![]() Reader's Choice: How Engineers Put Astronauts on the Moon “Temperatures of -30☌ and wind speeds of 32 meters per second makes heavy insulation and a strong structural frame a highly critical part of the design.” “The habitat is designed to withstand the harsh and cold arctic environment,” LUNARK mechanical engineer Frederik Voldbirk explained. Greenland is not a perfect analog to the Moon-the Moon lacks wind and polar bears-but its extreme environment will provide an ideal proving ground for the habitat’s viability. “We need to be there and feel the danger as well as the isolation.” Image: SAGA Space Architects.“We believe that only through putting our own bodies and our minds into the situation can we really extract firsthand the knowledge of the place that we need, because it’s so hard to experience these kinds of things vicariously,” Sørensen said. So Sørensen and SAGA co-founder Sebastian Aristotelis plan to test LUNARK in one of the harshest places on this planet by spending three months living and working in a prototype habitat in the wilds of northern Greenland.Īlthough it will have two levels, LUNARK will still be a tight fit for astronauts. More than having a workable origami design, the structure also has to be practical for a hostile environment. Then when you want to collapse it again, you push the shape until it reaches a threshold and then it folds.” ![]() It’s stable and then you start pushing it up and there’s some resistance on the shape, and then as soon as it reaches a threshold, it pops up and completes the process. “The deformation is actually working to our advantage because it’s a little bit like a spring that has a biased stability. More for You: John Thornton: Making the Moon Accessible And then it has these flexible seams that just allow it to deform enough for it to fall down and collapse. “But we thought it might be possible if you allow for some deformation in the structure, and that’s what we’ve achieved. “He said that it’s not possible,” recalls Sørensen. ![]() Even NASA physicist Robert Lang, a recognized expert in designing practical origami structures, was dubious. Origami concepts have been used in space before to deploy solar panels and light sails, but the SAGA concept introduces new levels of complexity. Image: SAGA Space Architects.Įlegant, perhaps, but not easy. It seems like a pretty elegant solution.”Įngineers at SAGA put the finishing touches on the LUNARK configuration that the company’s two founders will inhabit for three months in Greenland. A flower unfolds and it’s folded up in origami style. Nature is often a good starting point to solve problems. That led to the LUNARK idea: “We thought of origami, partly from looking at flowers and leaves. “One of those is that solar panels-and everything else that’s flat and has to be mounted on top of it-do not really interface that well with a flexible membrane.” But that has significant disadvantages, Sørensen explained. Such a design could be an inflatable structure, an approach already explored by companies such as Bigelow Aerospace. But a collapsible design takes up far less precious space and weight within a launch vehicle. ![]() He notes that from its beginnings, human spaceflight has involved static constructions that are sent into space either as one big piece or several pieces joined together later, as with the International Space Station. “Because rockets are expensive, the more compact and light you can make it, the more economical, and the more you get out of your mission.” Image: SAGA Space Architects.“With the Moon, the primary challenge is transportability and size constraints,” Sørensen said. SAGA founders Karl-Johan Sørensen and Sebastian Aristotelis with the framework for their LUNARK pop-up lunar habitat.
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