Space station design rules

Engineers can develop the best solution to a problem that has conflicting objectives by using a space station design language.

The design of a space station is a search for a compromise solution between several disciplines and their requirements. Alongside engineering aspects, psychological, medical, economical, and political aspects may also have a crucial impact on the design process. The design engineer has to deal with all those factors during the conceptual design phase, which is typically an iterative process.

To effectively support the conceptual-level design activity of space stations, a new approach can be used that is different from most commonly used approaches. This new design approach is based on so-called “design grammar” stemming from the domain of computer science.