Traditionally, space exploration and habitation have existed primarily within the domain of the engineering field. This has proven sufficiently effective for space-related design challenges, most of which rely on technology and rigorous testing. The short duration and small crew numbers of past missions, along with the ability of the human body and mind to tolerate extreme conditions, have permitted designers to focus on the most immediate and necessary concerns of putting humans into space. But decades of focused research and engineering in space programs, combined with inconsistent budget decisions, have led to a design status quo that is remarkably entrenched and unimaginative. Of particular concern are the limited resources applied toward the design problems of human factors in space.
On Earth, architects constantly address these human factors, usually within the built environment. Despite the obvious environmental distinctions between Earth and space, analogous building/user interactions occur for Earth dwellers and astronauts alike. And going beyond architects’ collective experience and facility at human-centered design, extraterrestrial design problems could potentially derive solutions from innovative or previously disregarded works of architectural theory. With an analysis of existing extraterrestrial designs’ deficiencies in human factors and applicable architectural solutions, we can develop principles for the effective synthesis of engineering and architectural responses in future projects.