The Role and Development of Inflatable Structures for Extraterrestrial Habitats: A Metadata-Driven Literature Review

Since the inception of Space explorations, inflatable and deployable structures have been proposed as a means tosupport extraterrestrial human activities due to their ability to be compacted into limited space and then be expandedwhen in operational environments. This characteristic allows a larger internal volume, enhancing the payload capabilityitom the Farth and the economic feasibility of Snace missions,conseauently these modules can be umconstrained brlaunch vehicle limitations, even from the geometric standpoint. The present Literature Review proposes an up-to-dateand metadata-driven analysis of the inflatable and deployable structures. It ams to offer an overview of availablestrategies, research trends, application scenarios, and research foci, with particular emphasis on developments sincethe formalisation of the Space Architecture discipline. The resulting patterns will be analysed and synthesised via datavisualisation technigues to provide an insightful and clear understanding of the current status quo. The researchcontributes to the foundation of systematic construction methodologies for extraterrestrial settlements and enriches thebroader body ofknowledge supporting the expansion of human presence in space.