By 2030 we could see a rise in space tourism and most likely the human habitation of the Low Earth Orbit will trigger the shift towards living beyond Earth. Even though realizing the dream of setting foot on the red planet is some decades still to go, living on the lunar surface is not a far-fetched craving.

The challenges in colonizing planets or satellites beyond the Earth’s bounds are immense and taking them one step at a time is the key. One of the challenges is to provide a safe haven for inhabitants in inhospitable conditions. This project dubbed Momo wants to address this with a flatpack and modular option for practicality. Developed by MIT’s Department of Architecture and MIT Media Lab in association with AeroAstro, the self-assembling lunar habitat is among the best ideas so far we’ve come across.

Designer: MIT Media Lab

Keeping in mind the things that could go wrong in alien environments, the Momo habitat is completely replaceable in case there is a breach or malfunction. Rather than replacing the whole habitat, the compromised module can be swapped with a new one. This saves time and ensures the inhabitants have one less thing to worry about. The ultimate goal for developing Momo will be to support the Arthemis III mission and assist in the long-term lunar settlement mission. Oen can realize the extent of the seriousness of this undertaking by the fact that MIT Departments will be headed by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Jhonson Space Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory and SpaceX.

For the first phase, the compact habitat will have a design that flat-packs inside the Starship HLS cargo space. It’ll be developed keeping in mind at all times about the safety and efficient space utilization. The modular aspect allows for versatile functionality, for instance, realigning the aluminum frame and high-density polyethylene membrane for setting up camp depending on the terrain of the Moon. It can be anything from a safe airlock compartment, windows, work desks, or even exercise areas.

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Having an electronic vehicle is becoming a bit more common, although still not as prevalent as we would like it to be. There are a lot of reasons why some are still hesitant about adapting to this more eco-friendly kind of cars. Aside from the price tag, charging your vehicle overnight is still not as easy especially if you don’t have a garage or driveway. You have to look for charging stations near your place but you probably won’t be able to do your charging overnight. A startup aims to solve that problem by utilizing trusty old lamposts.

Designer: Voltpost

Since street lamposts are pretty common, this New York City startup is proposing to retrofit these existing lamposts and use them to charge electric vehicles. They designed a shroud that will cover the lower part of the lamposts and inside you have various cables and electronic devices to juice up the cars that need them. You have retractable cables that can anchor up to eight feet off the ground and a hand level charger dock. It is also modular and can be installed in an hour and can be repaired easily.

For newbies to the EV game, charging your car here is as easy as plug and play. There’s an app where you can oversee the charging of your vehicle and it is also where you will pay for the service. You can also use it to reserve your spot in case you know the schedule when you need to recharge your vehicle and you don’t want to compete with other EV owners. Even the installation of these chargers on the lamposts is pretty easy and takes just an hour based on their initial tests.

Voltpost has finished a test with the New York City Department of Transportation and they are currently in different stages of development with other cities specifically Chicago, Detroit, and New York. This is something that will be pretty useful to encourage more people to switch to EVs, especially if they don’t have space in their houses to do their own charging. We look forward to the day when EVs are as common as hybrid or regular cars and having a more convenient way to power up is a step towards that.

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