Interior Layout Optimization for Low-Gravity Habitats Incorporating Contact-Assisted Postural Stability

• Proposes an engineering optimization framework for interior layout design under low-gravity conditions • Formulates contact-assisted postural stability as a quantitative performance metric for layout optimization • Identifies Pareto trade-offs between mobility-support stability and circulation efficiency through multi-objective optimization • Demonstrates gravity-dependent impacts on optimal layout configurations via numerical simulation The realization of long-term human habitation in low-gravity environments, such as Moon and Mars, requires new approaches to the design of living spaces. In such environments, conventional terrestrial walking becomes unstable or impractical, and human mobility relies heavily on hand contact with surrounding interior elements to maintain postural stability. However, current design methodologies for low-gravity habitats have not explicitly incorporated walking stability into the spatial design process, particularly at the design stage. This study formulates interior layout planning for low-gravity living spaces as a quantitative engineering optimization problem that explicitly incorporates contact-assisted movement as a performance objective. The proposed method models walking stability by representing hand contact with interior equipment, while also considering movement direction and gravity conditions. These mobility-related performance indicators are integrated into a multi-objective optimization formulation that balances walking stability and mobility efficiency under realistic architectural and operational constraints. The effectiveness of the framework is demonstrated through numerical simulations, in which Pareto-optimal interior layout configurations are generated for different gravity conditions. The resulting Pareto fronts reveal explicit trade-offs between contact-assisted mobility-support regions and movement efficiency. Rather than yielding a single optimal solution, the framework provides a set of feasible Pareto-optimal design alternatives, enabling designers to select interior layouts that align with their design priorities, such as emphasizing stability or efficiency. The proposed framework transforms contact-assisted movement from a qualitative consideration into a quantitative engineering design variable and offers a practical decision-support tool for performance-based engineering design of living spaces in low-gravity environments. This study contributes to engineering design methodology by introducing a quantitative framework that integrates biomechanical stability modeling with spatial optimization under reduced gravity conditions.