An out of this world opportunity

How Revenant is helping to imagine a world beyond this one.

As NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration gets ready to take a second crack at launching Artemis I, people around the world are imagining what life might be like on the moon.

We don’t have to imagine. Because we’ve already seen it. In fact, we helped to visualise it. Last year (2021) New York-based architect Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) , in collaboration with the European Space Agency - ESA , presented a concept for lunar living at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.

It explored the potential for inhabited environments on the moon. How they might be created, assembled, adapted and connected. How they could be made liveable, even homely. It considered the idea of creating a new society in an entirely new environment, and how we might adapt to that environment to sustain human life.

We had the challenging and compelling task of bringing the project to life. Our job was to tell the story in a way that would engage and involve exhibition visitors, and help them to see that life on the moon isn’t just a flight of the imagination. It’s a very real – and not too distant – possibility.

Collaborating closely with SOM and ESA, as well as MIT professor and former astronaut Jeffrey A Hoffman, we were privileged to get a view of space no-one had ever seen before.

We got to explore the intricacies of the space suits people might have to wear. The movement of a Moon Rover across the terrain. The way food might be grown and how the Moon Village could function as more than a base. How it might become a home.

All of that through hyper realistic 3D environments, sophisticated design, modelling and animation, integrated motion capture, bespoke UI design and the latest in human CG animation.

Life Beyond Earth?was more than a movie. It was an honest-to-goodness adventure and an extraordinary learning experience. We won’t lie, people in our line of work have to have a little bit of geek in them. This project brought out the geek in all of us. So imagine how excited we were to be invited to collaborate on a sequel.

New Frontiers, a joint project between SOM and Lockheed Martin , explored the concept of lunar habitation even further. The aim was to create structures that could support up to four astronauts in comfort for up to 120 days at a time.

More than that – it was to conceptualise and design an environment that would actively contribute to health and wellness while offering an adaptable, customisable space that would feel like home.

With natural-looking materials and projections and lighting to mimic the Earth’s environment, the 100 cubic metres of occupiable space were carefully and cleverly designed to offer flexible accommodations for working, living, exercise, resting and relaxing.

Once again, we had the pleasure of bringing that concept to life, and helping the design team and their audiences see exactly how it would all work in reality. Our job was to explore the intimate human aspects of day-to-day life for lunar astronauts in all their variety, from eating and sleeping to working – and working out.