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It's not the origami you used to make in art, but it's a form of art that is not limited to cranes in paper, but beyond the Earth.
The concepts of lunar and Martian habitat have ranged from ice domes to beehives, transforming billion-year-old lava tubes into habitable spaces – but that could be one of the most important concepts. ingenious.
The MoonMars project will take origami to the next level. This collaboration between the International Working Group on Moon Exploration (ILEWG), ESA-ESTEC and futuristic architect Samira Boon is studying how to use origami structures to create spatial habitats that are representative of form and function.
"Textile origami structures can be deployed in a myriad of different shapes," said Anna Sitnikova, director of the MoonMars project at the European Congress of Planetary Science. "They are lightweight, can be easily deployed and reused in different configurations and sizes for flexible spatial use Structures remain functional in changing circumstances, extending their useful life."
MoonMars will sculpt origami structures using digital weaving processes, creating structures that are as compact as they are complex. High-performance textiles are designed to survive in space, where they will be bombarded with cosmic rays and other hostile forces, while inflatable, robotic and pop-up mechanisms will make these habitats easy to deploy.
Origami is ideal for extraterrestrial habitats because of the flexibility that it provides. The innumerable angular facets of this type of architecture are a better defense against space debris, as incoming micrometeorites will not be as likely to hit the surface at 90 degrees. This may seem so important until you realize that hitting the fabric at other random angles dissipates the energy of impact, which means less risk of drilling a hole in l & # 39; habitat.
"Origami for spatial architecture encourages interdisciplinary approaches and applications, providing advanced production and design methods," said Sitnikova. "Habitats enhanced by such structures are temporal and alive because they are able to transform and redefine themselves into resonance with human and environmental factors."
The fabric itself is not the only benefit for astronauts staying in an origami meeting place. As sci-fi as it may seem, textiles are shapeshifters with opaque and transparent facets that can change lighting and temperature by changing direction. The facets have integrated solar panels that follow the sun throughout the day for maximum absorption of energy.
It is there that the Samira Boon studio, specializing in the production of large-scale origami structures, and Tomohiro Tachi's Freeform Origami software, which allows the user to digitally sculpt origami shapes. Samira Boon was able to weave origami dome supported by a single sheet of cloth. Just when you thought it could not be cooler, they do not stop there. The next goal of the team is an origami habitat that unfolds.
Let's just say that everything MoonMars does will make buildings like Epcot look like relics of the past.
(via Phys.org)
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