Lunar Life, Jetsons-Style : Design: Moon-based workers will feast on visions of Earth and clean house via energy beam if Art Center students have their way.

It’s the year 2093 and a cutting-edge corporation has colonized space. To ease environmental problems on Earth, lunar-based crews have developed the technology to mine asteroid belts for natural resources that can be smelted and dropped to Earth by space-cable satellite.

After a hard day’s work at the asteroid mines, the crews return to their towering moon base and kick off their shoes in their personal living units, which contain . . . what?

That was the challenge for 22 students at the Art Center College of Design.

They spent three months designing home products for life in a sterile lunar station. They were forced to consider the premium on oxygen and water and limitations of space and energy. And their designs had to be practical--no Buck Rogers fantasies.

“Everything has to be feasible, both in design and in emerging technology,” says product design instructor Sheldon Phillips. “Those were the instructions.”

Some of the high-tech gadgets, recently unveiled and critiqued in an Art Center classroom, are distinctly futuristic. Christoph Henrici’s “Lunoplica” futuristic goggles offer computerized images of the beach or forest, for relaxing. “Neolin,” an electronic stringed instrument, substitutes a tiny computer screen for tuning pegs. Nevertheless, most of the space age products would be handy around the house right now. For instance, recyclers might jump at Bryan Benedict’s “Eco Cycler,” which, he says, “eliminates the problems of trash disposal and depleting natural resources at the same time.”

His creation looks like a giant, gray plastic urn.

Benedict explains how it would work: “You can pitch in any material--paper, glass or metal--and a laser scanner immediately separates and shreds it. Then it is compressed into pellets which are piped to a central recycle location where it can be prepared for reuse.”

Some other space-age amenities:

* The “SHARC’ (Silent Hovering Automated Room Cleaner).

The aqua and silver fin sails about a room, vacuuming up dust and converting it to self-propelling energy through a chemical waste-conversion process. “It’s powered by what it eats,” explains Peter Kim. The SHARC also deodorizes by leaving behind flavored oxygen, and uses an energy beam to disinfect the room.

* The “Oxylun.”

Urs Rahmel’s water recycler converts gray water from the kitchen and bathroom to pure water using a wet oxidation process. The system is not hidden away in tanks under the sink, but housed in a plastic sphere designed as a visible sculpture for the living area.

* “Mother Earth’s Habitat,” a growing hydroponic sculpture.

“I thought we’d need some warm touches in that dehumanized environment,” says Randi Schmidt. Her accelerated gardening system is a cluster of softly lighted plastic boxes with plants and vegetables growing in minerals rather than soil. “You can probably get tomatoes in a week,” she says.

* “Starlight.”

“It’s a non-polluting lighting system,” says George Preyss. Utilizing a solar collector, the system stores sunlight chemically in a battery and distributes it at night through fiber optics to special lamps that flood a room with natural light.

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The Art Center project was sponsored by Landmark Entertainment Group and the Samsung Group for the 1993 International Exposition in Korea. An emerging economic power, Korea is grappling with the environmental implications of its progress and is seeking solutions to the complications of industrialization.

“We’re doing this for the future, so we needed to involve future designers,” says Landmark’s Bob Dennis, who guided the work. Although energy-conscious products seemed to dominate, a strong secondary theme running through the designs was an emphasis on health and fitness.

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Observing that the lunar pods won’t have a Mayo Clinic in the neighborhood, Simon Huang designed a hand-held CAT scan.

“You can scan your own body for early detection,” he says. The information can then be microwaved to a medical facility, where doctors can diagnose and transmit treatment instructions. “That way you won’t get stranded in space with a medical emergency.”

And in the area of mental health, student designer Song Yi has advanced Sigmund Freud’s concepts substantially with his “Dreamer.”

The lightweight sleep helmet is computerized with a playback chip that converts brain patterns into visual images. Dreams can then be replayed on a small video screen for self-analysis or for consultation with a therapist. The helmet also records the REM (rapid eye movement) stages of sleep, so they can be monitored to analyze sleep and dream patterns.

For personal fitness training, Tre Musco has designed a “Bio-Fitness Suit.” His exercise rig, tailored to each user’s body, is a flexible outer suit that looks like a skeletal shell and provides resistance training for all major muscle groups.

The suit, which can adjusted for various level of aerobic workouts, also monitors blood pressure, heart rate and other vital signs. And for heavy-duty moon chores, Musco notes, the resistance can be reversed to augment muscles when extra strength might be needed.

Even the family dog gets futuristic attention.

“Pets will be important in a space pod,” says Robert Su, who designed the “Virtual-Cizer.” With a treadmill to run on--a la Astro from “The Jetsons”--the dog wears a virtual reality computerized headpiece that interacts electromagnetically with the brain, providing Fido the experience of romping in a park or open field, complete with a fire hydrant.

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The Art Center’s household products for 2093 will be viewed by a global audience in Samsung’s Starquest Pavilion during the Taejon Expo ‘93, the first international exposition to be held in a developing nation. (There will be no public viewing in the United States.)

And Landmark is encouraging the students to hasten the future.

“We don’t want to wait a century to see these designs produced,” Dennis told the young designers. “These are your ideas and we encourage you to develop these products as part of your own careers.”