FLEXhab prefab shipping container home will prepare astronauts to live on the Moon’s surface

LUNA, a training facility for the moon at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany, will be fully operational in 2026 to prepare astronauts, engineers, and scientists for the challenges of working on the Moon. When LUNA is ready to simulate the lunar conditions on Earth, it will have a fitting partner alongside. Dubbed the FLEXhab, this is a space mobile home constructed to simulate the living environment that astronauts on the mission will encounter and overcome on their multi-day excursion on the lunar surface.

FLEXhab is closest to a scale living quarter for up to four astronauts to experience how it would be to sleep, eat and also work up there. While LUNA will condition the astronauts for the possible range of research options, the FLEXhab will prepare the occupants for how to sleep, eat, live and function in that environment, so that they would be able to negotiate, explore, and conduct their experiments with better preparedness.

Designer: DLR and SAGA

The FLEXhab is a pre-fabricated structure based on a modified high-cube 40-foot container (offering roughly 300 sq. ft. living area) with a façade 3D printed from glass fibre reinforced polymer “coated for added weather resistance.” The basic design mimics the silhouette of a living unit as it would look on the surface of the moon. The design of this shipping container tiny house for astronauts was conceived by SAGA design studio based out of Copenhagen, Denmark.

It is designed to allow space-bound crews to live in it for long periods of time, conditioning themselves for future missions on the moon’s surface. For this, the ready-to-transport and install at-site habitat is provided with a sleeping unit (with four small bedrooms comprising padded berths), a little kitchen, and a laboratory. The small cabin in the center has an airlock where the toilet, sink, and shower are located. Prepared for a crew of four astronauts, the FLEXhab has a living room where they can convene to chat and discuss how things are panning out in the simulated lunar habitat. To ensure the temperature doesn’t heat up even if discussions do, the temperature is maintained by a pair of split ACs.

Alongside the mentioned, FLEXhab is dotted with natural material, including cork on the inside, and is provided with work desks, computer and communications equipment, circadian lighting, and ample storage for food and other supplies. Alongside the kitchen is a dinette, which can fold away and create space to fold out and place a small exercise machine for the fitness-conscious onboard (not that it is a choice when you are an astronaut). Of course, with all this aboard, the FLEXhab is not the most spacious facility, but you always have views of the Moon sitting by the window at the dinette.

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