Architectural Lighting Design Concept for the Interior Yard of a Prospective Orbital Station

Abstract

A design aspect of a three-dimensional workspace for an upcoming deployment stage of a new-generation manned space station with crews of several dozen people is considered. It is assumed that in the new closed layout of the station, the spatial core is its courtyard, which ensures productive and safe human activity not only in pressurized living and working modules, but also in an airless space. The aim of the work is to develop the concept for architectural illumination of the surface and the entire working space in the courtyard of the new-generation orbital station. The original layout diagram of the orbital station is presented. Its illumination is investigated by the method of computer geometric modelling. The most common orthogonal structures implemented in the MIR and ISS projects were chosen as the starting point for constructing the spatial structure of the orbital station. The illumination system is proposed that implements the operational and control functions of the crew members, as well as their orientation and positioning both in the spatial structure of the station itself and in the surrounding space. To implement these functions, two basic techniques for setting up remotely controlled stationary and mobile luminaires are proposed. The importance of highlighting the central axial structure of the station as a coordinate system for constant orientation is shown when people are located both in the inner space of the station and in the space of its yard. It is concluded that the illumination of the three-axis coordinate structure projected onto the outer space in relation to the station space, will give its perception a feeling of familiar stability.