67 / 84
tasks. They are developing oxygen and electricity production
processes; a mechanism to grow algae; a system to use
urine to fertilize plants; exercise facilities; a laboratory;
a communications and control system; inflatable living
modules; a robot to dig paths into the ice – and more.
“Wehavearchitects, biologists, computer scientists, geologists
and engineers from all over Europe: it’s an extraordinarily
multidisciplinary and multicultural project,” adds Benavides.
“With this initiative, ESA’s goal is to encourage these young
people to work together even though they live in different
countries and study at different schools.”
The project
The nature of the project is to stimulate student education
and exchange through an international, interdisciplinary, and
collaborative project on the topic: “A Human Habitat in Ice:
Demonstrating key enabling technologies for life support in
frozen worlds”. The topics covered on the project go from the
habitat conception and construction to life support systems,
power management, communication and navigation, as well as
human well-being and science. Within these topics, the teams
- each supported by their professors – are developing modules
such as a greenhouse to grow food or an oxygen generator
for life support. These 18 student projects shape together a
human habitat in ice, which will be constructed and tested in a
field campaign in Zer matt, Switzerland in June 2019.
The teams
Students apply their knowledge to solve a technological
challenge, increasing in parallel the maturity of technologies
relevant to the space domain. The following universities are
implied in IGLUNA:
■
École Polytechnique de Lausanne EPFL,
Switzerland
■
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich
ETHZ, Switzerland
■
University of Lausanne UNIL, Switzerland
Elements to build IGLUNA 2
■
Lucerne University of Applied
Sciences HSLU, Switzerland
■
Zurich University of Applied
Sciences ZHAW, Switzerland
■
Politechnico di Milano, Italy
■
RWTH Aachen, Germany
■
Tallinn University of Technology,
Estonia • Technical University of Crete, Greece
■
University
Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania
■
University of Strathclyde,
United Kingdom
■
Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
■
VU Amsterdam, the Netherlands
The student teams met at ETH Zürich from 12-14 September
2018 for the IGLUNA kick-off event to mark the start of the
student projects. During the event, the students got to know
each other, worked together, learned about design thinking
tools, developed their project descriptions and requirements,
and presented their projects.
Field Campaign
The field campaign will take place at the Glacier Palace in
Zermatt from 17-30 June 2019. During these two weeks,
all the teams will meet, bring together their technologies,
and present their demonstrators. Inside the glacier cave,
the teams will build a 36m2 human habitat. The Glacier
Palace will be open to the public, and visitors will have the
opportunity to observe the experiments.
IGLUNA, as a demonstrator pilot project, is aimed at supporting
and accelerating the ESA_Lab initiative. The lessons learned
from IGLUNA will help for the implementation of future ESA_
Labs. The Swiss Space Center serves as coordinator for the
events and main systems engineering activities.
Author: Sarah Perrin – Mediacom & The Swiss Space Center
© 2019 EPFL
New-Tech Magazine Europe l 67