Deployment Testing of an Expandable Lunar Habitat

Abstract

ILC Dover, under contract by NASA Langley Research Center, and in cooperation with NASA Johnson Space Center has designed and manufactured an expandable lunar habitat. This cylindrical habitat, or Expandable Lunar Habitat (X-Hab) is a hybrid system with two hard end caps and a deployable softgoods section in the center. The softgood section packs into the endcaps and the unit roughly doubles in length upon deployment. X-hab is designed to demonstrate packing and deployment of an expandable habitat under expected loading conditions. Using a unique fabric lobe system, the structure is intended to be lighter in weight with a higher volume than a similar metal configuration. The restraint layer uses a webbing net construction with a coated fabric to carry the pressure loads up to 9 psi. Subassembly testing on the softgood interface, webbing, and restraint bladder validated the components before integration. The full packing and deployment trials then certified the overarching design of the system. The initial deployment testing evaluated the unique construction and prepared the expandable softgoods for field testing. The next step is the integration of the softgoods to hard endcaps for full pressure testing, interior outfitting, and field operations.