"Three…two…one…blast-off!" As the engines roar to life, a rocket lifts from the launch pad. With a slow and steady acceleration, it gains altitude. Higher and higher it climbs until it can no longer be seen with the unaided eye. Eight minutes after lift off, the engines shut down and the craft silently enters Earth’s orbit.

Circling their home planet, the crew readies the spaceship for its extended mission. A command is entered into the computer. In response, the craft begins a radical transformation. Like a life vest filling with air, the ship expands in size. When the fabric shell reaches its final size, the living quarters have increased more than threefold! The craft is a TransHab Module—an inflatable space structure that expands to create additional living space. With this expansion, there is enough room to house a crew of six for a journey to Mars.

Back on Earth, resources are sufficient for all the planet’s inhabitants. Advances in technology, along with effective conservation policies, have improved the quality of life. We have met the needs of a global population through advances in energy generation, distribution, and use.

Envisioning this type of future and creating the innovations that will make it happen are all in a day’s work for Constance Adams. That is because Constance is a space architect who works with NASA. Her out-of-this-world projects focus on designing innovative habitats used for extended space flights. Her designs for Earth structures may help conserve energy, ensuring that valuable resources will not be wasted. To create these novel solutions, Constance integrates disciplines including engineering, architecture, and the social sciences. By drawing on these different fields of study, she creates structural designs that best address the world’s needs and available resources.

Mission 5 Briefing Video Prepare for your mission by viewing this briefing on your objectives. Learn how explorers like Constance Adams use their understanding of energy to make choices about energy-efficient designs and the energy consumption involved in using products and services.