Space habitat (facility)

A space habitat (or habitation module) in a basic sense is any facility fulfilling habitational purposes. It is not to be confused with an extended space habitat, an arrangement of or infrastructure for multiple habitation facilities, in the sense of a space settlement. Space stations or theoretical extraterrestrial stations, such as a Moonbase or Mars habitat, include or are basic space habitats.

Artist's rendering of the ISS and the Axiom Orbital Segment docked at the forward port of the ISS module Harmony

The ISS was planned to get a now canceled dedicated Habitation module.[1]

Space tourism is expected to place dedicated habitats into space. The Axiom Orbital Segment will be a commercial habitation extension of the ISS for purposes such as tourism, but also commercial research.[2]

Particularly inflatable space habitats have been in development. Based on the earlier NASA TransHab design,[3] inflatable habitats have been developed and tested in orbit by the company Bigelow Aerospace, expecting to place further habitats into orbit, as well as possibly on other astronomical objects, such as the Moon or Mars.[4]