NASA/Dominic Hart

NASA’s system revolves around a set of 3D building blocks called voxels, which resemble a wire-frame soccer ball. Made of strong, lightweight composite materials, the voxels combine to create a system that, according to NASA, is comparable to current high-performance structures such as bridges, aircraf...

It's a 'Go' for ZGF's Space Shuttle Endeavour installation at the California Science Center

2024-01-31T12:12:00-05:00

ZGF Architects has completed the installation of the decommissioned Space Shuttle Endeavour and orbiter system as a part of their Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center expansion at the California Science Center museum in Los Angeles.

The unique project will culminate in a three-level level scheme that includes 150 different exhibitions, the largest of which, a 200-foot-tall central gallery space, is set to be used as a new permanent display for the 122-foot-long retired NASA orbiter.

Video courtesy California Science Center

Since July, the construction team at Exposition Park has been busy at work on the “Soft mate” phase of the “Go for Stack” installation process for the space shuttle apparatus. The same painstaking process that decades ago prepared the shuttle for its 25 launches into outer space was once again enacted at the site for the record first time in civilian history. Work to install the solid rocket boosters and external tank preceded the shuttle’s move into place before ...

Louisiana State and NASA to develop waterless concrete for 3D printing on the Moon

2023-12-14T12:06:00-05:00

Louisiana State University is collaborating with NASA on a project investigating the potential for natural materials on the Moon to be used as 3D printed waterless concrete. The research is part of a wider mission to develop feasible robotic construction technologies that can support the building of long-term settlements on the Lunar surface, including habitats, landing pads, and radiation shields.

The research is a partnership between LSU Construction Management Assistant Professor Ali Kazemian alongside scientists Michael Fiske and Jennifer Edmunson from the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. Together, the team will investigate how raw materials already available on the Moon and Mars, namely sulfur and regolith, can be used to develop 3D printed waterless concrete.

Related on Archinect: ICON to work with DARPA on a framework for Lunar architecture. Image credit: BIG

Supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, the team will study the performance and limits ...

NASA’s $2 billion Berkeley Space Center proposal unveiled

2023-10-17T11:48:00-04:00

Details have been revealed on the design of the $2 billion Berkeley Space Center at the NASA Research Park in the Bay Area of California. A joint venture between SKS Partners and UC Berkeley, in collaboration with HOK and Field Operations, the 36-acre hub will be dedicated to “identifying, incubating, and launching technological breakthroughs across a diverse set of fields including astronautics, quantum computing, climate studies, and the social sciences.”

Image courtesy: SKS Partners / UC Berkeley / HOK / Field Operations

Located within NASA’s Ames Research Center, the development will include 1.4 million square feet of office and R&D space, including wet and dry labs, as well as conference space, academic facilities, and retail amenities. 18 acres of open space are planned, including outdoor working spaces and a central green area.

Image courtesy: SKS Partners / UC Berkeley / HOK / Field Operations

Among the environmental features to be incorporated in the scheme are low-carbon ene...

ICON receives NASA funding to create 3D printing methods using materials from the Moon and Mars

2022-11-30T14:26:00-05:00

3D printing company ICON has been awarded funding by NASA to develop lunar surface construction systems. The $57.2 million contract was awarded under NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program and will see ICON develop “space-based construction technology” with the aim of creating humanity’s “first-ever construction on another planetary body.”

Concept render of ICON's proposed system. Image credit: ICON

The technology system, which ICON names Olympus, seeks to primarily use local Lunar and Martian resources as building materials. As part of this, the company plans on using lunar regolith samples brought back from the Apollo missions as well as regolith replicas to further understand their mechanical behavior. ICON’s hardware and software will also be tested in a lunar gravity simulation flight to study their potential performance beyond Earth.

If successful, the system may be used to create critical infrastructure on the Moon, including landing pads, blast shields, and roads. ...

NASA awards $19.4 million in grants to develop solar array technology and lunar construction research

2022-09-06T19:11:00-04:00

NASA has announced that it is awarding $19.4 million in grants to three companies to advance work on deployable solar array systems on the Moon. The systems will help power NASA's human and robotic exploration of the Moon under its Artemis missions.

