FROM EARTH TO SPACE AND BEYOND THROUGH THE LENS OF DESIGN

This website collects our researches and projects of Space Design, a new emerging discipline we contributed to create aimed to enhance the research of behaviour and well-being for space travellers, both astronauts and tourists. We believe Space inspire people as well as interplanetary scenarios and outer space technologies will have in the near future a strong impact in which society behave and perform. Also, we can look at the International Space Station (ISS) as the best example of living green in a sustainable way and in a community of international cooperation without cultural boundaries. Thanks to our twenty-year experience in researching and designing habitation modules and tools that have been used by astronauts on board the ISS, we helped assert the Design’s role and purpose in the Space field. We also created and are leading currently the 1st and unique International Master of Science Course in Space Design in the world, Space4InspirAction (S4I), at the School of Design, Politecnico di Milano with the recognition and the support of the European Space Agency (ESA), in which research and teaching are strongly connected with industry with the aim to generate new disruptive ideas for Space.

The Space Design acknowledgment is due to the evolution of the strategic programs for interplanetary exploration in which human beings will spent increasingly longer periods of time in reduced gravity and extreme conditions and need a higher level of comfort. It is certain today – with the experience collected in few tens of years on board the International Space Station (ISS) – that increasing the well-being of the crew, the functionality of the activities and the usability of interfaces and tools for astronauts we can achieve better goals that directly affect the success of a space mission. We have to consider also that already now, and in the future, not only super skilled astronauts with a strong training behind, but researchers, scientists and, not least, tourist, will have the chance to experiment space travels. This means that the whole environments must be totally re-thought and re-designed according to the physiological and psychological needs of the space travellers, as well as objects, facilities and tools for the daily life activities – living, working, sleeping, eating, taking care of ourselves, resting etc – which should make easier the life in Space trying to reduce the difference between living in Space and living on Earth.
Design contribution and skills can generate innovation thanks to a strong capacity of visioning, taking inspiration by Space technology to find spin-offs in other fields, but also spin-ins looking at Earth solutions. For these reasons the role of Space Design is fundamental.