INDUSTRY:
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
CLIENT:
EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY
YEAR:
2025
HALO: High Alert Life Operations
First aid, for outer space.
"Designing for space aims at enhancing crew comfort and well-being while maximizing performance and accounting for sustainability, inclusivity and aesthetics."
This is the premise under which the brief for this project was developed — to come up with an object that can coexist with astronauts aboard a lunar base and go beyond the functionality that its shape provides, through a smart use of materials and production methods.
Development.
The structure is designed for efficient production using additive manufacturing and is composed of three main parts:
An outer and inner shell made from a melanin + PLA composite, which is durable, flexible, and capable of shielding against solar radiation;
and a middle layer made of hydrogel, providing additional impact resistance and enhanced radiation protection.
These material and structural choices were driven by the needs of the medical contents inside. We asked: What causes medicine to degrade? How can we extend its shelf life in space? Can the object’s form intuitively guide someone unfamiliar with medical tools to use it correctly and in the right order?
Fast response. Faster use.
HALO was designed with one core goal in mind: providing an efficient response to medical emergencies.
That’s why we didn’t just reimagine what a medical kit for space should look like compared to one on Earth — we also considered the environment where it would be placed and stored. The form of the object is intentional: it guides the user in how to interact with it and clearly displays everything needed to respond quickly and effectively, bridging the gap until a medical professional becomes available. The contents itself are designed to be of easy access and understandable (we also speculated the integration of a laser injection device as opposed to traditional needle syringes or Epipens. This innovative approach aims to minimize discomfort and the risk of infection, crucial factors in a remote, enclosed environment like a spacecraft.)