Through Artemis, the agency aims to get astronauts back on the Moon and establish a long-term presence near its South Pole. To make this possible, a dependable, sustainable power source is required to support habitats, rovers, and construction systems for future missions. In order to facilitate this power, NASA is developing vertical solar arrays that can independently deploy up to 32 feet high and retract for relocation.

Existing solar array structures are designed for microgravity or horizontal surface deployment. These new designs utilize a vertical orientation and height, which will help prevent power loss at the lunar poles "where the Sun doesn’t rise far above the horizon," according to NASA.

“These prototypes will provide promis...

NASA and AI SpaceFactory’s vaulted lunar outpost will be 3D printed by autonomous robots

2022-07-01T12:09:00-04:00

AI SpaceFactory and the NASA Kennedy Space Center have unveiled the design of LINA, a 3D printed structure intended to become a lunar outpost. Designed to be constructed by autonomous robots on the Moon's south pole, the scheme is defined by Romanesque arches that can withstand high compressive loads with minimal material.

Video via AI SpaceFactory on YouTube

LINA’s structural concept will be 3D printed using an Earth-sourced polymer and lunar regolith. Unlike conventional 3D printing where layers are added parallel to the ground, LINA will be 3D printed at a 60-degree angle to allow construction of the vaulted roof. The arches will be topped with 2.7 meters (8.8 feet) of lunar regolith to provide protection from radiation, micrometeorites, lunar seismic activity, and extreme thermal swings.

Image via AI SpaceFactory

The outpost’s location near the rim of the Shackleton crater on the lunar south pole offers near-continuous sunlight on the crater’s peaks, which the team will exploit...

NASA explores potential for green roofs to lower temperatures in cities

2022-05-30T09:02:00-04:00

Research undertaken by NASA has found that rooftop gardens can offer substantial temperature reductions in cities during summer months. In a study published in the journal Sustainable Cities and Society, the group used satellite imagery to measure temperatures at three rooftop gardens in Chicago compared to before the roof gardens were installed.

The research sought to understand ways of mitigating the “urban heat island” in cities, where the heat absorption and retention of materials such as concrete and asphalt can cause temperatures to be ten degrees higher in cites than in surrounding areas.

Related on Archinect: 10 green rooftop spaces we liked this week

“As cities grow and develop, they need to make good decisions about their infrastructure, because these decisions often last for 30 or 50 years or longer,” said Christian Braneon, a climate scientist and civil engineer at Columbia University and co-author of the study. “In the context of more frequent heatwaves and more extreme...

NASA awards grants to three U.S. universities to develop lunar infrastructure

2022-03-01T14:58:00-05:00

Three U.S. university-led proposals have been selected by NASA to develop technologies for living and working on the Moon.

This push for technological development comes as NASA prepares to send astronauts back to the Moon through its Artemis missions, the agency’s plan to send the first woman and first person of color to the Moon for long-term exploration using innovative technologies. The advancements are key to meeting the challenges of inhabiting the Moon. These efforts were selected under the second Lunar Surface Technology Research (LuSTR) solicitation, which is part of NASA’s Space Technology Research Grants program. Here, the agency supports groundbreaking research in advanced space technology by academic researchers.

Previously on Archinect: RISD students are helping NASA develop its Artemis mission uniforms for 20

The selected projects cover three topics laid out in the solicitation: “Autonomous Construction,” in which The Colorado School of Mines will develop tools and me...

RISD students are helping NASA develop its Artemis mission uniforms for 2025

2022-02-04T10:44:00-05:00

A perfect fusion between fine artists, fashion designers, and rocket scientists is taking flight in New England thanks to the ambitious efforts of some of The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) nerdier undergraduates. NASA and the prestigious design school are now teaming up to outfit astronauts on the agency’s upcoming Artemis I lunar expedition.

Artnet News is reporting that students in a course offered by the school’s apparel design department are now responsible for workshopping prototypes for the high-tech gear that the 18-member crew will incorporate into their uniforms during the 30-day mission.

Designs by undergraduate senior Avantika Velho focused on utility in zero gravity. Image courtesy RISD.

