Designing a Safe and Comfortable Self-Assembling Space Habitat

Hello, I am thirteen, going into 8th grade and I love nature, cats, and space. I used Fusion in my design, because I am familiar with it and I use it for my robotics team. I hope you like and understand my design, if you are confused click on the links I provided they may help.

The Aurelia Institute was created in 2021, and ever since they have been designing compact ways to transport self-assembling habits for space. Their mission is very important for future homes in space, and have turned at home science experiments into magnificent space habitats. At such a compact level, Aurelia Institute's mission will thrive in the next generations of space travel.

But why is compactness so important, it still weighs the same? There is more than one force here, gravity and air resistance. Air resistance affects how much force is needed to move certain shapes through air, like a cube would take more force than a cylinder or sphere. Since the Aurelia Institute's TESSERAE Spaceflight Tiles are self-assembling, they can be packed in a narrow rocket while being disassembled. The narrow rocket would have much less air resistance than having the entire thing built and mounted onto a rocket.

The small self assembling tiles are for more than air resistance, but also to reduce construction that might take astronauts outside the set habitat. This would also make the construction go by faster than having people build individual pieces.

So since the Aurelia Institute has been a featured part of the Make it Resilient Contest, I have decided that my habitant should include the Aurelia Institute's self-assembling aspect. I will not only explain my design, but also my ideas and prototypes.

Articulated Sphere Prototype

• Cardboard
• Duct tape
• Scotch tape
• Yarn
• Scissors
• Needle
• Paper clip

Real-Life Build

• Radiators
• Solar blankets
• Aluminum alloy
• Furniture
• Fans
• Sleeping bags
• Glass
• Space-proof fabric
• Strong string
• LEDs
• Plants
• Oxygen tanks
• Electronics
• And more

You can't exactly design a habitat without knowing what is needed, and required resources will change depending on the location. It's possible, but it's not really the smartest thing to do. The contest page listed a few examples, including desert, area of coastal flooding, deep ocean, rainforest, another planet, and outer space. Most people who have already published their entrees chose desert, mars, or rainforest for their own design. But I know a lot about space, so I choose outer space.

Now moving on to the real question, why build a home in outer space? Yes, zero gravity may be fun, but that's not a answer. I fact there are more problems about the absence of gravity, which I will review later. I chose for it to test a few "solutions" and see if they actually work, but also for space studies.

One more thing, I researched a few things and found that my habitat would be called a orbital city, stead, colony, or habitat. I chose to call mine a orbital habitat.

The next thing is to ensure it will work, and in space there are lots of problems. These problems include solar radiation, food, water, energy, and keeping the inhabitants healthy. To find some solutions to one of these problems, I looked for more popular things that require the same thing. For the solar radiation problem, this happened to be mars.

Mars', unlike earth, has no magnetic field to protect it from solar winds or coronal mass ejections. Earth's outer core contains a mechanism called a dynamo core, which is made of liquid iron. The iron moves in a process known as convection, like what occurs when you boil water. This movement is caused by radioactive heating and chemical differentiation causing uneven heat in the core, this powers convection currents in the liquid iron. Convection is how cold parts go down and warm parts go up in a gas or liquid.

A solution to this problem was presented by Dr. Jim Green and a panel of researchers, during NASA's "Planetary Science Vision 2050 Workshop". Green and the researchers discussed how a magnetic shield for mars' could help improve its atmosphere and aid future missions there.

This specific solution is only possible because solar wind compresses magnetic fields on the side facing the sun, and stretches the other side. The side that gets stretched is called the magnetotail, and can protect the planets inside of them. This concept can also be used to protect orbital habitats and the like, but replacing the magnetic field with a artificial magnetic field will be needed. The only problem that might come up is not having enough energy to run the artificial magnetic field. However, it probably only needs to be activated a few hours before the solar storm hits, and these storms take a minimum of 18 hours to arrive at earth. If the orbital habitat has enough solar wings like the ISS, it might be able to collet enough energy to run it.

Also if the orbital habitat is a straight line it will fit in the magnetotail, and a smaller magnetic field will be required. This shape will save building materials for the artificial magnetic field, but keeping the habitat in the right orientation while orbiting the sun might be a problem. That problem can be fixed with gimballing engines, that swing on pivots to steer rockets.

