Tom Wiscombe introduces Barbara Imhof of the Liquifier Systems Group, which works on habitats and building systems for outer space.

Imhof reminds the audience that outer space is not something distant, but very near.

She describes and presents a video on the International Space Station (ISS), orbiting since 1998, stressing how design helps meet the challenge of living and working in extreme, microgravity environments.

She discusses several of her projects, including …
•Eden ISS (2015-2019), an aeroponic, closed-loop greenhouse providing lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and other produce
•A series of “Growing as building” investigations, including projects with slime molds as co-designer, Mycelium to create architectural membranes, 3D printers to print habitats using local resources, and closed-loop waste systems using microbial fuel cells, synthetic microbial consortia, and photobioreactors.
•Elements for habitation on the Moon or Mars, including a Habitat for Extreme Environments (SHEE), modules linked together to form “Lava Hive,” a Rover for Advanced Mission Applications (RAMA) mobile research laboratory vehicle.
•The Regolight project explores In-situ resource utilization (ISRU) by sintering local sand without binder to create building elements.

Briefly mentions her current work on the proposed Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, and concludes with Stanley Kubrick’s vision of arriving on the moon accompanied by Johann Strauss, Jr.’s “Blue Danube” in “2001: A Space Odyssey.”