India’s IISc-Bangalore has unveiled BHEEM (Bhartiya Extra-Terrestrial Expandable Modular Habitat), a pioneering modular habitat concept designed for future lunar and Martian missions, India Today reported.

Developed under the academic research of astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, BHEEM represents India’s ambition to establish sustainable human presence beyond Earth.

The Bharatiya Habitable Expandable Extra-Terrestrial Habitat, or BHEEM, emerged from academic research linked to Shubhanshu Shukla’s astronaut training following his return from Russia.

His training programme included mastering India’s launch vehicle and orbital module systems, alongside rigorous physical conditioning and spaceflight preparation. Importantly, astronauts were encouraged to pursue academic research into the future of human space exploration, which led to the development of BHEEM at the Aloke Lab of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.

The concept directly addresses one of the most pressing challenges in human spaceflight: how to establish a sustained human presence away from Earth. While rockets and spacecraft can transport astronauts to distant worlds, ensuring their survival and productivity after landing requires advanced technologies.

Future extra-terrestrial habitats must protect astronauts from intense radiation, extreme temperatures, and hazardous environments. They must also provide reliable life-support systems, energy generation and storage, and practical methods of construction and expansion.

Shukla emphasised that the fundamental question of “where do we live?” remains central to future exploration. He noted that if humanity wants to live beyond Earth in the next two decades, the work must begin today.

His research reflects India’s growing focus on technologies that will support long-term ambitions in lunar and planetary exploration, complementing the Gaganyaan program which is laying the foundation for Indian astronauts in low-Earth orbit and beyond.

BHEEM is based on a modular panel architecture, designed to be stackable within the payload fairing of heavy-lift launch vehicles such as SpaceX’s Starship. The design employs a bottoms-up approach to human-centred architecture, calculating the average volume requirements for astronauts to complete essential activities.

These volumes are aggregated into pressurised modules, which can be assembled from panels shaped as triangles, squares, and pentagons. Comparative analysis identified the most efficient and structurally rigid solids, ensuring both comfort and safety for astronauts. Numerical and analytical methods validated the structural rigidity, with deflection rates as low as 0.014%, demonstrating robustness.

The modular nature of BHEEM allows for easy construction, repair, and maintenance. A single payload could deploy a habitat layout offering twice the volume of the International Space Station. This scalability ensures mission logistics remain feasible even with smaller payload capacities.

The habitat’s design also supports interdisciplinary research into human physiology, circadian rhythm regulation, confined-environment psychology, and biomedical telemetry, all critical for long-duration missions.

Parallel research at IISc has explored bio-cementation using bacteria to create “space bricks” from lunar and Martian soil simulants. These bricks, strengthened even in the presence of perchlorates found in Martian soil, could provide shielding for habitats like BHEEM. Such innovations highlight India’s integrated approach to extra-terrestrial construction, combining modular engineering with sustainable material science.

India’s ambitions in human spaceflight are expanding rapidly. With the Gaganyaan program preparing for crewed missions and the proposed Bharatiya Antariksh Station under consideration, projects like BHEEM demonstrate the country’s readiness to contribute to global efforts in lunar and Martian colonisation.

If successful, BHEEM could place India among the select group of nations actively developing advanced extra-terrestrial habitats.

Agencies