AYDA
Ayda envisions a lunar habitat for four food scientists on a four-month mission to the Moon. The project’s core innovation is a circular food system that aims to reduce supply loads and reimagines the cooking experience on the moon to support astronaut's psychological and physical health.
Team
Ilay Tezcan,
Derya Ercivan
Role
Design research | Space design | Prototyping
Tools
KeyShot | Adobe Premier Pro | Adobe Photoshop | Procreate
Duration
5 weeks (2023)
Understanding Context
The challenge was to design a lunar habitat for future missions, guided by the principles of Existenzminimum. The habitat needed to be highly resource-efficient while supporting astronauts’ needs in the extreme lunar environment.
Lunar habitats must overcome extreme environmental challenges. Astronauts depend on costly Earth resupplies, while daily activities become complex in microgravity environment. Supporting physical and mental health in these conditions demands multifunctional systems that rethink everyday living.
Sources: NASA, European Space Agency
Ideation & Development
How might we design a habitat that supports astronauts' well-being, while also reducing the transportation cost associated with space missions?
During ideation, we mapped challenges around astronaut well-being and space constraints. "Craft Eating" emerged as a concept that effectively enhances astronauts' wellbeing, while addressing also the business problem of shipping costly resources into the space.
Developing Circular Innovation
The challenge was to design a circular food system that enables astronauts to self produce food in space. To mitigate resupply dependence and menu fatigue, we developed a solution using Bokashi composting to cultivate microgreens. These greens are processed into filament for 3D printed meals, enabling versatile onsite food production. The Bokashi process generates nitrogen, which is a non existing resource in lunar environments that is essential for plant growth.
User Flow Mapping
Our team visualized an astronaut’s journey over the course of the four-month mission. By including time estimates for the first microgreens harvest, our team gained insight into how our solution can reduce supply costs
Prototyping
To see the proportions of the habitat, we created a 1:20 scale model. The prototype was split into detachable sections that represented the private quarters, workstations, and communal areas.
Storytelling
Our efforts resulted in a video with a visual walkthrough of the design. After defining the storyline, we took the storyboards into video production.
Final Outcome
The final design was a lunar habitat that balanced the extreme environmental constraints of the Moon with the need for astronaut well-being. By addressing both the technical and human aspects of space living, we created a sustainable and adaptable vision for long-term lunar exploration. This innovation could reduce food-related resupply needs by up to 50% over a four-month mission by shipping less food resources into the space.
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Learnings
This project taught me how to design for extreme constraints without losing sight of human needs. Reimagining how astronauts eat, move, and live in microgravity challenged me to question everyday assumptions and opened my eyes to design more thoughtful systems here on Earth. If I were to continue this project, I would try to engage in the interviews with our target group. Due to the time constraints, our team relied on the insights discovered through desk research.