Two down, one to go! Food is necessary for humans, and plants fix this and add a few extra bonuses. Plant provide healthy food for astronauts, and any animals that may be on the orbital habitat. A large area for plants might be needed, but thats for nearly anywhere. Plus plants perform photosynthesis, the process of converting light, water, carbon dioxide, and chlorophyll into sugar for food, while leftover oxygen is released from the leaves. Humans and animals use respiration, breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide. Photosynthesis and respiration go hand in hand; if you take one out the other can't exist. So having plants aboard the orbital habitat will definitely help with air quality, but there's still one more bonus. Some plants have medical properties, including aloe vera, ginger, peppermint, and lavender.

Since my orbital habitat won't be on a planet, it will need a different source of water. Past space missions reused water, such as breath and sweat, this would probably require a large filtration system. Another solution is to coat the outside of the traveling space habitat with a drying agent suitable for collecting water from vacuums. I think reusing water and collecting it using the drying agent, will be enough.

To power the orbital habitat we need energy, and transporting massive batteries will cost millions of dollars. The ISS uses massive solar arrays that look like wings instead, they still cost a lot but they make enough energy to power the ISS and more. Here I have information on how much voltage these arrays make.

• The ISS uses 75-90 kilowatts
• ISS solar arrays make 84-120 kilowatts
• When all the solar wings are in the sun 60% of energy is put in batteries
• When not all arrays are in the sun the batteries are used until they are in the sun again

My orbital habitat will use solar arrays like the ISS, plus they way NASA transported the wings is very compact. The arrays folded up and looked like a blanket, when they were transported the solar arrays folded out into their max size.

On earth we don't have to worry about not having enough gravity, but in space the absence of gravity can cause big problems. These problems include losing your sense of direction, the loss of bone mass, the loss of muscle mass, and the accumulation of fluids in the head. Not only are these health hazards, but getting lost and not able to follow a emergency exit plan, this disorientation is called the "space stupids". So far there aren't many fixes, and most of them are way out of NASA's budget. But one of my own solutions might be able to fix most of these problems. My solution uses air resistance in a way similar to how skydiving simulators work.

Vertical wind tunnels are often used as skydiving simulators, but without actually falling. They allow humans to freely float on air, with wind speeds of 120 - 200 mph. If these vertical wind tunnels can lift someone off the ground, surely they can keep someone on the ground in microgravity. Having enough space on the spacecraft might be a problem, but for now I think it's great.

But the one thing my design doesn't fix is the accumulation of fluids in the head, which can cause swollen faces and swollen retinas. This will affect visual capabilities as seen in this article, and could be hazardous when performing actions such as having spacecrafts dock onto the orbital habitat. Luckily there is a sleeping bag that has been designed to pull fluids towards the legs, the link is right here. But it is still a prototype, so it may not work.

At the beginning of this instructable I wanted my design to be self-assembling, like the Aurelia Institutes. But I don't want to copy anything beyond that, such as how their design used electromagnets to assemble.

The design I came up with was very similar to how your fingers move, and uses string and two motors to assemble. The strings will have eight internal and external attachment points on a vertical line, and there will be six of these lines. Then when the strings are pulled the spherical structure will expand, and it will only need two motors. The rocket will send a signal to the disassembled room, and the room will power the motors when it receives the signal.

The spherical shape will be made of rectangles, trapezoids, and triangles, a shape known as a UV sphere. It might be hard to make this in Fusion 360, but it will be worth it.

Before we get to CAD, we need to know the names of the rooms, what is in the rooms, and other details. I think the overall furnishings should look like things from earth, not to remind them of earth but to make them feel home. I also have a prefered color scheme, using blue the most, light colored wood, bright orange, purple, and teal. The reason for these colors is that blue is a calming color as found in this article, and is universally liked. And under the stress of being in space, this will help.

Blue also lowers heart rate, while red increases heart rate, if high or low heart rates become a problem the orbital habitat can start changing the lights to the needed color.

Rooms

Capsule: A capsule is one room about 4m across, and might have a inflatable room on top of it.

Inflatable Room: It is mounted on a capsule, and inflates.

Capsule Set: S casule set is the suggested capsules to house up to 6 people.

Orbital habitat: The complete habitat that will be sent to space.

The sleeping room will likely be a inflatable room, but when not being used, sleeping bags will remain in the capsule.

Furnishings

Greenery Section

Where plants and crops are grown, it will use LED lighting to help grow the plants. LED grow lights are energy efficient and emit low heat, and will help the plants grow. The section will be at the bottom of the capsule and have two trap doors protecting it from the astronauts and allowing access for manual actions.

Magnetic Bag Holders

Instead of pegs, these magnetic bag holders have two connection points to insure personal belonging bags or first aid kits will stay on. They are vertically 12 in apart. There is a sleeping bag variant that is 18 in across for a wider sleeping bag, but that's for the straps.

