An Interdisciplinary Engineering/Architectural Approach to the Conceptual Design of Space Stations

This paper describes an interdisciplinary approach to the conceptual design of space stations. Two key ingredients define it: a human-centered design approach, and a habitat attitude towards inhabited space structures. Both have their roots in terrestrial architecture, which represents centuries of experience in the design of human-centered habitats. The paper documents how an interdisciplinary conceptual design process was developed by improving an existing validated engineering methodology for the conceptual design of space stations by adding elements from architectural practice. An initial space station design project using this approach shows promising results.