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S. Häuplik-Meusburger, B. Sommer, M. Aguzzi:
"Inflatable Technologies: Adaptability from Dream to Reality";
Talk: International Astronautical Federation - IAC 2007, Hyderabad, India; 09-24-2007 - 09-28-2007; in: "Proceedings of the 58th IAC", IAF, 2007 (2007), Paper ID IAC-07-C2.2.08, 12 pages.

With the increasing investment in a sustained human presence beyond low-earth orbit, the interest in the development of lightweight structures comes to the fore again.

In general lightweight structural concepts can include inflatable, erectable or deployable parts utilizing membranes, composites or hybrid concepts. These structures clearly offer great
advantages, not only for structures on Earth, but especially for space stations and also for building habitats and associated infrastructure on the Moon and Mars. By applying intelligent
constructive and packing concepts, they are particularly interesting because they combine maximum load capacity and minimum use of material with the increase of operational and habitable volume.

In addition to the structural advantages, lightweight and adaptable structural concepts can be one of the most important strategies to assist a sustainable space exploration development. With the term adaptable structural concepts we refer to the ability to adapt to changed requirements e.g. of mission objectives, crew condition and technological developments.

This paper presents a selection of past and current innovative developments of lightweight and adaptable architectural concepts - beyond the focus on deployability, thus allowing for the development of innovative building structures underlining the features through detailed discussion and examples.

With the increasing investment in a sustained human presence beyond low-earth orbit, the interest in the development of lightweight structures comes to the fore again.

In general lightweight structural concepts can include inflatable, erectable or deployable parts utilizing membranes, composites or hybrid concepts. These structures clearly offer great
advantages, not only for structures on Earth, but especially for space stations and also for building habitats and associated infrastructure on the Moon and Mars. By applying intelligent
constructive and packing concepts, they are particularly interesting because they combine maximum load capacity and minimum use of material with the increase of operational and habitable volume.

In addition to the structural advantages, lightweight and adaptable structural concepts can be one of the most important strategies to assist a sustainable space exploration development. With the term adaptable structural concepts we refer to the ability to adapt to changed requirements e.g. of mission objectives, crew condition and technological developments.

This paper presents a selection of past and current innovative developments of lightweight and adaptable architectural concepts - beyond the focus on deployability, thus allowing for the development of innovative building structures underlining the features through detailed discussion and examples.

Adaptability, Sustainability, Transformability, Space Architecture