The mission will place an American on the moon for the first time since the Apollo program was deactivated in 1972. Importantly, the mission will see the first time that an American woman and person of color walk on the moon in what has also been thought of by some as a potential ...

AECOM has been enlisted by NASA to provide architecture and engineering services

2021-09-29T18:32:00-04:00

AECOM has announced that it has been selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to provide architecture and engineering services as part of its Southeast Regional Architect and Engineering (SERAE) program. The five-year, multiple-award indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract has a shared program ceiling of $300 million.

AECOM will focus on the rehabilitation, modernization, and development of new systems for facilities, utilities, and ground support at prominent NASA locations across the United States. They include the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Johnson Space Center in Texas, White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, and more.

The firm will provide a wide range of architecture, civil, structural, mechanical, and electrical infrastructure services across all project phases, including planning and feasibility, permitting, preliminary engineering, final design, engineering services during construction, activation, and commissioning. They...

BIG's 3D-printed Mars simulation habitat is taking shape

2021-08-09T12:23:00-04:00

Images have been revealed of a 3D-printed structure being built to help simulate life on Mars. Named Mars Dune Alpha, the habitat was designed by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group for NASA and advanced construction developer ICON, intended to form part of future long-duration, explorative science missions. The 1,700 square-foot structure is currently being built at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where it will host a simulation environment for future space explorers.

Rendering. Image: BIG / ICON / NASA

The habitat has been designed along varying levels of privacy. Four private crew quarters are located on one end of the habitat, while dedicated work stations, medical stations, and food-growing stations are located at the opposite end. Shared living spaces will connect the two zones in the middle. Varying ceiling heights, responding to an arching shell structure, accentuate the unique experiences and uses of each area to avoid a sense of monotony or user fatigue. Meanwhile, a mix o...

ICON teams up with BIG and SEArch+ for Project Olympus, an off-world construction system for the Moon

2020-10-28T17:44:00-04:00

Icon, an Austin, Texas-based developer of construction technologies, received funding to research and develop a space-based construction system that could support future exploration of the moon. It has engaged two architecture firms as partners for the project: Denmark-based BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and New York City-based SEArch+.

NASA names D.C. headquarters after "Hidden Figure" Mary W. Jackson

2020-06-25T17:33:00-04:00

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) headquarters in Washington, D.C. has been named in honor of Mary W. Jackson, the first female African American engineer to work at the American space agency.

A NASA announcement explains that Jackson, a mathematician and aerospace engineer with degrees from Hampton University, began her career at NASA working within the segregated West Area Computing Unit of the agency’s Langley Research Center. Before working at NASA, Jackson got her start at NASA's predecessor agency, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and made a name for herself within these agencies by analyzing high-velocity wind tunnel tests, eventually working as an engineer in NASA's Compressibility Research Division, its Full-Scale Research Division, the High-Speed Aerodynamics Division, and in the Subsonic-Transonic Aerodynamics Division. Over nearly three decades with NACA and then NASA, Jackson authored or co-authored 12 technical papers. In 19...

AI SpaceFactory wants you to experience Mars on Earth

2019-09-03T21:00:00-04:00

You might remember AI SpaceFactory as the New York-based multidisciplinary design agency that took home first place in NASA's 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge. The team was awarded a $500,000 grand prize for their proposal entitled MARSHA.

Expanding on lessons learned from MARSHA, the agency has now designed and developed a successor called TERA, "built from a 3D-printed biopolymer basalt composite—a material developed from crops like corn and sugar cane—tested and validated by NASA to be [at least] 50% stronger and more durable than concrete."

TERA. Image courtesy of AI SpaceFactory

AI SpaceFactory promotes this method as a more sustainable approach than traditional concrete and steel, something they believe will be essential to building operations in a future on Mars as well as Earth.

"Nestled in the woods of upstate New York along the Hudson River, TERA is available on a nightly basis for anyone wanting to experience what sustainable life could be like on Mars–and on Earth," writes th...

