Mechanical design of a lunar habitat structure and deployment mechanism.

With NASA's Artemis program currently underway, the necessity to have lunar structures that can house astronauts for months at a time is now greater than ever. This paper investigates current deployable lunar habitat concepts and finds a paucity of detailed papers in the literature. The hybrid deployable lunar habitat architecture considered here went through many design iterations to simplify and support its manufacturing. A novel deployment mechanism is developed utilizing the release of pressurized gas for an autonomous deployment sequence. A prototype was fabricated that demonstrated a successful proof of concept, leaving a robust foundation for future research. • delom Hybrid autonomously deployable structures for lunar habitats are studied. • Such structures have solid elements plus an inflatable component that deploys after landing. • Astronauts arrive at the Moon and have the structure waiting for them. • A key design challenge is the deployment mechanism. • A scale model is designed and manufactured to test concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]