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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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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+. — Construction Dive
Related on Archinect: Construction tech developer ICON secures $35M in funding, BIG among investors View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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 Mainichi
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... View full entry
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. — placesjournal.org
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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. — The New York Times
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... View full entry
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. — The Verge
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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
