Space architecture education as a part of aerospace engineering curriculum $ Olga Bannova n , Larry Bell Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture (SICSA), University of Houston, USA a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 25 January 2011 Received in revised form 8 June 2011 Accepted 9 June 2011 Available online 20 July 2011 Keywords: Space architecture Aerospace engineering Design Learning experience Design process a b s t r a c t Education is particularly important for new fields.In the case of space architecture, there are two core needs: 1. educating the aerospace community about the architect’s function and activity and design process within the enterprise; 2. educating space architects and associated specialists about constraints, conditions, and priorities unique to human space systems. These needs can be addressed, respectively,by two key educationaltools for the 21st century: 1. introducing the space architecture discipline into the space system engineering curricula; 2. developing space architecture as a distinct, complete training curriculum. New generations ofprofessionals with a space architecture background can help shift professional focus from just engineering-driven transportation systemsand ‘‘sortie’’missions to permanent offworld human presence by offering their inherently integrative design approach to alltypes of space structures and facilities.Although architectural and engineering approaches share some similarities in solving problems, they also have significant differences.Architectural training teaches young profes- sionals to operate at all scales from the ‘‘overall picture’’ down to the smallest details to provide directive intention – not just analysis – to design opportunities, to address the relationship between human behavior and the built environment, and to interact with many diverse fields and disciplines throughout the project lifecycle. & 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Field of space architecture The Field of space architecture as a discipline is defined on the space architecture website as ‘‘a system of enclosed and modified space that is used for enhancing and sustaining specified human activities’’ [1]. Although there are still debates going on aboutwhat should be included into the definition, that description is very close to the subject. In general, if humankind is going to continue space exploration we have to stop treating space as a one-time lab experiment and start dealing with it as with any another habitation environmentwhere living conditions differ from what humans are used to.Intro- duction to space architecture as a discipline and philoso- phy of life to aerospace and other engineering students Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/actaastro Acta Astronautica 0094-5765/$ - see front matter & 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2011.06.011 $ This paper was presented during the 61st IAC in Prague. n Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: obannova@uh.edu (O. Bannova), lbell@uh.edu (L. Bell). Acta Astronautica 69 (2011) 1143–1147