Human Spaceflight Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

During the flight of the Space lab D 1 Mission a series of interconnected experiments on the vestibular system (system of equilibrium) was conducted by a consortium of European scientists (see title). The experiments were planned on the... more

During the flight of the Space lab D 1 Mission a series of interconnected experiments on the vestibular system (system of equilibrium) was conducted by a consortium of European scientists (see title). The experiments were planned on the basis, and in continuation of the vestibular experiments in the Spacelab-1 Mission (von Baumgarten et aI, 1984). The crew were thoroughly trained for these experiments during the preceding three years. Similar experiments were performed during the baseline data collection at 90, 60, 30 and 11 days before, and again during the first seven days after the flight. The two astronauts of the active shift took turns in being either the operator, or the subject of the experiments. Our primary crew were Reinhard Furrer and Wubbo Ockels, the secondary crew Ernst Messerschmidt, Guyion Bluford and Bonnie Dunbar. Complementary vestibular studies in the Dl Mission were performed by an American/ Canadian group.

Raise your hand if you want to fly in space! If so, you share a quest with millions of dreamers around the world who have patiently, and impatiently, anticipated Sunday afternoon drives down celestial freeways. "See You in Orbit? Our... more

Human spaceflight destinations are expanding to include a multitude of environments that will offer different mobility challenges to explorers due to varying gravity levels and surface operations. Intravehicular Activities (IVA) suits... more

Human spaceflight destinations are expanding to include a multitude of environments that will offer different mobility challenges to explorers due to varying gravity levels and surface operations. Intravehicular Activities (IVA) suits might include a basic “get-me-down” suit for suborbital spaceflight, or a high performance pressurized pilot suit where arm mobility and field of vision are particularly important. Future Extravehicular Activities (EVA) will likely accommodate various spacesuit architectures including: a microgravity station/craft maintenance suit where hand dexterity is critical; a close proximity operation suit for asteroid missions where manoeuvrability and visibility are critical; and a planetary surface suit for the Moon or Mars where leg mobility is a key requirement. Spacesuit kinematics are currently measured using video motion capture or photographic analysis systems. Although these methods measure the external motion of the suit, they do not capture the physical body motions within the suit and in the case of motion capture, they are restricted to a laboratory setting with significant overhead for camera calibration and set-up. Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) use accelerometers and gyroscopes to estimate relative translation and rotation. IMU systems are mobile, low-powered, and offer an economical and efficient kinematic tracking capability for use in a laboratory or in the field. In this study, we applied IMU sensors to study space-suited motion. To first validate the use of IMUs for motion tracking, we tracked knee flexion angle while walking using both IMUs and a Vicon motion-capture system, which is considered the industry gold standard for kinematic analysis. The IMU knee joint angle average root mean-square error with respect to the Vicon system was 5.4 ± 2.4°, demonstrating the potential of the new system. We then used the IMUs, in conjunction with a Contingency Hypobaric Astronaut Protective Suit (CHAPS), to measure elbow flexion/extension, shoulder flexion/extension, and shoulder abduction/adduction motions for unsuited, suited and unpressurized, and suited and pressurized conditions. Results from the elbow study demonstrate our ability to capture joint angles in a laboratory environment with the goal of being used in any environment. In general, the internal IMU angle on the subject’s body was approximately 25° larger than the external CHAPS IMU external angle measured. A brief discussion summarizes key findings and identifies limitations in the test configuration. Recommendations for future implementation and testing are outlined, and conclusions are drawn on the usability of IMUs to investigate astronaut mobility and to provide work envelope results.

This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution and sharing with... more

This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution and sharing with colleagues. Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third party websites are prohibited. In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or institutional repository. Authors requiring further information regarding Elsevier's archiving and manuscript policies are encouraged to visit: http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the English School concept of world society and how it helps to illustrate the role of non-state actors and the promotion of cosmopolitan values. Yet, less attention has been paid to... more

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the English School concept of world society and how it helps to illustrate the role of non-state actors and the promotion of cosmopolitan values. Yet, less attention has been paid to the idea of science and technology as a key feature of solidarist conceptions of justice and as a unifier of humankind, usually expressed in the form of scientific interna-tionalism. The purpose of this article is twofold. First, it suggests that it is important to incorporate the role of scientists and engineers as agents of international society and to assess the significance of scientific internationalism in terms of its impact on facilitating world society. Second, however, it is also necessary to consider how this solidarist conception of science and technology is staged as complementary to a pluralist logic. This is because of the political and social embeddedness of scientists and engineers as actors who also think and act on behalf of the state. I develop this argument by examining two key turning points that paved the way towards the advent of the Space Age: the spaceflight movement of the 1920s and 1930s and the 1957-1958 International Geophysical Year.

"Lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities. Beginning with missions... more

"Lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities. Beginning with missions beyond low-Earth orbit, the United States will lead the return of humans to the Moon for long-term exploration and utilization, followed by human missions to Mars and other destinations;".-White House Space Policy Directive #1 Abstract The US administration has laid out, in the clearest terms yet in many years, what the nation expects NASA to do in the immediate term: Return people to the Moon asap(2020s timeframe) with the goal of building the technological and operational infrastructure to conduct a safe human Mars expedition within the next two decades(2030s). A fresh new space policy outlook drives an invigorated agency impetus to incorporate homegrown private space companies, that are chomping at the bit with creativity and new visions for utilizing human spaceflight for commerce and profit, and NASA is already showing signs of nurturing many more partners, both commercial and international entities into the core of this vital civilian endeavor, particularly in human space activity. How to jumpstart a self-sustainable cislunar economy that does not wither and fade with each administration cycle and be victim yet again to the on-again off-again visions for human space activity ? Robotic precursor missions to both Moon and Mars have been underway for some years now, with the aim of gauging in-situ resources for extended human activities, eventually leading to permanent settlements. Following the Apollo missions nearly half a century ago, several reports have presented the case that the Moon is the most proximal celestial body where much of the hard engineering data and experience needed for more ambitious missions may be tested, evolved and certified. Commerce is the lifeblood of modern civilization. Commerce is a pillar of national security. Open-ended government funded space exploration, by itself, is not sustainable for future long duration missions. Hence the role of commerce and international partners in human space activity. An effort to expand the International Space Station model to include more partners on a global scale is also proceeding in parallel. The goal to develop and field the next generation of human occupied space station, one that can safely keep her crew and reliably operate beyond the protective cocoon of the Earth's magnetic field is logically the next step along the critical path for evolving a Mars expedition vehicle, one that has to withstand the interplanetary environment, before crew can be delivered to the surface of Mars. While large, heavy lift launch vehicles and planetary landers are being developed, integrated and tested, are there ways to speed up human spaceflight activity ? What projects can we do with existing human spaceflight assets that are aligned with administration space policy directives ? The ADAM Project attempts to explore options available in the immediate term, to satisfy the national space policy goals set forth by the current administration, while encouraging new visions for human space activity, utilizing existing space technology to accelerate real space commerce for the immediate benefit of all society. The USC 2018 ADAM Project continues in a long line of past lunar projects that make the case for speedy lunar return. The ADAM project concepts and earlier works of the ASTE527 Studio may be accessed at : https://sites.google.com/a/usc.edu/aste527/home

The internal roadmap for deep space exploration proposed by the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) clearly identifies the Moon as the first step towards a larger solar system exploration. In this context, the use... more

The internal roadmap for deep space exploration proposed by the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) clearly identifies the Moon as the first step towards a larger solar system exploration. In this context, the use of Earth Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals at Moon altitude has been extensively studied in the past, within and outside the European Space Agency (ESA). This interest has been reflected in "The Interoperable Global Navigation Satellite Systems Space Service Volume" booklet issued by the International Committee on GNSS (ICG). NASA, with their Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) mission, has recently demonstrated the reception of GPS signals at a distance which is about halfway between Earth and Moon, marking an important step towards the use of this technology in future lunar operational missions. The very weak signals received in cislunar space and the particular unfavourable geometry with all the signal coming from a similar region of the sky (i.e. high Dilution Of Precision, DOP, values), requires the development of advanced techniques as part of the spaceborne GNSS receiver, both at signal processing level (higher sensitivity) and at navigation filter level. The current approach for deep space Orbit Determination and Time Synchronization (ODTS) relies on-ground-based solutions such as radiometric measurements via Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TTC) link or advanced solutions such as optical links (e.g. laser ranging and optical time transfer) or Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) techniques. The ground-based approaches suffer from relatively high cost, complexity in the sharing of spare ground resources (e.g. access to deep space network, DSN) and poor performances for real-time on-board ODTS (often in orders of kilometres or tens of kilometres). Based on ESA and NASA analysis presented in several publications, a lunar mission using a spaceborne GNSS receiver could achieve performances around 50-100 m 3D RMS orbit determination and microsecond level time synchronization accuracy with high availability in real time on-board, without the need of frequency ground contact. In this context, ESA is developing a spaceborne receiver that is expected to provide outstanding performances in cislunar space missions and plans to demonstrate this technology as part of the Lunar 1 Paper ID: 64095 oral Pathfinder mission planned to be launched in 2024. To the ESA knowledge, this could become the first ever demonstration of GNSS reception by a satellite in lunar orbit. The present contribution provides details of the experiment (including concept of operations, duration, etc.), the GNSS antenna and GNSS receiver and expected performances, potentially including real hardware in the loop tests with radio frequency constellation simulators and the engineering model of the GNSS receiver.