Fred Scharmen joins us on the podcast to discuss his new book "Space Settlements"

2019-08-29T09:00:00-04:00

This week we’re joined by one of our favorite regulars, Fred Scharmen. Fred currently teaches architecture and urban design at Morgan State University's School of Architecture and Planning, and is the Principal and Co-Founder of The Working Group on Adaptive Systems. What brings him on today’s show is his just-released new book Space Settlements. The 400-page paperback contains a visually stunning collection of designs for space colonies from the mid-70’s, including iconic artwork and comparison studies of 20th and 21st century architecture projects. Our conversation talks about his research leading up to this book, the process of writing the book and the fascinating stories discovered along the way.

Painting by Don Davis, courtesy NASA Ames Research Center

Listen to episode 143 of Archinect Sessions, “Space Settlements, with Fred Scharmen”.

iTunes: Click here to listen, and click the "Subscribe" button below the logo to automatically download new episodes.
Apple Podcast App (iOS): c...

Japanese scientists to run space elevator experiment in orbit

2018-09-05T13:31:00-04:00

A team made up of researchers at Shizuoka University and other institutions is set to conduct an experiment in September for a project to develop a "space elevator" connecting Earth and a space station by cable -- attracting attention as a possible dream vehicle for space travel and cargo shipments in the future.

The idea of a space elevator has been around since 1895 when Russian/Soviet rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (inspired by the newly erected Eiffel Tower in Paris) envisioned a very long cable running from earth's equator to space beyond geostationary orbit with a counterweight at the top to offset our planet's gravity—maintaining an upright tether, under tension, to run cars up and down.

What past designs for outer space can teach us about the future

2018-08-20T14:45:00-04:00

A drawing in [Konstantin Tsiolkovsky's] 1883 manuscript Free Space might be the first depiction of humans in orbital weightlessness. Four figures float in a spherical spaceship, each pointed in a different direction, disoriented... This basic design — primary thruster, secondary retro rockets, axial gyros for orientation — has been used by all crewed Russian and American spacecraft to date, including the International Space Station.

Looking back at the history of outer space design, Fred Scharmen brings past innovations into the present with applications for our future. Starting back in 1883 with the first design for humans in outer space (seen below), Konstantin Tsiolkovsky imagined a new way of thinking about spatial design.

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Free Space, 1883. Image: Russian Academy of Sciences.

Scharmen follows this path of design up through 1975 with Princeton physicist Gerard O’Neill's project, funded by NASA, to develop habitats for civilization in space. A team of engineers, space scientists, physicists, artists, urban planners, and architects were assembled to create isolated and controlled interiors for humans to live in.

Bernal Sphere, 1975. Image: Rick Guidice/NASA Ames Research Center.

Habitats like the Bernal Sphere were created as exercises in imagining completely new systems of design. Scharmen advocates that these outer space design exercises are the key to innovation for design both on and...

Foster + Partners' extra-terrestrial habitats will be displayed at Goodwood Festival 2018

2018-07-06T15:31:00-04:00

Continuing with designing for space, Foster + Partners will showcase their vision of life on Mars and the Moon as part of the Future Lab showcase at the 2018 Goodwood Festival. The firm will show a range of models, robotics, and futuristic designs to explore the future of life in space.

Habitation pod design by Foster + Partners. Image: Fost + Partners.

Foster + Partners takes a central position at this year’s FoS Future Lab, which is focused on space exploration, autonomous transport, robotics, and personal flight.

Habitation pod design by Foster + Partners. Image: Fost + Partners.

The firm will be showing their latest award-winning projects carried out for competitions organized by NASA in the event’s second edition of the Future Lab innovation exhibition.

Habitation pod design by Foster + Partners. Image: Fost + Partners.

At the center of the firm's display will be a scale model based on the Mars and lunar habitation pods they designed. Visitors will be able to "walk through" a vir...

Constance Adams, space architect behind NASA's inflatable module, dies at 53

2018-07-02T15:01:00-04:00

Constance Adams, an architect who gave up designing skyscrapers to develop structures that would help travelers live with reasonable comfort on the International Space Station, Mars or the moon, died on Monday at her home in Houston. She was 53.

