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Constance Adams Meet Constance Adams, a Host Researcher and Space Architect from Operation: Infinite Potential. |
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Constance Adams
Host Researcher,
Space Architect, Emerging Explorer,
NASA, National Geographic Society Fellow,
Houston, TX
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Constance Adams is an internationally recognized architect. Constance went to Harvard and earned a degree in sociology and then to Yale to earn a Master’s degree in architecture. She apprenticed in Tokyo, Japan and then began working in Berlin, Germany. Constance now continues her practice for her own firm, Synthesis International, in Houston, Texas. She has helped design skyscrapers in Tokyo, plan urban areas that were being renovated in Berlin and now off-Earth habitats for planets like Mars and space modules for the International Space Station.
Constance has won two Space Certifications from the Space Foundation. One, the NestEgg birdhouse, was designed according to space architecture principles and used a nontoxic, biodegradable plastic that is approved for use on ISS. Another, the Patient Couch, is a fully wired, integrated hospital bed/chair/gurney that incorporates controls and telemetry along with patient charts and improved ergonomics.
Constance finds inspiration for what she designs in the natural world, looking to plants, animals, and even Earth itself for ideas. When designing the spaces that humans will use, she is not only interested in safety, functionality, and livability but also in creating spaces that are elegant – that inspire people who use her designs.
Constance is also very interested in energy. Her designs for space must meet all of the challenges and rigors of space travel and habitation. First, her designs must protect the astronauts from harmful electromagnetic radiation, temperature extremes, high energy particles and the debris found in space. She also needs to provide the right forms and amounts of energy to keep the astronauts in her designs alive and productive as they carry out their mission. Having enough solar panels, fuel cells and energy efficient heating and lighting all must be considered as she solves these challenges of space.
When designing habitats for a planet like Mars, Constance also investigates how local materials can be used to save weight and the cost and energy needed to transport building materials from great distances.
Constance looks to the science concepts she learned in middle school to help her designs. She looks to what she learned in biology and the physical and earth sciences because nature has already solved most design challenges. She uses her vision and insight to look for those solutions and emulate them in her designs.
Constance also put together a project sponsored by the United Nations and the Columbia Earth Institute, called “Water for Two Worlds.” This project allows for the transfer of sustainable technologies from spaceflight implementations to Earth applications. This allowed the European Space Agency to apply a a biologically based water cleaning system they and NASA had developed for use in off world missions, to an Earth-based system that might help save the lives of up to 8,000 children who die every day because their water is too dirty to drink.
The European Antarctica station, Concordia, uses this system and it purifies water for up to 70 people each day. It has run every day since 2004 without fail. Other than pumps to move the water, it does not use any energy to clean the water.
Constance speaks five additional languages besides her native English. She speaks French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese. Currently her firm is collaborating with an international team of architects and engineers for the first public space port, Spaceport America Virgin Galactic Terminal.
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