TV (Greenery Display)

The TV is used to display information on the greenery section, this includes temperature, moisture, and suggested caretaking based on history. It might be used for entertainment too, but there will be another TV for that.

TV (Entertainment)

This will have entertaining videos of sports, documentaries, movies, and funny animals. It will probably use CDs or DVDs for a steady connection.

Picture Frames

These will be hung on a few walls and have calming scenes of nature on them.

Fold-Up Seating

These will fold up for more space in the room, and will probably fold upwards so they don't hit the greenery sections doors. When folded they will have pictures on the bottom.

To start modeling the UV sphere, I made a normal sphere which would later be deleted. I did a "Isocurve Analysis" in the inspect tab, I used it on the sphere with both horizontal and vertical lines, and with 6 isocurves. You can see the analysis in the first photo above, it is the addition of the dotted lines. I wanted to copy the horizontal lines to a sketch, so I dimensioned the lines through angles as seen in the second photo above. After the top lines were done I mirrored them to the bottom half of the circle. I put a point at the top of the circle, and made it vertical to the origin

Parameterize It For Step 10

If you are following the instructions to make the same thing or something like it you should parameterize it. When you parameterize the design it will be very easy to change the size or dimensions, you don't even have to open sketches. To start go to Change Parameters under modify, in the top right corner of the menu will be a + button. Click it, name it, and give it a expression, for mine I named it SizeInDiameter and set it's expression to 4 m. Now in the same menu under Model Parameters, (what your project is called), Sketch1, there should be a "Diameter Dimension" set it's expression to SizeInDiameter or what you called your user parameter. Now your done parameterizing it!

To make the six vertical lines I need a sketch identical to the first one, but at a 60 degree angle. So I used the "Plane at Angle" function on the Z axis at a 60 degree angle. Then I made the second sketch on the new plane identical to the first sketch, as seen in the second picture above. And I parameterized the circle in sketch 2, with a User Parameter.

With both of these sketches I made 2D faces connecting them in the 60 degree gap, but first I need another plane. To start doing this I used the "Plane Through Three Points" function on the top point and the two points below it. Then I made a 3D sketch on the new plane, and made lines connecting each point on the first two sketches. You can see it in the first picture above. Under the surface tab is "Patch" which is exactly what I need to make a 2D face, so I used it on the closed shapes, with one patch for each shape. I made it start to look like a sphere with a "Circular Pattern" with a quantity of 6, you can see this in the second picture above. Instead of one big circular pattern I used a pattern on each shape for easy editing, and after the top half was done I mirrored it down to the bottom.

Walls are definitely necessary in space, whether they be inflatable or solid, but never 2D. Plus the walls will likely hold the air conditioning system and the pressurizing features. I think 3 in walls will be thick enough, but if not I can parameterize it for easily changing it. Anyways the first thing to do is to make 2 copies of the UV sphere, two for editing and one extra just in case. Now on one of the spheres we can change the SizeInDiameter User Parameter to 3.8476. Now you can save the design and rename it to something like UV Sphere Tool.

Open up a unedited UV sphere design and double click on the UV Sphere Tool while your in the unedited design. Select Insert into Current Design, after that it should ask you to locate it but click cancel.

To get the UV Sphere Tool into a unedited copy, you open up a unedited UV sphere design and double click on the UV Sphere Tool while you're in the unedited design. Select Insert into Current Design, after that it should ask you to locate the inserted component, but click cancel. Now that I have the UV Sphere Tool in the unedited design I can make the 2 inch walls. I'll start by moving the timeline marker to right after the first patch, then delete the patch. Then I used the "Loft" function on the sketch that the patch was on, and the edited UV sphere that is behind the sketch as seen in the first photo above. After the loft, move the timeline marker to after the circular pattern in front of the loft. Then select edit the circular pattern, and select the body created from the loft. I repeated this until there were no patches left, you can see it finished, but without being mirrored in the second picture above.

Now that we have the basic shape we need in CAD, I made a layout from the model to make a prototype.

