Architecture for Astronauts: An Activity-based Approach (Springer Praxis Books) - Hardcover

Häuplik-Meusburger, Sandra

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3709106664 ISBN 13: 9783709106662

Publisher: Springer, 2011

Synopsis

The first part of this book introduces all relevant American and Russian realized extra-terrestrial habitats: The Apollo Spacecraft and Lunar Module, the Space Shuttle Orbiter, and the Space Stations; Salyut, Skylab, Mir, as well as the International Space Station. It provides an overview of the architecture and configuration, highlights specific issues concerning the interior layout and compares the spatial and time allocation of human activities. Drawings and diagrams facilitate comparison.

The main part of the book concentrates on the investigation of the relationship between the environment and its users. This method evaluates and summarizes all the selected habitats by means of the human activities in relation to the characteristics of the built environment (Sleep, Hygiene, Food, Work and Leisure). In addition to analyzing the available data, it integrates the astronauts' personal experiences into the evaluation.

The author conducted structured interviews with astronauts with a special focus on human activity. The book confronts the findings from relevant literature and analysis - based on crew transcripts, spacecraft drawings and mission images - with the personal experiences of the users: the astronauts and cosmonauts. To facilitate orientation and to ease comparison with architectural drawings and diagrams each category was assigned a specific colour. Design directions for each category conclude each chapter.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Living and working in extra-terrestrial habitats means being potentially vulnerable to very harsh environmental, social, and psychological conditions. With the stringent technical specifications for launch vehicles and transport into space, a very tight framework for the creation of habitable space is set. These constraints result in a very demanding “partnership” between the habitat and the inhabitant.

 

This book is the result of researching the interface between people, space and objects in an extra-terrestrial environment. The evaluation of extra-terrestrial habitats in comparison to the user’s perspective leads to a new framework, comparing these buildings from the viewpoint of human activity. It can be used as reference or as conceptual framework for the purpose of evaluation. It also summarizes relevant human-related design directions. The work is addressed to architects and designers as well as engineers.

Review

From the reviews:

“Sandra Häuplik-Meusburger’s work, Architecture for Astronauts: An Activity-Based Approach, contributes to this effort through an architectural exploration of habitats and the needs of astronauts in undertaking longer, more complicated voyages than ever before. ... This is an intelligent, challenging book ... useful for designers and architects, engineers, and other professionals.” (Roger D. Launius, Quest: The History of Spaceflight, Vol. 19 (4), 2012)

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 3709106664
• ISBN 13: 9783709106662
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 329