Space agencies around the world have been planning manned space missions to the Moon, Mars, and asteroids for decades. There have been ups and downs on that road but the dream of space exploration was never given up and once in a while the idea of humans becoming a multi-planetary species is recurring. One of the major roadblocks for making such plans a reality is the fact that long-term surface missions cannot be realized without convincing the public and governments about their feasibility. Private and public avenues to space exploration need to be created so that they can see themselves as equal partners of space endeavours. How can design research and design itself help to accomplish this task? Or generally speaking, can design help? This paper investigates those questions through reviews and illustrations drawn from exploratory design projects conducted by master's students in the USA, Europe and Russia. The overview includes objectives and design strategies, design stages and transitions between the mission's objectives while still targeting the main goal of the mission. The overview leads to and summarizes the discussion about current limitations in bringing space exploration closer to the public and private interests. The paper argues potentials of space architecture tools to achieve this goal. Keywords: space architecture, habitability, mission planning, design.
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