With architecture degrees from Harvard and Yale, Constance Adams worked—in the traditional sense of the profession—for César Pelli, Kenzo Tange, and German firm Josef Paul Kleihues, before applying her skills in various NASA design programs for space habitats (including the three-level inflatable TransHab module) as well Virgin Galactic's New Mexico Spaceport America and IKEA's Mars-themed furniture design research project.

Uber and NASA team up to create 'flying taxi' by 2020

2017-11-10T16:12:00-05:00

Teaming up with NASA is a big deal for Uber. First, it allows the company to tout the approval of the highly regarded space agency to skeptics. [...] Holden said that Uber wouldn’t have to wait for 2020 before it starts testing things out IRL. The company aims to begin operating a fleet of low-flying helicopters around Dallas-Fort Worth Airport — while working with air traffic controllers to not encroach on their flight paths —as a way to test NASA’s UTM system.

Uber has teamed up with NASA to create an aerial taxi service called UberAIR. Los Angles was just announced as a city now working with the company to host their program along with Dallas-Forth Worth and Dubai. At least 19 other companies are currently developing flying car plans.

Check out Uber's newly released video giving a taste of what the experience would be like.

Foster+Partners | Branch Technology, win NASA's 3D Printed Habitat Challenge

2017-09-05T13:23:00-04:00

The 3D Printed Habitat Challenge—NASA's three-phase, $2.5 million competition—tasks architecture firms to generate and advance the construction technologies necessary for off-world habitats. Each stage of the challenge asks the teams to design and test an individual prototypical building element that can be 3D printed within a 22-hr time frame, while considering material restraints, geometric tolerances and autonomous performance.

Final printed dome. Image courtesy of Foster + Partners.

Foster+Partners and Branch Technology have teamed up to win the latest round of competition. The firm has been tasked with producing three beams, three cylinders, and a 1.5-meter dome out of indigenous Martian regolith and recyclable materials. Their cylinder designs took first place back in May as did their 3D printed beams. They have now won the last segment of the head-to-head competition with their domed structure that was able to take double the load of a competing concrete dome in the stress tes...

MIT team wins NASA challenge to design luxury hotel in low Earth orbit

2017-06-29T13:07:00-04:00

The MIT project — the Managed, Reconfigurable, In-space Nodal Assembly (MARINA) — was designed as a commercially owned and operated space station, featuring a luxury hotel as the primary anchor tenant and NASA as a temporary co-anchor tenant for 10 years. NASA’s estimated recurring costs, $360 million per year, represent an order of magnitude reduction from the current costs of maintaining and operating the International Space Station.

Left to right: Caitlin Mueller (faculty advisor), Matthew Moraguez, George Lordos, and Valentina Sumini are some of the members of the interdisciplinary MIT team that won first place in the graduate division of the Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts-Academic Linkage Design Competition Forum.

Part luxury hotel, part future Mars explorer, MIT's MARINA has a modular design that works not only to provide a bar, restaurant, gym,and eight rooms for low orbit guests, but can be reconfigured to create an "interplanetary Mars transit vehicle that can enter Mars’ orbit, refuel from locally produced methane fuel, and return to Earth." At last: a luxury hotel at which it would be appropriate to charge sky-high prices.

IKEA designers are learning about compact storage from NASA's space architect

2017-06-21T19:55:00-04:00

Confined in Utah’s Mars Desert Research habitat for three days—habitat diameter: 33 feet—the five-person team experienced the cramped living quarters and zero-waste living necessary to survive a journey to outer space.

Designers from IKEA are exploring space-saving solutions for tiny homes by living in an actual Mars research station. During the immersion workshop led by Constance Adams, NASA architect behind the habitat for the first human mission to Mars, the team examines the ways in which astronauts' insight could be translated to innovative furniture solutions for dense urban environments.

“My dream outcome will be to solve the biggest problem on earth…storage,” said IKEA’s head of design, Marcus Engman. “How could you design storage in a completely new way?”

Foster + Partners | Branch Technology win Phase 2, Level 1 of NASA 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge

2017-05-09T19:42:00-04:00

The Foster + Partners and Branch Technology team recently won first prize in the NASA 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge's Phase 2: Level 1 Compression Test Competition. The three-phase Challenge envisions a future where autonomous machines can help build extra-terrestrial shelters for human habitation. Phase 2 is divided into three levels, with each one focusing on a different structural challenge.

