Rumei Zha

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Render by Rick Fan


Iceland Analog Project:
Mars Habitat

Designing for Extreme Environments - Anticipating Artemis
March - May 2025

Our class of 15 designed and built an analog habitat envisioning what it would be like to live on Mars.
For this design, we focused on three main factors: livability, efficiency, and scalability.
I worked in a subgroup of 5 to design and build the crew quarters area of our module. 



Role

Crew Quarter & Bathroom Designer


Timeline

2 months


Team

Bennett Graff, Waverly Huang, Alex Liu, Rumei Zha, Vincent Zhang


Tools/Materials

Rhino, Blender, Cardboard, Foamcore









Crew Quarters Layout


  • Soundproof walls minimize sleep disruption and provide privacy
  • 4 individual/private rooms with the same or mirrored layouts (62.7 ft2 each)
  • Bathrooms are shared by only two astronauts each for privacy and a sense of ownership of the space





Crew Quarters


Renders by Bennett Graff


  • Each room includes a bed, desk, chair/laundry hamper, and stowage
  • Portholes give astronauts a view of the local environment 
  • Drawers, cabinets, and shelves keep essentials within reach
  • Creeping plants are used both to provide a connection with the natural world and to give astronauts an intuitive sense of time








Bathroom


Renders by Rumei Zha (me)


  • Utilities include a sink, toilet, and shower. Similarly to the crew quarters, a planter will be included.
  • Faucet located beneath top panel of the sink to limit water splashing
  • Toilet has a deep bowl and flushes with air pressure
  • Ceiling shower for full coverage, including a vacuum at the bottom and an emergency stop in case water collects too much














Physical Build


Our group built a life sized model of the crew quarters primarily out of foam core, and we chose to focus on building one bedroom and one bathroom to generally show how the space is arranged.



Final Build





Bedroom area


Bathroom area



Process






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