Geostrata Article


RETH has been featured in the latest issue of Geostrata, with the article Lava Tubes as Resilient Extraterrestrial Habitats: An Option For A Permanent Human Settlement Beyond Earth.

 

Lava Tube Presentations


Lava tubes have been a hot topic, as Anahita Modiriasari and Audai Theinat have presented in numerous conferences about this research:

 

Geomechanics Symposium

Posted June 24, 2019

Antonio Bobet presented the keynote lecture at the 53rd US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium in New York, NY, June 24, 2019. Download the presentation.

 

EASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute Conference

Posted June 19, 2019

Shirley Dyke presented at the ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute Conference in Pasadena, California, June 19-21, 2019. She presented Reslience-oriented Design Framework for Resilient Extraterrestrial Habitats, on behalf of authors: Amin Maghareh, Ali Lenjani, Shirley Dyke, Karen Marais, Antonio Bobet, Julio Ramirez, Dawn Whitaker, Anahita Modiriasari, and Audai Theinat. Download the presentation.

 

Engineering 2169 Pitch Competition: Where Will We Live?

Posted Apr 25, 2019

Daniel Gomez, Audai Theinat, Yunlan Zhang, and Ye Lu were awarded 2nd place for the best presentation award at the Engineering 2169: Where will we live? competition. The presentation was titled Future of Resilient Human Settlements. This presentation was related to the RETH, Resilient ExtraTerrestrial Habitats, a project funded by the Purdue Provost’s Office. Download the presentation.

 

NASA selects Purdue for new institute researching space habitats

Posted Apr 9, 2019

NASA announced Shirley Dyke will lead the new Resilient ExtraTerrestrial Habitats institute, to be located in West Lafayette. Dyke is a professor of mechanical and civil engineering with a degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering.

"This is an exciting opportunity for the RETHi research team to play a role in shaping the future smart space habitats," Dyke said. "Developing resilient space habitats continues Purdue's legacy of leadership and collaboration in science, engineering and space exploration."

The institute will receive as much as $15 million over a five-year period from NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate. RETHi is a multi-disciplinary partnership with the University of Connecticut, Harvard University and the University of Texas at San Antonio.

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Image-based Reconstruction of Virtual Lava Tube


A team consisting of Jongseong Choi, Anahita Modiriasari, and Audai Theinat have reconstructed a virtual model of a Lava Tube, reconstructed using high-quality images and video, to learn the formation and structural characteristics remotely, process and analyze highly focused areas, and decipher useful information for potential extraterrestrial habitats.

Presentation  |  Video

International RETH Workshop


Seminar - Robotics and Autonomy: The Future of People in Space


RETH at Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program


Two undergraduate students, as new members of the RETH team, worked on Summer-2018 in the Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Program. They presented their final results on the SURF Research Symposium on August-2018.

Poster for Resilience for Permanent Extraterrestrial Habitats

Presentation at Undergraduate Research Conference


Nicole Rote presented her research poster "Quantification and Evaluation of Thermal Fatigue for a Lunar Habitat" at Purdue's Undergraduate Research Conference on April 10th.

RETH at LPSC


The RETH team presented three posters at the 49th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC), The Woodlands Texas, March 19-23, 2018.

Seminar - The Radiation Hazard to Human Space Habitation and Travel


RETH Featured in Purdue Research Highlights


The RETH team was featured in the Purdue University Research Highlights!

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Potential Human Habitat Located on the Moon


Image by NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University

Radar data confirmed a previously theorized enormous cavern called a lava tube in the Marius Hills region of the moon. Space suits alone can’t shield astronauts from its elements: extreme temperature variation, radiation, and meteorite impacts; unlike Earth, the moon has no atmosphere or magnetic field to protects its inhabitants. This finding could enable astronauts to make longer expeditions to the moon or even provide shelter for a moon colony. According to Jay Melosh, Distinguished Professor of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at Purdue, the lava tube near the Marius Hills is spacious enough to house one of the United States’ largest cities.

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Inaugural Seminar with Astronaut Tom Jones


seminar photo

Join us on April 18th in Fowler Hall from 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM for our Inaugural Seminar featuring Astronaut Tom Jones!

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RETH Town Hall Meeting


This discussion is intended to explore the steps for developing this new academic program, and will address the broad research questions and scientific needs to develop human settlements on other planets. You can download the presentation here.

RETH Team Kickoff Presentation


This presentation rolls out the New Horizons grant, awarded by the Purdue University Provost’s Office to a team of researchers proposing to create a program in Extraterrestrial Habitat Engineering – believed to be the first such university program. You can download the presentation slides here and watch the announcement video here.

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