hyperion - carolin schabbing

ESA - European Space Agency

HYPERION spatial installation | interior concept

Hyperion was designed for Space4Inspiration course in Politécnico di Milano, with the professors: Annalisa Dominoni and Benedetto Quaquaro. Elaborated by six students. This project was developed in cooperation with the ESA - European Space Agency.

A journey to Mars would take approximately nine months, packed in a tight space. Having no gravity and cosmic radiation for a long time can cause painful health problems to the astronauts. The crew will face many challenges, a fragile crew health condition when landing on Mars and overall journey of approximately three years. Within the research, our team gathered qualitative data, completing field visits to Thales Alenia Space in Turin, interviewing some experts and astronauts, and meeting engineers from ESA.

The Information we got made clear that our team would focus on the well-being of the astronauts to support their mission to mars from a user-centered perspective.

RESEARCH

During the mars mission, astronauts will miss all the stimulus they receive on the earth. Designing the concept we created Hyperion a capsule which offers an anthropological approach to this problem.

Our focus is not only to „bring earth up to the „space“ but mainly to provide well-being to the crew. We ensure better productivity and health condition. Well-being is linked with natural and social elements which are essential for our internal clock, the Circadian Rhythm.

Hyperion provides a new experience to the space hub, with natural stimulus and social inducements that regulate the Astronauts Circadian Cycle.

Astronauts spend their time indoors and under artificial lighting.

To improve their quality of life, we apply the HCL to the hub. This technology replicates the natural light on earth, changing wavelength, and intensity according to the evolution of the day, from morning to evening. To enhance this solution, we explore different senses: aromatherapy and temperature control according to the time of the day.

As an example, to stimulate the cortisol hormone, which improves the relaxing sensation in the evening, the light should be warm to provide a cozy environment.

The fragrance will change into lavender, and the temperature will decrease as on earth, 25ºC. The simulation of the light rhythm will help the crew to relax and improve the sleeping period.

Field visit to Thalis Alenia Space Center in Turin.

Regarding the second dimension, the social experience. Hyperion addresses the needs of sociability and privacy within the multifunctional area. In this 5×2 m capsule, Hyperion provides private spaces, sleeping quarters, eating areas, and working areas.

Sleeping quarters: Flexible panels that divide the space into sleeping areas. The areas can be used for other purposes and, during the resting period, they can be used as optimized beds that benefit from zero gravity.

Eating area: Hyperion provides a removable table with a magnetic surface to use with magnetic kitchen materials, in order to avoid zero gravity accidents. This area will recreate the earth environment and provides to the users‘ social benefits.

Private spaces: Light walls are an extremely effective solution considering the limited available space. As the light doesn’t weigh, doesn’t have mass and doesn’t occupy any physical space.

ROLE Spatial Design / Research / Conceptual Design

SOFTWARE Blender, Keyshot, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro

FIELD OF EXPERTISE Spatial Design / Research / Concept Design

KEYWORDS Conceptual Design / Light / Storytelling / 3D Render – Visuals / Communication

MEDIA Carolin Schabbing and Team (Sarah, Andrea, Simone, Elena, Fabio)