SHEE – Self-deployable Habitat for Extreme Environments

Future human spaceflight missions including long-duration settlement on extra-terrestrial surfaces require the development of habitats that will enable humans to survive under extreme conditions on distant planets.

A research project co-funded by the EU is currently exploring the effective integration of architecture and robotics within the framework of the above-mentioned extra-terrestrial settlement.The project is called
SHEE – Self-deployable Habitat for Extreme Environments. Its objective is to come up with a design concept for a minimal space habitat for two people, which will initially be tested in a laboratory environment along with its technical infrastructure. SHEE will be fitted with a system of deployable petals that can be automatically unfolded to make the habitat larger. The overall structure has been designed for sustainability: it features integrated functions despite the small amount of available space; water and air are filtered or recycled and the habitat can manage with limited resources. However, important basic human needs, such as light for day-to-work and a sense of well-being, may not be ignored in the forthcoming overall concept.

The Nimbus Group, an enterprise headquartered in Stuttgart, has been working intensively on innovative light solutions for many years now and has committed itself 100% to energy-saving LED technology. The company offers LED luminaires for virtually all lighting tasks in the home, at the workplace and for wide-area general lighting, thus opening up a global competitive edge even over the large corporations.

Nimbus will supply the SHEE habitat test-bed for terrestrial simulations with numerous ultra-light, slim, rotating and tilting Q36 TT LED ceiling luminaires.