Future Space Architecture: Cross-Functional Multidisciplinary Design and Engineering

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), the European Space Agency (ESA), and faculty in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Medial Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), first established a partnership in 2018 to explore aspirations for a permanent lunar settlement through cross-industry collaboration to influence future thinking about sustainable exploration architectures. The idea for a “Moon Village” presented by the ESA Director General Johann-Dietrich Wörner, inspired this partnership to envision an open architecture based on global cooperation for the common objective of enabling long-term sustainable human exploration and development on the Moon. In 2019 the partnership unveiled the first glimpse into this multidisciplinary project revolving around principles of resiliency, self-sufficiency, and a next-generation integrated habitat architecture. In January of 2020, a Memorandum of Collaboration (MOC) was signed at ESA’s headquarters and the cooperation was extended to advance habitat architecture with an emphasis on concurrent design and engineering of concepts for a multi-functional integrated habitat. The evolution of this collaboration initiated a study within ESA’s Concurrent Design Facility (CDF), to conduct a cross-disciplinary study, encouraging design innovation and the application of alternative engineering methodologies. The partnership centered on the need for international cooperation to support innovative concepts and technology program capabilities that bring commercial and government closer together, fostering new ideas that align with reaching exploration goals toward the utilization of space resources and human access to planetary surfaces including the Moon and Mars.