Rack and Stack: Design of Payload Racks to Support Future Habitation Platforms and Exploration Missions

Long-term human space exploration and habitation require payload racks to store, maintain, and track experiments for long periods of time. Without them, extraterrestrial experimentation, vital to advances here on Earth, would be virtually impossible to carry out at the necessary level. Current designs focus on storage and experimentation on the International Space Station (ISS), a microgravity environment. More resilient payload rack designs are necessary for space experimentation to become increasingly independent of crew and Earth support. Thus, the Bioastronautics and Life Support Systems (BLiSS) team has worked to characterize a payload rack that has been adapted to work in a lunar gravity environment.