To have a home on a zero gravity orbiting space station

Orbital Habitats

You’ve chosen to imagine a home floating around Earth on a zero-gravity space station. You might want to learn more about orbital habitats, where people live, work, eat, sleep, and play in space. Just don’t forget your tether when you leave the house for spacewalks!

Fun Facts:

In 2001, Dennis Tito became the first paying private space traveler and spent six days aboard the International Space Station.
Astronauts on the space station exercise about two hours every day to protect their bones and muscles.
In 2025, four private astronauts on Axiom Mission 4 spent 18 days at the International Space Station.

Orbital Habitats

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This scenario explores orbital habitats, where we could live and work around Earth. We can learn from astronauts already living aboard the International Space Station. Their work helps us understand food, water, sleep, and health in microgravity. Private astronaut trips also help us test new ways to visit space; NASA is even helping companies develop future commercial space stations. Just don’t forget your tether when you leave the house for spacewalks!

Fun Facts:

Skylab had a real zero-gravity shower in 1973, with a curtain and a vacuum that sucked up floating water.
The International Space Station has about as much inside space as a six-bedroom house.
The space station can recover about 98% of the water collected from breath, sweat, and urine.
Astronauts have eaten tacos topped with chile peppers grown right inside the space station.
Astronauts sleep in sleeping bags inside small personal rooms because lying on a bed does not work the same way in microgravity.

Discussion Question:

If families lived in orbit, how could they stay connected to people on Earth?

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Physical Build:

Build your own orbiting space home using a paper plate, cardboard, cups, tape, string, and recycled materials. Design places to sleep, eat, exercise, grow food, and look down at Earth. Imagine there is almost no gravity, then decide how you would stop your furniture and belongings from floating away.

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Digital Build:

With an adult, ask ChatGPT:

“Design a cozy space station home where a family could live in zero gravity.”

Choose the ideas you like, change anything you do not, and draw or build your own version. Add one completely new room that nobody has thought of yet.

or on a bouncy castle house on the Moon?

Moon Bounce House

Lunar Construction

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You’ve chosen to imagine a giant bouncy castle home built right on the Moon. You might want to learn more about lunar construction, which explores building with materials already found on the Moon. But don’t forget to save some Moon dust for the Moon!

Fun Facts:

NASA engineers were already studying whether concrete could work for Moon bases in
In 2024, ESA 3D-printed LEGO-shaped “space bricks” using dust from a
5-billion-year-old meteorite to test Moon-building ideas.
China sent experimental “lunar soil bricks” outside its space station for a year, and the first returned samples came back in 2025.

Lunar Construction

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This scenario explores lunar construction, or how we might build on the Moon. Instead of transporting every building material from Earth, we could use Moon dirt, called regolith, to make bricks, roads, and landing surfaces. Maybe we could also use Moon resources to make oxygen and useful metals, helping us build bases with fewer supplies sent from Earth. But engineers would also need to keep abrasive Moon dust outside living areas. And don’t forget to save some Moon dust for the Moon!

Fun Facts:

In Djenné, Mali, people have built with local river mud for centuries, showing how builders can use materials found right where they live.
The European Space Agency has used concentrated sunlight to turn Moon-like dust into solid building pieces without adding glue from Earth.
NASA and ICON are researching robotic construction methods that could turn Moon-like dirt into strong structures, including possible landing pads, roads, and habitat components.
Blue Origin’s Blue Alchemist system is being developed to turn lunar dirt into oxygen, metals, and materials for solar cells.
A NASA-backed project called BrickLayer is testing robots that could turn raw lunar dirt into bricks that might someday be used for roads, foundations, and landing pads.

Discussion Question:

How much Moon rock—if any—should people be allowed to dig up for building?

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Physical Build:

Build a Moon bounce house using cardboard, sponges, paper cups, foil, tape, and other recycled materials. Make the soft, bouncy home first, then surround parts of it with pretend “Moon-dust bricks” made from gray paper or cardboard. Decide which parts should be soft, which should be strong, and how your home protects the people inside.

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Digital Build:

With an adult, ask ChatGPT:

“Design a bouncy Moon house built partly from materials found on the Moon.”

Use the answer as a starting point, then redesign it your way. Draw the inside and outside, and invent one clever feature that helps people live comfortably without bringing it from Earth.