{"id":4149,"date":"2015-05-11T04:00:18","date_gmt":"2015-05-11T04:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=4149"},"modified":"2015-05-11T04:00:50","modified_gmt":"2015-05-11T04:00:50","slug":"students-design-furniture-for-other-planets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/students-design-furniture-for-other-planets\/","title":{"rendered":"Students design furniture for other planets"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Modular furniture is conceived for the moon, Mars and in between<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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A team of Rice University engineering students has designed a flexible chair for space habitats. Along with a custom, adjustable table, the prototypes are intended to present ideas for both space-bound astronauts and future habitats on the moon, Mars and beyond. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow\/Rice University)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

HOUSTON \u2013 \u00a0Have a seat and mind the gravity.\u00a0A team of Rice University students had to think a lot about that in recent months as they designed furniture intended for use on the moon, Mars and whatever other far-flung destinations humanity may consider in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the behest of NASA, a team of five seniors in mechanical engineering designed and assembled a prototype chair and table meant to give maximum flexibility to astronauts in space or for habitats in places other than Earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

The furniture could serve many functions in environments where maximum flexibility with a minimum of fuss are a plus. The\u00a0Lunar Lounger<\/span><\/a>\u00a0team assembled the pieces at Rice’s\u00a0Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen<\/span><\/a>as its capstone project. Capstone projects are required of most of the university’s senior engineering students. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“You’re going to have very limited space, so you can’t just send any furniture up,” said team member Laura Blumenschein. “And then you’ve got the partial gravity.” (Roughly\u00a0one-sixth of Earth’s gravity on the moon<\/span><\/a>,one-third on Mars<\/span><\/a>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

“In addition to changing how humans interact with the furniture, it’s a lot easier for astronauts to stand and work,” she said. That requires tables, in particular, to easily adjust for both standing and seated work.<\/span><\/p>\n

The team of Blumenschein, Archit Chaba, Rey Amendola, Alex Schmidt and Dan Peera also had to consider gravity while balancing weight and strength requirements.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We can make our furniture a lot lighter, a lot less strong (than Earth-bound designs),” Blumenschein said. “That sounds like a bad thing, but if you’re trying to reduce weight, that’s a good thing when you’re sending things to space.”<\/span><\/p>\n