Deep Space Science Vessel

a NASA-RISD collaboration

The deep space science vessel is a conceptual living space for long-term, high population space exploration missions.

Tasked by NASA to design a living space for 40 crew members within pre-specified dimensions, Michael Lye's studio split up into four primary systems: crew quarters, galley, entertainment & exercise, and hygiene, and set about designing an outer space habitat that prioritized emotional health and wellbeing over the course of six weeks.

I worked on the hygiene team, which involved ideating concepts for full body cleansing as well as a high fidelity model of an individual waste containment system and private stall.

recreation deck

exercise deck

crew quarters

hygiene deck

crew quarters

crew quarters

crew quarters

hygiene deck

galley deck

The dssv is divided up into seven decks and two semi-spherical caps.

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The recreation deck serves as a common space free of work.

The exercise deck houses all exercise equipment. four stories of crew quarters house individual living units with a common central corridor.

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There is a hygiene deck capping each end of the crew quarter stack.

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The galley houses all food storage and prep and serves as a communal meeting space for debriefs and even movie nights.

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Translation between decks occurs in one of the two ship-long corridors on the left and right sides.

While developing the design for a private waste

containment system module, we focused on 

maintaining a sense of comfort and autonomy

while also paying special attention to gender

equity. 

The existing toilet on the International Space

Station, while generally uncomfortable to use

and cumbersome in its process, holds unique

difficulties for people who menstruate.

In an effort to let female astronauts maintain

as much autonomy over their bodies as possible,

we incorporated a bidet system (which also

requires less toilet paper to be sent on resupply

missions), toiletry storage units, and a separate

waste bin for menstrual products.

Planning also included general space

delegation for crew navigation, waste

collection and storage, air treatment

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We split our time working on overall concepts and functionality, CAD models, and a high fidelity, full scale mock=up of an individual stall and section of the radial hallway.

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I worked primarily on overall concept development, user interfaces, and constructing a soft goods model of a custom filleted lighting system

The user interface for the tablet, which is universal for both the bathroom and "shower" stalls, uses a dark and light rotating background to simulate the natural cycle of day to night in an artificial environment.

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It coordinates with digital wearables (which are already used on the International Space Station) to save personal preferences to individual profiles so as to prevent unnecessary time wasting with reentering data.

Group Members: Nick Burger, Jerry Ma

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Class Members: Will Zhang, Irina Wang, Sam Zaref, Dan Limonchik, Osub Lee, Cameron Absher, Rohit Sen, Jonah Palmer, John Cho

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Professor: Michael Lye

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Guest Critics: Robert Howard, Molly Harwood

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Spring 2018.