BECOMING TREK
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The biggest challenge to making life on Mars possible isn’t really developing the technology for human habitation, but making those habitats affordable and sustainable. If engineers at SpaceX, NASA, and other parties can’t come up with a design for a cheap Martian house, it’s going to be extremely difficult for humans to build and maintain a colony on the red planet. So here comes former Star Trek: The Next Generation writer Morgan Gendel, with an innovative solution.
Habolith.
A HABitat built from regOLITH (aka sand here on Earth) was developed in tandem with current and former NASA scientists. The key shipped component is the unit’s shell, a lightweight, mass-producible, flexible framework. On-site, plentiful regolith is loaded into the shell’s arch-shaped membranes, similar to concrete poured into a formwork. The shell forms the permanent exterior and interior facades, while the regolith mass is constricted to trigger granular compression, or “soil-jamming.” Soil-jamming is a proven methodology for phase shifting a particulate mass into a rigid solid: in this case a concrete analog with little or no binders or water. The Habolith concept is rooted in inflatable structures, only with regolith being the fill material instead of air.
But Habolith isn’t just for Mars. It’s a sensible housing solution for the Earth and Beyond.
Humans are displaced worldwide due to natural disasters, drought, conflict, mental illness, and financial constraints. There’s a dire need for quick-deployed, durable housing that is eco-friendly and affordable. Thereby, it is necessary to use localized building materials in order to lower the carbon footprint of emergency housing.
The last time a global survey was attempted – by the United Nations in 2005 – an estimated 100 million people were homeless worldwide. As many as 1.6 billion people lacked adequate housing (Habitat, 2015). In 2021, the World Economic Forum reported that 150 million people were homeless worldwide.
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Morgan Gendel is best known as the writer behind the episode “The Inner Light” from Star Trek: The Next Generation, which has been hailed not just as one of the best episodes of Star Trek, but as one of the finest pieces of modern television. It’s no surprise that he’s gone on to be awarded the Hugo Award in 1993 while the episode is also known to be the Patrick Stewart’s best performance as Captain Picard. While we will learn about the surprising difficult journey of this episode, Morgan is facing yet another challenge: to convince the world, he has the key in solving the housing issue. It turns out that not everyone agrees to his approach but he’s also got competition. Yet, Morgan can sing a song about being rejected — after all, it took five approaches for “The Inner Light” to move forward. To him, being said no, is only fuelling his confidence.
In Becoming Trek - we not only revisit Morgan’s journey to that famous episode but in the present time, he also sets off on a mission to solve the housing issues, only to face the biggest test in life. Will Morgan find his inner light in order to succeed?