Mutopia: Village of the future

Civil engineering senior Conlan Swope and his teammates turned to science fiction for inspiration in proposing a sustainable village for the moon

Jack Matson's eco-innovation students have their heads in the clouds. But that's okay. Matson, professor of environmental engineering, encourages daydreaming.

His 400-level civil engineering class has joined forces with students from Georgia Tech and the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) for the 2009 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) Competition.

The NASA-sponsored contest challenges teams of university students to come up with solutions to the problems veteran astronauts might face on return trips to the moon.

With a lot of research and a little imagination, the team came up with Mutopia, a permanent, sustainable moon village with a capacity for 500 inhabitants.

The Mutopia design addresses one of the biggest problems astronauts face on the moon: lack of gravity.

In the short term, lack of gravity can cause motion sickness and swelling of the limbs. One of the more serious effects of living without gravity, though, is a loss of bone mass. According to an article on NASA's Web site, "space travelers can lose (on average) 1 to 2 percent of bone mass each month."

A decrease in bone mass has been shown to cause a rise in blood calcium levels, increasing the risk of kidney stones.

To offset these problems, Mutopia would be centered around the Moontrifuge, a large structure much like an amusement park gravitron ride.

"The Moontrifuge creates artificial gravity. It's almost like walking on the walls," explains Conlan Swope, a senior civil engineering major.

The design's other major feature is its sustainability, or ability to replenish the energy it consumes.

This is where Jennifer Fetzer comes in.

Fetzer, a junior, is the lone horticulture major on a team of engineers and the group's resident plant expert.

"The project is for permanent sustainable living on the moon, and plants factor into that. We're trying to figure out how plants would adapt to the moon's climate or produce food in that kind of environment," says Fetzer, a teaching assistant for Matson's class.

So how did this team of Earthlings come up with such an innovative design, complete with moon gardens and artificial gravity?

"Coming into this class, we didn't know much about space. We're not aerospace engineers. Jack had us watch science fiction movies and read science fiction books to get us thinking about some of these things," says Swope.

Fetzer believes her forays into science fiction helped give her a broader understanding of the challenges astronauts might encounter in space.

"It helped me to better visualize and made me think about some of the sociological implications of being in space for so long," she said.

The Mutopia team's proposal isn't as far-fetched as some of the science fiction plots they drew inspiration from; at least not according to NASA.

In February, the composite team submitted their proposal and was one of only seven picked from a pool of more than 300 applicants to compete in the final competition, which is scheduled for June 1-3, in Cocoa Beach, Fla.

In Florida, they will compete against schools like Arizona State University, the University of Maryland and Virginia Tech, just to name a few.

The winning team could play a big part in future moon voyages.

"By 2050, they want to have a moon colony," says Swope. "If they like our proposal enough, they might use parts of it in the plan."

The competition will be stiff, but Swope believes his team has some unique advantages over the other schools.

Although distance is a disadvantage for the three-part team, Swope says the Penn State crew keeps in touch with their NYU-Poly and Georgia Tech counterparts via Skype chat sessions on the Internet. He describes Penn State's role in the trio as the "meat and potatoes work," but says the two other teams have added a new dimension to the project, which is a definite plus.

Swope feels the biggest advantage his team has though, is Matson's guidance.

"I've never had a professor like him, and I've never had a civil engineering class like this. Jack is an innovator. There are no right or wrong answers," Swope says. "He really opens the creativity box."

—Rachel Moses

Editor's Note: The results of the 2009 RASC-AL Competition are in. First place for the graduate division was awarded to the joint team effort of Georgia Institute of Technology and North Carolina State University, for their project titled, "Reusable Lunar Transportation Architecture Utilizing Orbital Propellant Depots." First place for the undergraduate division was awarded to the University of Maryland for their project titled, "Project ASHLAIN: A Lunar Flying Vehicle for Rapid Universal Surface Access." More information is available online at www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/releases/2009/09-051.html.