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Sol 392. The night has ended peacefully. You get out of bed and after preparing your favourite hot drink, you linger in front of the dome of your habitat. It is a peculiar day. The Martian chronicles will speak of the transit of Fobos in front of the solar disc. An event not uncommon, but for you those few moments in which the spectacle unfolds are still a novelty. You sip the hot liquid serenely. Before you left, you had been warned about the challenge of living elsewhere, but you have never shied away from solitude, and the shades of red created on the ground by the Martian wind have something poetic and reassuring about them. Science fiction? Unfortunately, yes.
The hostility to life in the hottest of terrestrial deserts, the deepest sea abyss or the coldest winter in Antarctica is only remotely comparable to the extreme conditions that the inhabitants of future space settlements will face. This is no longer science fiction, but goals that space agencies are striving for, projected into this new era of exploration and habitat building on the Moon and Mars.
"Just imagining living in space requires a considerable effort," began Federica Trudu, lecturer in Physics and Numerical Mathematics at SUPSI's Department of Innovative Technologies and ZeroG-Nauta. "All the technical-engineering aspects of extraterrestrial life have to be considered: from energy supply to food supply, from production to water recycling, radiation shielding, not forgetting the implications of living with a gravity different from that on Earth, where crystals and plants behave differently".
The contribution of numerical simulations
Simulating the behaviour of fluids in Martian, lunar and zero gravity is a line of research that Federica Trudu has entered, driven by her curiosity for this peculiar field of computational physics. "With numerical simulations, you can do real virtual experiments with visualisation of material behaviour. In my path, I started with metals and then became interested in earth minerals. Intrigued by the similarities with those of other planets in the Earth's belt, I wondered whether simulations could be done with minerals that I did not have available. It was an interest that put me in touch with Professor Nikolaus Kuhn of the University of Basel, who at the time was working on a research project on the morphology of the Martian surface, studying certain characteristics of the Martian soil, such as the shape and arrangement of sediments. The research team needed someone to work on computational models to simulate the behaviour of sediments in a gravity different from Earth's, to determine whether there was or had been water at a particular location and to identify the best sites for landing probes".
This research resulted in computational fluid dynamics software enriched with data collected in several parabolic flights that simulated Martian and lunar gravity. Over time, the REDGRAVIL (REDuced GRAvity VIrtual Laboratory) software has become increasingly refined, thanks to the contributions of colleagues and students who have used it in their thesis work. By a play of circumstances, Federica Trudu then approached spatial architecture with the SWARMIR project, a field in which physics and computational chemistry can be extremely useful. "It allows researchers and industrial partners to do as many tests as possible before going on a space mission and identify solutions, perhaps different from those used on Earth. But besides the technical aspects, the psychological impact of extraterrestrial life cannot be ignored. The first people to inhabit space settlements will find themselves in places with no atmosphere, no trees or water, surrounded by rocks set in an arid landscape. They will live in small spaces. How many will they have to be? These are all aspects to be considered. Nor can the human need for socialisation be overlooked. There is an anecdote that is emblematic for me: the crew of the International Space Station was asked what they wanted during their stay in orbit. The answer was a table around which they could eat and gather. Space architecture must also consider the well-being of the astronauts who must not only survive, but also live in an alien environment".
Towards the Moon, aiming for Mars
The third launch test carried out by SpaceX on 14 March 2024 has rekindled the public spotlight on the new era of space exploration and made the chances of a crew returning to the Moon in 2026, as envisaged by NASA, more concrete. After two unsuccessful attempts, which did, however, result in the acquisition of important data, the Starship launch vehicle managed to reach space. The data collected in the test will help refine the development of the most powerful launch system ever built; a key component of NASA's Artemis programme. The Artemis III mission will see Starship rendezvous with the Orion spacecraft in orbit of the Moon. The SpaceX spacecraft will load two crew members on board and then land on the lunar soil. After about six and a half days (the time in which Orion will complete its orbit around the Moon) Starship will return the astronauts to the NASA vehicle. The Artemis programme will lead to the construction of the first human outpost on the Earth's satellite, laying the foundation for the first explorers and inhabitants of Mars.
A scenario the American space agency is working on: NASA is looking for four candidates for the second simulation of a Martian settlement. The 150-square-metre habitat, built with the aid of 3D printers, will reproduce the challenges of life on Mars, confronting future extraterrestrial inhabitants with the limited resources, equipment failures and communication problems that astronauts might face during missions.
NASA's simulation will contemplate an already constructed habitat, but one cannot forget that the construction time will also pose a challenge. "Using the regolith present on the Moon and Mars soil, habitats can be built using a 3D printer," Federica Trudu continues. "While building the habitat, you have to ensure that the astronauts have the resources they need to survive. One could imagine having a station in orbit that acts as a bridge to the surface of our satellite. The habitat would have to be equipped with a closed-circuit life support system, it would have to contain plants that transform CO2 into oxygen through photosynthesis, and it would also have to be a source of food. ESA's MELiSSA project has been exploring this dimension for years. So much expertise revolves around space architecture, and the knowledge generated by these encounters could also be very useful here on Earth".
Space architects
Numerous companies and academic institutions are researching in the vast field of spatial architecture, where initiatives and moments of confrontation are multiplying. Recently, the Moroccan city of Agadir hosted the SPACE.ARK workshop: ten days of workshops organised by the Cité de l'innovation Souss-Massa (CISM) that confronted a group of architecture students with the challenges of spatial housing. The list of invited speakers included Federica Trudu with two talks on 'Life Support Systems' and 'Energy and Resource Management in Space'.
"I made all my knowledge of science available to the students. Working with set deliverables, they designed space modules capable of shielding against temperatures, radiation and even being able to cope with earthquakes. I was amazed by their enthusiasm and creativity. This prompted me to wonder whether a similar experience could not also be proposed at SUPSI, involving all the Departments and, why not, the local economic fabric too. It could be an opportunity for students to try their hand at a challenge outside their comfort zone, and it could lead to interesting sustainable solutions to be explored in Bachelor's and Master's theses or to be developed in collaborative projects with companies. We do not lack skills, we have software that can simulate the behaviour of fluids in gravity other than Earth's, now we just have to connect the dots. Curiosity and imagination are the engines of scientific research. Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon was indeed a fantasy novel, but it foreshadowed many of the challenges that led to the conquest of the Moon".