{"id":387364,"date":"2025-12-16T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theproductofdesign.com\/site\/could-architecture-in-space-make-a-greener-earth-short-wave-2\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T02:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T08:00:00","slug":"could-architecture-in-space-make-a-greener-earth-short-wave-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theproductofdesign.com\/site\/could-architecture-in-space-make-a-greener-earth-short-wave-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Could architecture in space make a greener Earth? : Short Wave"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/npr.brightspotcdn.com\/dims3\/default\/strip\/false\/crop\/4650x2616+0+0\/resize\/1400\/quality\/100\/format\/jpeg\/?url=http:\/\/npr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com\/48\/a4\/ef2e683749dfaaf4d9e7e8d98f77\/094f22fc-94f9-4efa-b503-f8bae0e2c893.jpg\" \/>\n<div>Humankind has the technology to go to space. Space architect Ariel Ekblaw says the bottleneck now is real estate: getting larger volumes of space stations in orbit. Her company is working on the equivalent of giant, magnetic space Legos\u2014hexagons that could self-assemble in space into livable, workable structures. This episode, host Regina G. Barber talks to her about this space architecture and why she says that the goal isn\u2019t to abandon Earth\u2013but to off-world industries like agriculture and manufacturing in order to build a better Earth.If you liked this episode, check out our Space Camp series.Interested in more space tech episodes? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org\/shortwave.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2025\/12\/16\/nx-s1-5608226\/could-architecture-in-space-make-a-greener-earth\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"feedzy-rss-link-icon\">Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Humankind has the technology to go to space. Space architect Ariel Ekblaw says the bottleneck now is real estate: getting larger volumes of space stations in orbit. Her company is working on the equivalent of giant, magnetic space Legos\u2014hexagons that could self-assemble in space into livable, workable structures. This episode, host Regina G. Barber talks&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theproductofdesign.com\/site\/could-architecture-in-space-make-a-greener-earth-short-wave-2\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Could architecture in space make a greener Earth? : Short Wave<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":387360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","content-type":"","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","neve_meta_reading_time":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-387364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-architecture"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Could architecture in space make a greener Earth? : Short Wave - The Product of Design<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theproductofdesign.com\/site\/could-architecture-in-space-make-a-greener-earth-short-wave-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Could architecture in space make a greener Earth? : Short Wave - The Product of Design\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Humankind has the technology to go to space. Space architect Ariel Ekblaw says the bottleneck now is real estate: getting larger volumes of space stations in orbit. Her company is working on the equivalent of giant, magnetic space Legos\u2014hexagons that could self-assemble in space into livable, workable structures. This episode, host Regina G. Barber talks&hellip;&nbsp;Read MoreCould architecture in space make a greener Earth? : Short Wave\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theproductofdesign.com\/site\/could-architecture-in-space-make-a-greener-earth-short-wave-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Product of Design\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-16T08:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/npr.brightspotcdn.com\/dims3\/default\/strip\/false\/crop\/4650x2616+0+0\/resize\/1400\/quality\/100\/format\/jpeg\/?url=http:\/\/npr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com\/48\/a4\/ef2e683749dfaaf4d9e7e8d98f77\/094f22fc-94f9-4efa-b503-f8bae0e2c893.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"TPODadmin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Berly McCoy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theproductofdesign.com\\\/site\\\/could-architecture-in-space-make-a-greener-earth-short-wave-2\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theproductofdesign.com\\\/site\\\/could-architecture-in-space-make-a-greener-earth-short-wave-2\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"TPODadmin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theproductofdesign.com\\\/site\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/10e000e236c3b85f26a286d96403e2cd\"},\"headline\":\"Could architecture in space make a greener Earth? 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