Why Lockheed Martin Designs a Tiny House Orbiting the Moon

NASA wants to build another space station – but it will not live in orbit around the Earth. Over the past year, NASA has begun planning a smaller astronaut outpost in orbit around the Moon, a new destination known as the Gateway. The idea is that this space station, which will be a fraction of the size of the international space station, will serve as a place of life and training for astronauts for excursions to and from the lunar surface.

An essential part of the material needed for this bridge will, of course, be the habitats – spaces where a handful of astronauts can search, practice, sleep and eat. But what exactly does it take to build a habitat for deep space? NASA asked six companies to understand it, thanks to the NextSTEP program of the space agency. Through a public-private partnership, companies such as Boeing and Bigelow Aerospace are creating and running their own module designs that can accommodate astronauts in the environment around the moon.

Photo of Cory Zapatka / The Verge

Lockheed Martin, a long-time NASA company located in Colorado, is another of these companies. Lockheed is currently working on a cylindrical habitat in deep space that will provide approximately 882 cubic feet of living space – the size of a room that can accommodate up to four astronauts.

And just like the design of a tiny house, Lockheed has been creative about storage. For example, the design requires that water surrounds the hull of the habitat, whether used as drinking water, but also as a shield for radiation in deep space. The habitat also has a treadmill on its ceiling; but, orbiting the moon, the environment of microgravity means that there is no ceiling. So each piece of exposed wall is used for a different purpose. The habitat will also include a work station, as well as sleeping bags for the crew and storage space for food and other essential materials.

Photo of Cory Zapatka / The Verge

In the third episode of Space Craft Season 2, we visited a Lockheed Martin deep space habitat model at the company's headquarters in Denver. However, what we saw was just for the show: a preview of what the final design might look like. We have also been able to use augmented reality and virtual reality to get a better idea of ​​the final appearance of the home. Lockheed Martin is currently building its first housing prototype in Florida, so NASA can analyze its design by 2019.

Meanwhile, Lockheed is also building another key component of NASA's space hardware, which will be used to potentially transport astronauts to and from this far-distant space habitat. It's a capsule called Orion, and it's become a big part of NASA's plans for the future. We were also able to test a simulation of what could be docking the Orion capsule into the habitat – what future astronauts will do to access their home in deep space .