This report summarizes the work done during the Adaptive Multifunctional Systems for Microclimate
Control Study held at the Caltech Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) in 2014-2015.
Dr. Marco Quadrelli (JPL), Dr. James Lyke (AFRL), and Prof. Sergio Pellegrino (Caltech) led
the Study, which included two workshops: the first in May of 2014, and another in February
of 2015. The Final Report of the Study presented here describes the potential relevance of
adaptive multifunctional systems for microclimate control to the missions outlined in the 2010
NRC Decadal Survey.
The objective of the Study was to adapt the most recent advances in multifunctional reconfigurable
and adaptive structures to enable a microenvironment control to support space exploration in
extreme environments (EE). The technical goal was to identify the most efficient materials,
architectures, structures and means of deployment/reconfiguration, system autonomy and energy
management solutions needed to optimally project/generate a micro-environment around space
assets. For example, compact packed thin-layer reflective structures unfolding to large areas
can reflect solar energy, warming and illuminating assets such as exploration rovers on Mars or
human habitats on the Moon. This novel solution is called an energy-projecting multifunctional
system (EPMFS), which are composed of Multifunctional Systems (MFS) and Energy-Projecting
Systems (EPS)