Cutting Cardboard

Supplies:

• Cardboard
• Duct/packaging tape
• Scotch tape
• Yarn
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Needle
• Paper clip
• Paper Cutting Guide

Instructions:

1. Print out the paper cutting guide in the first picture above
2. Cut out one of the petal-like shapes on the paper cutting guide
3. Trace the petal onto the cardboard with your pencil
4. Don't forget to mark the lines that are inside the petal shape
5. Cut out the traced piece of cardboard
6. Cut on the marked lines, you should end with 7 pieces

Taping It Together

1. Place the 7 pieces how they were before you cut them out, but leave enough space for flexing
2. With one long piece of duct tape, tape the petal together from end to end
3. Flip it over and duct tape it like you did on the first side
4. Cut up the straws into lengths that will fit on the cardboard pieces without touching the flex points
5. Tape two straw pieces for each individual cardboard part with scotch tape, one straw part each side

Threading It

1. Thread the needle with yarn
2. Push the needle through the straws on one side
3. At the last straw tie a knot with the string
4. Cut the string at the other end, but leave a long tail
5. Do the other side like the side you did in 10-13
6. Make sure to have both the knots front to back
7. Pull the string and watch it move!

I hope those were easy instructions, but now we can move on to testing the prototype. First, it makes weird shapes when you pull it sometimes, but on a larger scale model that would be fixed with a mechanical stop. I have that in my CAD design and it was made from using lofts to make no interference, but coincident faces. Second it doesn't fold nice and tight, instead it curls into a square. This would require moving the hinges from a external edge to a internal edge, which would allow more coincident faces in a zig zag folding pattern. It might be harder to pressurize doing that, but it will allow more compactness.

Note: I made this step after making the fully furnished capsule, since I colored the capsule and went back in the timeline some of the colors aren't where they're supposed to be. Simply put, the colors don't matter at the moment.

The next step in CAD is to furnish the capsule, I talked about furnishings in step 7. The first step is to make the bottom triangles grouped together, so they can hold the self assembling electronics. To do this I made a "Plane Through Three Points" inside the capsule on the three points of the bottom hexagon, you can see it in the first photo above. I made a sketch on the new plane, and projected the vertices from the bottom hexagon into the sketch. I connected the projected points with lines, you can see the finished sketch in the second photo above. I extruded the sketch for 3in downward, but before hitting OK, select create new body. "Combine" the bottom triangles with the new body, and your done with this step.

Next up is the greenery sections trapdoors, which will double as a floor for the inhabitants above. Again we need a "Plane Through Three Points" on the hexagon above the bottom one, as seen in the first picture above. Another sketch with the hexagon being projected into it and the lines connecting the points, but add a line connecting two points opposite of each other. Finish the sketch and make a sketch on the front plane, with the line you made in the hexagon and the angled wall below that sketch being projected into the current sketch. On both the projected lines put lines over them for easier visibility. Make a 3in vertical line on the angled wall line, and use a "Coincident" constraint on the top point of the line to the flat line above it. Finish sketch and do a offset plane on the plane you made in this step. Offset it by 3in. Make a sketch on the offset plane and project the bottom point of the 3in line in the second sketch you made in this step. Make a "Inscribed Polygon" with six sides on the origin and make the size point on the projected point. Also make a line like in the first sketch you made in this step, make it the same direction as the first line. The fifth photo above shows all three sketches at once.

Create a loft from one half of the bottom hexagon to the half on the same side of the upper hexagon. Make a new body with the loft, you can see the result in the sixth and seventh pictures above. Do the same thing but on the other side of the hexagon, with a new body too. Done with the greenery section, it will be below the trapdoors you just made, but above the electronic space.

To add windows you need a shell on the two faces you need to see through, I did this with a 0.1m inside thickness, you can see it in the first photo above. I did this three times on the same side of the sphere. To make the glass part you need more lofts, I put the lofts on both the horizontal faces that the shell made. The result is in the third picture above. I did this three times, one for each shell, then I went into appearances under modify and made the lofts glass.

I made my furniture in a different design, and add the UV Sphere 3in Walls into a new design along with any furniture I made. Here's some ways you can furnish your capsule!

• Add seating
• Add picture frames
• Add a TV
• Add curtains
• Add lockers or places to hang bags
• Add your own custom color scheme
• Add doors to enter another capsule
• Add a inflatable room on top
• Add joints to make it move

I added a TV, my magnetic bag holders, seating with pictures on the bottom for when the chairs fold up, one picture frame, sleeping bag magnetic holders, and my paint. You can see my final design in the preview below or the pictures above. All the pictures I used for the images in the picture frames were taken by my or my family members, and the cats belong to my family. I hope you enjoyed my 3D Modeling steps!

You just went through 8 informational steps, 5 CAD steps, 4 prototype steps, 4 more CAD steps, and then this step. Thats 22 steps in total, well congrats because your nearly done! I made my single capsule a assembly with many others, and I added a solar array, the inflatable rooms, nice connector for the inflatable rooms, and radiators. You can see if the preview below will load, if not I have pictures above.