Design and analysis of a growable artificial gravity space habitat

The goal of this study is to show the feasibility of designing a space habitat that advances the ability of humans to live in space for long periods. We first review the previous work on space explorations and summarized five unsolved fundamental problems: providing gravity, radiation protection, sustainable life support system, a large open space for human physiological and psychological comfort (survivable by professionals in trades other than highly trained astronauts), and a growth strategy to avoid the economic infeasibility of starting with the largest final version of the habitat. We present a detailed design of a rotating shielded habitat system and a growth strategy by repeated addition of new layers, without disturbing the inhabitants of the current habitat. The tensegrity paradigm is used to design the structure and to optimize the mass and cost of the habitat. Then, a detailed discussion of the structural dynamics and attitude control is given. Based on the human needs of temperature, cosmic radiation protection, atmosphere, clean water, food, physical fitness, and mental health, a life support system is demonstrated to show the livable environment under thermal and energy equilibrium. This habitat, space village one, allows a long-term human presence in space such as space tourism, interstellar travel, space mineral mining, Mars colonization, etc.