Selection note: Curated for a reusable habitat architecture intended to serve surface, transit, and orbital roles, exposing commonality, reconfiguration, logistics, and integration tradeoffs.

Evidence boundary: NTRS lists accessible full text, but this pass did not validate requirements, mass, safety, maintainability, or cross-mission commonality. It is architecture context, not flight-ready or generation-ship design evidence.

Stable record
ntrs-20210021782
Topic
structures-shielding
Type
Conference Paper
Publisher
Johnson Space Center
Authors
Robert L Howard
Year
2021
Editorial state
metadata curated editorial draft
Reviewer
GShips Project editorial synthesis
Official link checked
2026-07-25

Source-supplied abstract

The core stage liquid oxygen tank of the Space Launch System can be manufactured as a habitat instead of as a propellant tank, with a common design such that it is equally suitable for use in 0g, 1/6g, 3/8g, 1g, or variable artificial gravity. It is capable of sustaining a crew size of eight for missions up to 1200 days in duration. This Common Habitat can be the central element of a human spaceflight architecture that encompasses the Moon, Mars, and other destinations within the inner solar system. Within this archtiecture, the Common Habitat is specifically used as the core habitation element within a Lunar Base Camp, Mars Base Camp, and the Deep Space Exploration Vehicle. The Common Habitat internal architecture applies a design philosophy to separate crew functions according to deck. The lower deck is reserved for private functions. It includes eight private crew quarters and four waste and hygiene clusters – each with a private waste management compartment, private full body hygiene compartment, and private foyer/clothes changing area. The mid deck is primarily allocated to mission-related functions. It includes an exercise facility, fabrication / maintenance / repair facility, physical science laboratory (physics, geology, and remote sensing: astronomy, heliophysics, planetary science, and Earth science), and life science laboratory (biology and human research). The mid deck also has four external hatches, clocked one every 90 degrees, centered on the vehicle vertical centerline. Each hatch has a 60-inch tall by 40-inch wide opening with the mid deck floor 16 inches below the bottom lip of the hatch opening. The upper deck also includes some mission functions, but is primarily allocated to social functions. It includes a large galley, wardroom with projector and display screen, plant growth chambers, bulk stowage, command and control station, medical facility, hygiene compartment, and vehicle subsystems.

Abstract text has not been adopted as a GShips conclusion.

What would change this record?

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Metadata-curated context; independent domain and claim review pending · Last edited 2026-07-25 · Suggest a correction

Accountability record

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Scope: Atlas resource ntrs-20210021782

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Assumptions and limits

  • NTRS lists accessible full text, but this pass did not validate requirements, mass, safety, maintainability, or cross-mission commonality. It is architecture context, not flight-ready or generation-ship design evidence.
  • Source-supplied titles, abstracts, authors, and dates may require correction against the canonical full text.

What would change this page?

A newer or corrected version, retraction, verified duplicate, material topic mismatch, changed access state, or claim-level assessment would change this record.

People, review, and conflicts

Prepared by
GShips Project
Editorial status
metadata-curated-editorial-draft
Editorial reviewer
GShips Project editorial synthesis
Last editorial review
No editorial-review date recorded
Independent review
pending
Independent reviewer
No independent reviewer assigned
Last independent review
No independent-review date exists
Last content edit
Not recorded separately
Official source or link verified
2026-07-25

Declared conflicts

  • The maintainer intends to explore a commercial venture based on some GShips work. No entity, outside funding, customer, sponsor, or indexed-organization relationship currently exists.

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