- If you wanna live in space for months at a time,
you're gonna need a good house, and it's not going
to be glamorous living either. Imagine living
in a one room tin can with three to four other people,
and that tin can is keeping you alive.
(upbeat synth music)
- [Loren] NASA wants to send humans back into deep space,
but the last time people went beyond low earth orbit,
they stayed for less than two weeks per trip.
This time around, NASA wants to send astronauts to live
in deep space, orbiting the moon and then possibly
onto Mars for months at a time, like they do
on the International Space Station.
But what does a deep space habitat look like?
NASA has partnered with six different private companies
as part of their nextSTEP program to figure that out.
Each company is researching and building deep space
habitats, all with unique designs to see which modules
will work best. And these habitats could be used
as part of a new space station that NASA wants to build
near the moon called Gateway.
I went to one of these companies, Lockheed Martin,
to check out a mock-up of the deep space
habitat that they're working on.
- So here we are, in the prototype habitat that you guys
are building for the nextSTEP program.
So, tell me about it. What informs
its shape and size and all that stuff?
- We put together this prototype to get a better feel
for what it would be like to live and work
in a space station at the moon.
So, it's round because the launch vehicles are round, right?
- [Loren] Right. - So we need to fit inside
the payload fairing for launch.
But we've also thought about what it would be like
to live here, so you need all the standard things:
food, water, shelter. You would have
all your personal items, your clothes,
your toothbrush... all those normal things.
- [Loren] NASA hopes this will serve as a new outpost
for astronauts, allowing them to conduct studies
in the deep space environment around the moon,
and to travel to and from the lunar surface.
But one challenge of sending things to deep space,
is space. Getting the habitat of this size far away
from earth in one piece requires a lot of fuel.
And the larger the habitat, the more fuel it will require.
That's why Lockheed is trying to do more with less.
- Standing in here right now, it's not that big
of a space, but you envision people living
and doing work here, so, how would they utilize
all of this limited space, if you will? (laughs)
- Right, can you imagine four people in this space?
- I have a problem with my tiny apartment,
and my dog, so I don't know. (laughs)
- That's exactly what this is. It's one room,
but it's four bedroom, one bathroom.
(laughing in unison) But yeah, we'll have
a science workstation, where the crew can do their
science experiments, get information from the vehicle,
look at health and status. We have a treadmill,
and exercise equipment... - Right, on the ceiling!
(laughing)
- But in space, there is no ceiling.
- Right, exactly. - Whatever way you are,
is the right way up. (Loren laughs)
So we can use all four walls, we need to to get
very effective use of this limited space.
- [Loren] Of course, it's tough to get the full experience
of living in this habitat here on earth.
This habitat is just a mock-up. Lockheed is currently
building its first working nextSTEP prototype in Florida.
So, the company is using virtual and augmented reality
to give engineers a better understanding of how
the finished product will look and feel.
- So you go ahead and put that on.
- Alright, I'm ready. I'm ready to go to space.
(upbeat synth music)
- Alright. (yells in alarm) (laughs)
I hope I didn't break anything.
- No. Now you can go ahead and grab the walls
and pull yourself through. - [Loren] Here I am,
home sweet home. - And if you find your
way into the airlock, you can go ahead and go outside.
- [Loren] Oh, let's do that! How am I gonna get over there?
(whooshing sound) (yelling in excitement)
Oh no! It's clear that I'm just a mess in zero gravity.
(dark synth music)
- So, we've been using a lot of VR and AR technology
to play around with the nextSTEP habitat.
What is so great about these different types
of technology that helps you with design
and new modifications and whatnot?
- Well, there's a few things that's really great about it.
The first is affordability, it lets you perform a lot
of reconfigurations while keeping things cheap.
You saw with the AR goggles that you had on,
you were able to see the different components
that are gonna be in the space craft in a habitat.
So, it allows us to move them around and reconfigure
and see the spacing of everything, 'cause you don't wanna
put your treadmill right next to your workstation
and have someone running and sweating right above you, so...
- And if you go ahead and build it without
knowing those problems, you kind of have a big cost problem
on your hands. (laughs) - Right, or if you actually
do build out those big size components,
it's expensive and heavy and you have to actually
move 'em around, so AR really helps a lot with that.
And VR really helps a lot with training, too, 'cause you saw
with the simulation, you kinda got a little bit of a sense
of what it's like to be in the spacecraft, and so
on the ground, we can train astronauts or the crew
just how to move around.
- Maneuvering in space isn't as easy as people
might think. You turn your hand a certain way,
and it doesn't... your whole body
even moves with you. (laughs) - Yeah,
Newton's third law, it's pretty crazy.
(energetic synth music)
- [Loren] Right now, this program is just for engineers,
not for astronauts. However, astronauts going to the ISS
actually do lots of VR training to prepare for space.
- This one? - You got it!
- There we go. Grab the block. - Wait, I did?
- Yep! - If this station does
go to the moon, VR trainings will be important
before heading there, too.
- What are the things that you think of when you
go out to design a habitat? What are
the essentials that you need?
- Well, we think about what is a day in the life
of an astronaut gonna look like? They're gonna wake up,
they're gonna eat breakfast, they're going
to perform science. We wanna know what it takes
to keep them alive, as well as what work they're
gonna do and science they're gonna perform
while they're there. So, we need to accommodate
all those aspects. Keeping them healthy,
and keeping them productive. - Now, you mentioned
a one bathroom. Where is the bathroom gonna be? (laughs)
- It's actually on Orion, right through this hatch
is where the crew would come to the habitat
in Orion, and the bathroom is there.
- At least you have some privacy.
(laughing)
- [Loren] Orion is much more than just a bathroom.
It's a crew capsule that Lockheed Martin is also working on
to transport people from earth to deep space.
And once Orion reaches this habitat, it'll have to dock.
- Explain this setup for me.
- Sure, we're sitting in the Orion crew simulator,
so this is cockpit, this is where the pilot
and the commander would sit as they
fly Orion to dock to the gateway.
- So, we've been traveling for months and months and months,
and now we're finally here and ready to dock.
I've been waiting for this day my whole
astronaut life, basically. (Kerry laughs)
- So, if you pull out on that, that'll slow you down.
Or you can push in, and fire the thruster to speed us up.
- [Loren] Docking turned out to be pretty tense.
Just one small movement can send the capsule
veering off in the wrong direction.
- Okay, so I'm veering off to the right,
so I think I wanna go to the left.
Almost there, almost there! - So close!
- Oh, oh here we go.
- You're coming in right on the target.
(Loren yells) - Perfect docking!
Oh my gosh. - That is beautiful!
Okay, just a little bit off, but man, nailed it.
(laughs) - Successful.
- [Loren] Of course, it could be awhile before this happens.
Lockheed and the other nextSTEP finalists will need
to finish building and testing out their habitats
before this deep space outpost becomes a reality.
So, it might not be the most spacious,
but like all real estate, it's about location.
- If you're interested in more science videos
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