Space Architecture At UH:

By Alex Keimig

The Cullen College of Engineering’s Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture (SICSA) and its space architecture degree program might be the University of Houston’s unintentionally-best-kept secret.

Though last year marked 20 years of the accreditation of the Master of Science in Space Architecture program by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, program director Olga Bannova still regularly encounters people who aren’t familiar with the field of study.

That’s perhaps understandable, given that SICSA houses the only Master of Science in Space Architecture program in the world United States.

“[Space architecture entails] a lot of systems engineering with significant human factors embedded in it,” she said. “It’s about human spaceflight, of course, but it goes way beyond the design of, say, interiors of space habitats. We really want to teach our students to define a potential problem in design, and that includes from not only a systems engineering point of view, but also thinking about the humans.”

“It’s a little bit sci-fi,” Bannova laughed, “But it’s not at all fiction. [This work] needs to be based in reality. That’s what is unique, of course, about our program. We don’t design based on magic, or based on the assumption that in 50 or 100 or 500 years, somehow something impossible will become possible. Because then why not just plan to have teleportation, and say we don’t even need rockets? That’s just Star Trek!”

“You’re not just doing research on what’s happening right now — what’s on the market right now and how these things can be designed — but also doing it with developing concepts and testing them,” she continued. “That’s why we developed the mixed reality lab here at SICSA: to test and evaluate our design decisions from an operational point of view. We want to interact with them and see how comfortable they are — how effective a crew member will be using them in these environments. Life-centered design is really the goal.”

“If you ask several space architects to give you the definition of a space architect, they’ll probably tell you several different answers,” added adjunct professor and SICSA graduate Vittorio Netti, calling the field a “cross-discipline meeting” of architecture, aerospace engineering and human-centered design. “It’s the science and the heart of putting people in space and designing environments that will make space compatible with long-term human presence.”

Olga Bannova

Four other space architecture master’s students and two alums — Kai Kai Bailey, Paula Drozdowska, Corrado Testi, Kelly Mann, and Chi Lan Huynh and Paolo Mangili — recently traveled to the 2024 International Astronautical Congress in Milan, Italy to present innovative research and connect with contemporary leaders in the fields of aerospace and space architecture.

“It’s definitely very important for us to participate, not only because of the program and for networking for our students, but also to put the University of Houston and the Cullen College of Engineering’s newly named Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department on the map,” Bannova said. “Believe it or not, many people know about our programs at UH because of ours and our students’ participation and presentations at these conferences.”

“Companies like SpaceX and Axiom and Blue Origin are trying to build the future of space exploration: not just what we did until now — that is, basically, to survive in space — but also to thrive in space,” Netti added. “We are trying to design environments that aren’t just purely functional, that would be appealing and usable only to trained astronauts, but for a variety of figures who may not be as trained — like space tourists.”

The field’s unprecedented growth in recent years is reflected in a key area — Netti noted that the program is seeing “way more” applications than they can currently admit and support. Bannova has also reported seeing increasing interest in an Aerospace Engineering Ph.D. program, with the option to add work related to space architecture.

While some emerging research focuses on the use of robotic technology to accomplish critical tasks in hostile environments, SICSA remains focused on amplifying and accommodating human ingenuity in space.

That focus on the human at the core of innovation and exploration is just as evident in SICSA’s academic pursuits as it is in the center’s groundbreaking research initiatives.

“It’s very important for us that when our students graduate, they feel like they are well-equipped to contribute to space exploration and the space industry, and that they can be hired successfully. To me, the success and recognition of the program is how hirable our graduates are.” Bannova concluded. “Research is important to us, but our biggest project is our students.”