Commonality between roles

One of the main objectives of the Argo project in its research grant was to make a common design for both surface and orbit use. By configuring the interior to have the floor in a different direction, adding an airlock module, and removing MMOD shielding and other parts not needed on the ground, nearly the same habitat can be used for both applications.

(Surface environments aren't really my thing, but I think it turned out alright-ish)

Argo (named for the ship of Greek legend) is an interplanetary habitat concept developed by the University of Michigan's Bioastronautics and Life Support System (BLiSS) www.facebook.com/michiganbliss… team under a NASA X-Hab grant. The toroidal habitat would be spun up to provide centrifugal artificial gravity during the transit to and from Mars. The same design, with a different internal layout, would be used on the Martian surface, eliminating redundant development work. BLiSS's work will be presented in July at the International Conference on Environmental Systems.

BLiSS commissioned me for a series of 6 illustrations of their concept. The Deep Space Transport Power and Propulsion Element, as well as LOP-G, shown in some renders were not covered by this study and are only representative.