You may have seen a variety of tents, but definitely not this one!
This tent is called LUNARK, designed by Danish firm SAGA Space Architects for the harsh conditions on the moon.
Its design draws inspiration from origami, the art of paper folding, which is often associated with Japanese culture.
The tent can fold down to a volume of 77.7 ft3 (2.2 m3), small enough for truck and rocket transportation. It unfolds into a 13.8-foot-high (4.2-meter-high) small house with an inner volume of 607.4 ft3 (17.2 m3), a 750% increase in volume.
Its shell is made of carbon fibers, and covered with solar panels that power a 1,000Ah battery. Connected by white composite rubber, the sandwich panels have a foam core for extra insulation. The exterior also boasts an aluminum frame.
The tent is designed to weather temperatures as low as -49°F (-45°C) and winds up to 55.9 mph (90 kph). No more than two people are required to drag away the 3,747.9lb (1,700kg) tent on its four omni wheels.
With an inner volume of 607.4 ft3 (17.2 m3), the tent has two floors. Enter the front room on the first floor. A non-flush toilet and a small closet are on your left and right respectively.
Pass through a door, and you’ll see two tables, bookshelves, desk lamps, and monitoring instruments inside.
To maintain a roughly 24-hour circadian rhythm and relieve monotony, the ceiling panels mimic the light cycles on the earth, and a weather simulator is in development stage.
On the second floor are two tiny sleeping pods.
The tent has accomplished a three-month testing mission in northern Greenland, in which it successfully withstood hurricane-scale winds and polar temperatures down to -22°F (-30°C).
Further testing and improvement are needed in order to use this tent on the moon. Maybe in the future, we can go camping on the moon with this origami-inspired tent!
