Accessibility on a Lunar Base

With an increasing interest in making space travel accessible to a broader range of individuals, the demand for designs that are enabling that is growing too. In the history of design on Earth and in space the compatibility between the technology and the diverse range of users, including all genders and the variety of physical (dis)abilities, has often been neglected. Many of the designs that are currently used, for example, on the International Space Station, were developed with a human standard in mind, that is not representative of humanity’s diversity. This discrepancy leads to difficulties in the daily life of astronauts and is preventing motivated and qualified individuals from access to the astronaut profession. With the goal of building a lunar base in the near future, possible measures for inclusive systems need to be investigated prior to the establishment of the base. The resulting solutions could contribute to a higher level of inclusiveness within the astronaut profession and increase the system redundancy and safety for astronauts with and without physical impairments or temporary injuries.

Project overview

While ESA’s Parastronaut programme is open to astronauts with lower limb deficiency, a leg length difference or short stature, we seek to study ways to allow for a broader range of physical impairments in the future. Together with Birne7 e.V., the project investigates the feasibility of designing a lunar base that is accessible and safe for as many qualified individuals as possible. For that, we aim to bring together the astronaut’s perspective and the experience from individuals with physical impairments. We want to do that by conducting interviews, collecting data about the differences and similarities between both communities, analysing existing moonbase concepts and by studying the interaction between parastronauts and the environments of such bases. The aim is to develop a framework for future inclusive design that can serve as a starting point for further research in the fields of habitability design and space architecture.

Outcome

The results were presented in December 2023 at the workshop AR/VR for Space Programmes 2023 as part of the talk "Preliminary Investigation of Alternative Reality Environments for Accessibility Testing in Spacecraft Design".