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. — MIT News
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... View full entry
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. — Quartz
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'... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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)... View full entry
Last week we witnessed the loss of Dame Zaha Hadid, one of architecture's most formidable and prolific talents. We'll be devoting a later podcast episode to remembering her and honoring her work. Until then, we'll continue catching you up with the most significant architecture news from the past... View full entry
NASA is hoping a new expandable habitat might one day give astronauts a little more alone time. The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, will be ferried to the ISS later this spring for a series of tests expected to last several years...experiments will help determine the viability of expandable habitats, which weigh less and occupy less space on a rocket, as laboratories and living quarters for future deep-space missions. — Slate
More on Archinect:How to turn Martian soil into concreteThe Mars Ice House envisions the day Earthlings can live with ease atop the Martian surfaceNewly patented space elevator could take astronauts 12 miles up into the stratosphere View full entry
Sixty years after the Wright Brothers put man in the air, scientists and engineers were grappling with the next major challenge: putting a man in space - and keeping him alive there. As an engineering challenge, it was the most extreme imaginable. Their solution was a rocket and the most complicated piece of personal protection equipment man has ever known: the space suit. — AlJazeera
Al Jazeera's Caroline Radnofsky set out to explore the legacy of her grandfather, the man behind the iconic Apollo 11 space suits.I felt like I knew Grandpa best not through the glowing endorsements, but through the anecdotes that were sometimes least flattering: how he'd get so excited about... View full entry
Living off the land is different when the land is 140 million miles away, so NASA is looking for innovative ideas to use in situ (in place) Martian resources to help establish a human presence on the Red Planet. — NASA
After NASA announced strong evidence of the presence of liquid water on Mars, efforts to bring Earthlings to the red planet seems to be picking up steam. Elon Musk is talking about nuking its poles and design competitions, like the 3-D Printed Habitat Challenge, are increasingly looking at... View full entry
So continues the space-age fantasy of humankind someday living successfully on the Red Planet, or undertaking expeditions to the far ends of the universe. In this spirit, NASA and America Makes' launched their 3D Printed Habitat Challenge late last year, wherein multi-disciplinary teams proposed... View full entry
Architect-founded technology firm Arx Pax, who brought you the Hendo Hoverboard, and NASA, who recently brought you photos of Pluto, announced today that they've teamed up in a Space Act Agreement to create micro-satellite capture devices that create magnetic tethers between satellites.The... View full entry
NASA has released new images that show an acceleration in global sea level rise, from about 1 millimeter per year at the beginning of the last century to 3 millimeters per year today.“NASA’s been looking down at the oceans from space for about the last 23 years,” explains Josh Willis, a NASA... View full entry
Despite recent successes in water conservancy and summer rainfall in the state, the California drought is still “probably worse than most people recognize,” according to Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and juror on Archinect’s Dry Futures... View full entry
