A Home Away from Home: Design of Modular Crew Quarters for a Commercial Space Station

Abstract

The increasing human presence in low Earth orbit (LEO) demands innovation in space habitation and space station design. Future stations must provide living quarters that accommodate the next generation of astronauts, whether that be long duration crew, tourists, scientists, or actors. These spaces must not only keep crew alive, but they must also promote sustainable, enjoyable, and memorable living experiences.

This thesis discusses the design and evaluation of a human-centered concept for future crew quarters (CQs) or personal living spaces. Implementing a robust design approach to accommodate a diverse set of user needs and anthropometric constraints resulted in an intimate and modular alternative to current CQs. Origami techniques were used to make crew quarters adaptive to launch constraints, fluctuations in crew size, and station evolution. Finally, this thesis is an exploration into virtual reality (VR) as an engineering tool to promote human-centered design. VR enabled agile, cost-effective, iterative, and immersive design and evaluation.