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In designing habitats for long-duration space missions, one of the primary issues to address is that of sleep spaces, commonly known as Crew Quarters. While ergonomic design plays a major role in short-duration crew quarters (CQ) design, longer term missions must take into account the significant effect which environmental factors have on crew productivity; to that end, the establishment of private space for each individual crew member, as well as a range of semiprivate work and rest areas represents a significant departure from established norms in space habitat design. Both for proposed planetary habitats and microgravity habitats, various systems must be studied to enhance the wellbeing of the crewmembers.

The presence of windows in various building designs (e.g., offices, hospitals, houses, etc.) has been correlated with improved psychological well-being and performance. The application in hermetic environments of “virtual windows,” an electronic monitor integrated into an interior environment for viewing external landscapes, is expected to correlate with similar positive effects. In order to properly install virtual windows, the display content and the display characteristics need to be considered.