After winning second place in Phase 1 in 2015, Foster + Partners teamed up with Branch Technology to refine the original concept.

In Phase 2 - Level 1, the seven competing teams had to use a combination of recycled mission materials and indigenous Martian regolith to 3D-print a truncated cone and a cylinder, which went through compression testing to assess their suitability as structural components.

Foster + Partners and Branch Technology's Cone Print. Courtesy of Foster + Partners | Branch Technology.

Foster + Partners and Bran...

The logistics of building NASA's carbon-dioxide insulated, "Ice Home" on Mars

2017-01-03T13:04:00-05:00

If you don't think you can handle another year on Earth, the possibility of dwelling comfortably on another planet is closer than you might expect. After announcing a winning design from Clouds Architecture Office and Space Exploration Architecture last October, NASA has released more detailed logistical plans for building a carbon dioxide insulated, ice-filled exterior home that could be assembled by robots in preparation for human habitation. The design uses naturally occurring resources found on Mars and predicts that with the planet's estimated daily water extraction rate, it would take about 400 days for the exterior to be filled with water. As the article notes:

The “Mars Ice Home” is a large inflatable torus, a shape similar to an inner tube, which is surrounded by a shell of water ice. The Mars Ice Home design has several advantages that make it an appealing concept. It is lightweight and can be transported and deployed with simple robotics, then filled with water before the...

One-to-One #46 with David Delgado and Daniel Goods, visual strategists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

2016-11-14T19:17:00-05:00

Through their work as visual strategists for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, David Delgado and Daniel Goods inspire scientists and make science inspiring. Under 'The Studio' at JPL, David and Dan help engineers and scientists sort through their own design problems using creative methodologies, while also framing JPL's research for a general audience—making things like travel posters for exoplanets and a giant listening station for orbiting satellites.

David and Dan sat down with me to discuss their role in the JPL ecosystem, and the invaluable role their architect and designer-collaborators play in imagining the future. David starts off the conversation by describing their 'Metamorphosis' project: visualizing the surface of a comet through sculpture, for the Rosetta Mission.

Listen to One-to-One #46 with JPL visual strategists David Delgado and Daniel Goods:

iTunes: Click here to listen and subscribe to the new "Archinect Sessions One-to-One" podcast
SoundCloud: click here to follow A...

MOONTOPIA: Design a self-sufficient lunar colony in this out of this world challenge

2016-09-08T12:49:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Eleven Magazine.

In 1969, the Space Race peaked with the success of the Apollo 11 mission bringing the first man to walk on the Moon. Today, nearly half a century later, new technological advances and a renewed interest in space are igniting a new race.

This time, however, we are tired of just walking. We want to inhabit!

But how?

Eleven has launched its first international ideas and design competition on Space Architecture! The challenge ends on the 11th November 2016 and will be judged by a prestigious group of space architects, researchers, academics and representatives from NASA’s lunar inhabitation program.

Eleven invites thinkers, architects, designers, artists, academics and visionaries from around the world to imagine innovative solutions for Moontopia - the first ever self-sufficient lunar colony designed for living, working, researching and - why not - a little space tourism, too.

How will mankind exist on the Moon? You decide.

Find out more: htt...

MOONTOPIA: An out of this world challenge...

2016-08-12T12:28:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Eleven Magazine.

In 1969, the Space Race peaked with the successful Apollo 11 mission, which allowed the first man to walk on the moon.
Between 1969 and 1972, there have been six successful manned missions to the moon, all from the USA. In total, 12 people (all male) have walked on the lunar surface.
No one has walked on the surface of the moon since 1972.
Today, nearly half a century later, new technological advances and a renewed desire for space exploration have ignited a new race. Attention is moving back to the moon. This time, however, we are tired of just walking… what we want is to inhabit! Space Architecture is becoming a growing field with the desired outcome to kick-start space tourism, expand our scientific knowledge, and ultimately make mankind a multi-planetary / galactic species.
But how?
Eleven is excited to announce its first international ideas and design competition on space architecture.
We invite thinkers, architects, designers, academic...