Dassault Systèmes announced that Interstellar Lab, a research company creating closed-loop controlled environment habitats and biospheres generating and recycling food, water and air, used the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud to efficiently design and develop its first prototype, BioPod. This controlled environment food production system advances its mission to build space-ready stations containing the infrastructure and resources to support human life sustainably on Earth, the Moon and Mars. Interstellar Lab used the “Reinvent the Sky” industry solution experience based on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to seamlessly collaborate, and rapidly optimize and validate its designs. In one digital environment providing secure and instant access to the latest project data from anywhere at any time, team members in France and the U.S. combined their expertise and used a virtual twin to simulate and test the performance of BioPod’s structure in extreme climates, as well as that of its biological systems such as the optimal levels of oxygen, carbon dioxide and light levels for plants to grow. BioPod is an inflatable dome measuring 6 meters (19.7 feet) wide, 10 meters (32.8 feet) long and 4.5 meters (14.8 feet) high that uses composites for the solid technical base and soft plastic membranes for the main and outer shell. It is designed to revolutionize food production by combining advanced crop cultivation technology with predictive monitoring to grow a diverse array of crops and plants that would not otherwise survive in a traditional indoor farming setup. As BioPod evolves, Interstellar Lab will use the virtual twin to experience and monitor the dome’s operations and maintenance, and gather data around food production and the environment. The 3DEXPERIENCE platform will also facilitate communication with suppliers as the company designs future modules and scales up manufacturing and outsourcing, and enable Interstellar Lab to create photo-realistic renderings from BioPod’s 3D model, to communicate its vision.