Report by Georgi Petrov: This is a brief report on the 2019 International Conference of Environmental Systems (ICES), that was held in Boston, MA, USA at the Omni Parker House Hotel, July 7-11, 2019. Along with Francois Levy and Sandra Häuplik-Meusberger, I co-chaired organizing the Space Architecture Technical Committee’s participation in this year’s ICES.
The International Conference on Environmental Systems, or ICES (known prior to 1990 as the Intersociety Conference on Environmental Systems), is an annual technical conference focusing on human spaceflight technology and space human factors. Session topics include: Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS), thermal control, life sciences, extra-vehicular activity (EVA) systems (including space suit design and human-robot interaction), space architecture, and mission planning for exploration. The conference has taken place annually since 1971. Next year’s conference will be in Lisbon, Portugal.
The Space Architecture session was a big success. We had ten presentations in three sessions. We had very good attendance with peak attendance for each session of 50, 60, and 30.
We had a good mixture of regulars and some new faces. There were four former astronauts at the conference and I saw all four of them at our session at one time or another.
Special thanks to my co-chairs Sandra and Francois who ran the abstract and peer review process with me.
The accompanying presentation for the recent AIAA Space Architecture Webinar can be found below.
Webinar – Step by Step Process for Designing Weightless Space Habitats
The webinar course was prepared and conducted by SATC member Brand Griffin. It contains a vast amount of relevant information and guidance for anyone involved in any aspect of weightless space architecture or would like to gain an understanding of the importance of designing space habitats for human neutral body posture.
“Building Beyond: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Architecture in Space” was a panel discussion comprising architects, artists, authors, scientists, and engineers speaking about the expanding roles their disciplines are finding in the field of space architecture. Emerging cultural and economic forces are opening aerospace design to more diverse participants and viewpoints, and especially to integrators with skills to collaborate across disciplines. Opportunities and incentives for space architects are increasing, especially in the crossover between space habitation system development and applying lessons learned from space projects and technologies to help development of sustainable, autonomous, and ecosystem-integrated projects on Earth.
The session was held the evening before the Opening Ceremony of the 69th International Astronautical Congress, convenient for arriving delegates and serving as a stimulating introduction to the scope of space architecture and start to the week. Attendance was noteworthy, about 100, with wide-ranging Q&A followed by informal dialogue, fellowship, and refreshments.
Space Architect Barbara Imhof described multiple collaborative projects with designers, engineers, and scientists: expandable habitat prototypes, Antarctic greenhouses, and sintering of lunar regolith. Engineer Daniel Schubert expanded on the role of the broad team that created the antarctic greenhouse project, now in operation, aimed at developing lessons for growing plant life in space. Biologist and Artist Angelo Vermeulen summarized multidisciplinary studies on starship concepts, projecting a visionary future of ecosystems in space. Architect Jan Dierckx from Foster+Partners discussed how their work on autonomous 3D printing for Mars and smart habitation has helped keep the firm at the forefront of advanced Earth construction. Author, Engineer, and Space Architect Brent Sherwood put architects’ unique skills into the context of interdisciplinary design of space systems, and described the long view of human expansion into space. Through lively discussion about their work and the state of space design, the panel highlighted the enthusiasm, interest, and opportunities for multiple disciplines working together on the verge of building beyond.
Webinar: Step-by-Step Process for Designing Weightless Space Habitats
8 November 2018. 1300-1430 Eastern Time
A special educational webinar for anyone who would like to gain an understanding of the importance of designing space habitats for human neutral body posture.
SATC member Brand Griffin prepared and will conduct this web course. It contains a vast amount of relevant information and guidance for anyone involved in any aspect of weightless space architecture. AIAA members pay a special rate; AIAA student members get a huge discount. You can sign up for the webinar on the AIAA page link below:
Webinar: Step-by-Step Process for Designing Weightless Space Habitats
SATC Chair Brent Sherwood has recently written an article about the latest state of Space Architecture. The document can be found below:
The latest round of Space Architecture Symposium (SAS Bremen) was held at the Bremen DLR center on the 29th September 2018. The Symposium was organised by Barbara Imhof and Christina Ciardullo, with the support of Spacearchitect.org and many members from the Space Architecture Technical Committee. The theme for the day-long workshop session was to discuss the recent milestones and state of space architecture, as well as current and future opportunities for the field.
The symposium was attended by around 30 individuals coming from diverse backgrounds but share the common interest in the field of space architecture. The symposium began with an introduction about the theme and aim of the symposium, followed by brief reports of the current state of space architecture around the different region around the world. The symposium then went into a bit more detailed discussions on specific topics such as projects, companies, competition and education etc., giving a general overview of the field of space architecture at this moment in time.
The discussion continued over the pizza lunch and was followed by a guided tour around the DLR center and an update on the Eden-ISS project that is currently operating live in Antarctica.
Into the afternoon session, the topics moved onto to where the field of space architecture is going in the near future, on “working for new space”, , “branding the profession”, “working on Earth” and “outlet for space architecture ideas”.
The symposium wrapped up with a casual dinner near the DLR, where participants had the opportunities to continue the conversation over the many topics discussed during the day.
Summarised notes for SAS Bremen 2018.
Prensentation slides for SAS Bremen 2018.
Photo gallery for SAS Bremen 2018.
Building Beyond – Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Architecture in Space
What does the future look like for buildings, cities and habitats on and off the planet?
Join us for drinks and conversation on the operational field of space architecture and its potential to impact future space exploration and terrestrial building practices.
Sunday, 30th Sept 2018 – 18:00
IAC – CCB Franzius
Messe Bremen, Findorffstrasse 101, 28215 BRemen, Germany.
Spacearchitect.org has recently added a guide note on where to study space architecture – a handy resource for those who are looking for space architecture related study courses and educational institutes around the world, based on the list compiled by Olga Bannova and Sandra Haeuplik-Meusburger for their book Space Architecture Education for Engineers and Architects (Springer, 2016).
Guide Note: Where To Study Space Architecture?
Please contact info@spacearchitect.org if you know of other space architecture related courses and would like to add them to the educational resources.
Report by François Levy: This is a brief report on the 2018 International Conference of Environmental Systems (ICES), that was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA from July 8th through 12th. Along with Georgi Petrov, Sandra Häuplik-Meusberger, and Don Barker, I co-chaired organizing the Space Architecture Technical Committee’s participation in this year’s ICES.