Advanced Habitation Systems

TEAM LEAD | Florida Institute of Technology

For a three-semester-long capstone design project sponsored by Northrop Grumman, my team and I are developing an autonomously deployed habitation system supporting four astronauts on a 90-day lunar mission. The system features a foldable rigid structure with an inflatable membrane and an on-board computer for atmospheric control. This design utilizes a deployment process that mimics the kinematics of opening an umbrella and utilizes the nonlinear dynamic behavior of a five-bar mechanical linkage. With the compact configuration we designed, we achieved a 58% compact factor.