Argo Dual-Purpose Mars Habitat

For the 2018 NASA eXploration Systems and Habitation (X-HAB) Academic Innovation Challenge, the Michigan Bioastronautics and Life Support Systems (BLiSS) team developed the Argo concept, a dual purpose habitat architecture that can be used both in deep space transit and on the Martian surface. This represents a substantial design challenge as interplanetary space and the Martian surface present conflicting design requirements. The Argo concept looks to solve this challenge by ensuring the conditions experienced on the deep-space transit are similar to those experienced on the Martian surface through the implementation of artificial gravity. This 0.38g artificial gravity allows inhabitants to easily transition from the deep-space transit to the Martian surface configuration and can significantly reduce the risk of mission critical injuries due to bone and muscle degradation. Habitat commonality across human exploration architecture offers significant advantages by consolidating risk, and streamlining development and logistics. To carry out the design work BLiSS assembled a multidisciplinary team of students, faculty, and professionals representing the fields of aerospace engineering, architecture, ergonomics, and medicine. This paper will detail the design and development of the Argo habitat module. In addition there will be a depiction of efforts to construct a full scale mock-up of Argo.