Early Bird Visions and Telchnology for Space Hotel
Abstract
The International Space Station was planed for research purposes. In 2001 the first private man, Denis Tito, visited the ISS and the second private man, Mark Shuttleworth is following him. Space pioneers as Wernher von Braun and Sir Arthur C. Clarke had the dream that one day a space station in earth orbit will host tourists. It is evident that the ISS is not designed to host tourists. Therefore the dream is still open. Asking the question "how should a space station should look like to host tourists?" the German Aerospace Society DGLR e.V. initiated in April 2001 a contest under the patronage of . Mr. Joerg Feustel-Buechl, the Director of Manned Spaceflight and Microgravity, European Space Agency (ESA). Because the definition and design of living space is the content of architecture the approach was to gather new ideas from young architects in cooperation with space experts. This contest was directed at students of architecture and the task set was to design a hotel for the earth orbit and to accommodate 220 guests. The contest got the name "Early Bird - Visions of a Space Hotel". The results and models of the student's work were shown in an exhibition in Hamburg/Germany, which was open to the public from September 19th till October 20th 2001. During the summer term 2001 fifty students from the university occupied themselves with the topic, "Design of a hotel for space". During this time seventeen designs were completed. Having specialists, as volunteers, in the field of space in charge meant that it could be ensured that the designs reflected a certain possibility of being able to be realized. Within this interdisciplinary project both parties learned from each other. The 17 different designs were focused on the expectations and needs of a future space tourist. The design are for sure not feasible today, but the designs are in that sense realistic that they could be built in future. This paper will present an overview of the 17 designs as a vision of a future space station. The designs used technologies which are currently in a development phase (e.g. tether technology, inflatable habitats). But the during the design process requirements for the development of technologies have been defined as well (e.g. multifunctional surfaces, smart materials etc.). This paper will deal with the concepts basing on the today technologies and the definition of new technologies for future large space stations. www.spacehotel.org
- Publication:
-
IAF abstracts, 34th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- January 2002
- Bibcode:
- 2002iaf..confE.896A