[meteorite-list] University Of Wisconsin Students Win Space Habitat Competition

[Ron Baalke]

July 01, 2011

J.D. Harrington/Michael Braukus      
Headquarters, Washington      
202-358-5241/1979 
j.d.harrington at nasa.gov/michael.braukus at nasa.gov 

Lynnette Madison 
Johnson Space Center, Houston 
281-483-5111 
lynnette.b.madison at nasa.gov   


RELEASE: 11-213

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN STUDENTS WIN SPACE HABITAT COMPETITION

HOUSTON -- University of Wisconsin students topped two other 
university teams to win the 2011 NASA eXploration Habitat (X-Hab) 
Academic Innovation Challenge, a competition to design and build a 
space habitat. The team will now take its inflatable space loft to 
NASA's annual Desert Research and Technology Studies (Desert RATS) 
field test in Arizona in September. It will be tested as part of a 
simulated astronaut mission to an asteroid. 

"University students are helping NASA develop potential habitats for 
future space missions," said Kriss Kennedy, habitat demonstration 
unit project manager at Johnson. "The teams collaborated to 
demonstrate how technology we might use in the future could actually 
be developed." 

The tree teams totaling 135 students each spent a week this month at 
NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston setting up and deploying their 
inflatable lofts for judging. Teams from Oklahoma State University, 
Stillwater, and the University of Maryland, College Park also 
competed. 

"This is a great example of how NASA can obtain innovative system 
concepts from universities," said Doug Craig, strategic analysis 
manager for analog systems at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "These 
technology concepts are a valuable part of our human space 
exploration planning activities." 

According to the judges, the 14-member University of Wisconsin team's 
design held promise for habitability and application to the Desert 
RATS mission simulation and was ready for field use because it had 
little leakage in the inflatable systems. The loft will be part of 
the home for a crew of four during the field test. 

In June 2010, NASA invited university teams to submit inflatable loft 
concepts for the X-Hab Challenge. The three competing universities 
received $48,000 of seed funding to assist with their projects. The 
winning university will receive $10,000 to offset costs associated 
with the desert field test. 

Next year's competition, X-Hab 2012, will look at volume, geometry and 
habitability of a deep space habitat and technologies for plant 
growth and geo-science sample handling. The competition is designed 
to engage and retain students in the science, technology, engineering 
and math disciplines, which in turn will help develop the next 
generation of innovators and explorers. It also tests concepts and 
solutions for potential future NASA missions. 

X-Hab is sponsored by NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate 
and the Innovative Partnerships Office in the Office of the Chief 
Technologist at NASA headquarters in Washington. For more information 
about the X-Hab competition and updates about each team's designs, 
visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/analogs/xhab_challenge.html   
	
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