From Space Crew to Road Vehicles: Supporting Designers in Human Factor-Aware Design to Improve Experience and Safety

Designing a space habitat means not only conceiving an environment with extremely high functionality, capable of ensuring crew safety and supporting operational and scientific activities, but above all, imagining an extreme space designed for the everyday life of each crew member. The challenge in the context of space habitats, where access to space is becoming increasingly inclusive and diverse, is to develop design methods that improve the onboard experience and crew well-being, while respecting the environment and collective experience. Designers in this field must address a high degree of complexity, balancing the individual needs of crew members with technical constraints. The approach proposed here combines Responsible Advanced Design (RAD) with Human System Integration (HSI) to address both functional and experiential needs in the design of future space habitats. The applied methodology brings forth several operational tools. Of particular relevance to this contribution is the design process underlying the habitat configurator, structured in two phases: in the first, needs are identified and clustered, distinguishing between common needs and those specific to particular activities; subsequently, the design model enables the development of a habitat concept by transforming those needs into design tags, which guide the adaptive and personalized definition of spatial, product, and service solutions based on both individual and collective profiles. Although originally developed for orbital modules, this design approach shows promising applications in terrestrial contexts such as autonomous mobility, where vehicle interiors are becoming multifunctional environments with characteristics similar to space habitats. This contribution illustrates how the integration of the methodology and tools developed for space habitat design can enhance the configuration of vehicle interiors and improve the travel experience, both individual and collective, according to user characteristics and specific needs.