Promising a ‘new normal’ of 10-minute space vacations and orbiting space hotels, human spaceflight advancements in the last decade make the distant dream of a multi-planetary life seem closer to reality. In this exciting era of... more

Promising a ‘new normal’ of 10-minute space vacations and orbiting space hotels, human spaceflight advancements in the last decade make the distant dream of a multi-planetary life seem closer to reality. In this exciting era of privatizing human spaceflight, it is important to take a step back to understand and acknowledge its rich historical discovery and the many nuanced concepts that populate this revolutionary opportunity. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the history of human spaceflight, the contributions of the many astronauts that made this possible, and its impact on the world today. Taking a deep dive into the science behind human spaceflight allows the appreciation of the intricate mechanics at work, coupled with its physical, psychological, philosophical and sociological implications. Human Spaceflight also explores the controversies, unanswered questions and what the future holds for this exciting opportunity.

The interest in Moon exploration has substantially grown in the latest years, positioning the Moon as an attractive testbed to develop the required technologies and capabilities for human Deep Space exploration. In past decades, lunar... more

The interest in Moon exploration has substantially grown in the latest years, positioning the Moon as an attractive testbed to develop the required technologies and capabilities for human Deep Space exploration. In past decades, lunar missions have almost entirely relied on Direct-to-Earth (DTE) communications, whilst using ranging radiometric measurements from Earth for navigation. The growing trend in the number of missions to the Moon is creating demand for the deployment of a lunar communications and navigations infrastructure to support the international community. This in turn can act as a catalyst for additional public and private worldwide cis-lunar initiatives. The European Space Agency's vision represented in the Moonlight initiative, is to stimulate the creation and development of lunar communications and navigation services, to be delivered by private partner, that will support the next generation of institutional and private Lunar Exploration Missions, including enhancing the performance of those missions currently under definition. Landing on the Moon has been successfully performed since the initial phase of the lunar exploration, both with human and robotic missions. However, recent failures have shown that landing on the Earth natural satellite is no easy task and that accurate landing within 50 metres or even 10 metres from the target location is today considered almost impossible. The limitation of the current technology does not allow to explore directly specific areas of interest. For example landing close to a permanently shadowed areas, without risk of landing in the shadow and thus losing the mission or landing on peaks of eternal light. Finally, landing on the far side is currently very risky and difficult, requiring dedicated lunar infrastructure for each mission (e.g. Chang'e 4 mission), thus potentially precluding the access to the lunar far side for future missions. The Moonlight navigation service aims to improve significantly the landing accuracy, potentially enabling landing on peaks of eternal light or landing in very specific locations while at the same time saving propellant mass and shortening the duration from launch to landing. The paper will describe the potential concept of operations for the navigation service and how future missions could take benefits of Moonlight navigation service, assess the performances achievable on a specific mission profile representative of a lunar lander mission and describe the high-level user terminal, including its preliminary size, mass and power profile.

The European Large Logistics Lander (EL3) is being designed to carry out cargo delivery missions in support of future lunar ground crews. The capacity of virtual reality (VR) to visualize and interactively simulate the unique lunar... more

The European Large Logistics Lander (EL3) is being designed to carry out cargo delivery missions in support of future lunar ground crews. The capacity of virtual reality (VR) to visualize and interactively simulate the unique lunar environment makes it a potentially powerful design tool during the early development stages of EL3, as well as other relevant technologies. Based on input from the EL3 development team, we have produced a VR-based operational scenario featuring a hypothetical configuration of the lander. Relying on HCI research methods, we have subsequently evaluated this scenario with relevant experts (n=10). Qualitative findings from this initial pilot study have demonstrated the usefulness of VR as a design tool in this context, but likewise surfaced a number of limitations in the form of potentially impaired validity and generalizability. We conclude by outlining our future research plan and reflect on the potential use of physical stimuli to improve the validity of VR-based simulations in forthcoming design activities.

For a return to the moon or voyage to Mars the extravehicular space suit will take on an importance that it has never had before in piloted space flight. While EVA space suits were looked upon in the past as only ancillary hardware, they... more

For a return to the moon or voyage to Mars the extravehicular space suit will take on an
importance that it has never had before in piloted space flight. While EVA space suits
were looked upon in the past as only ancillary hardware, they will be a pivotal technology
to the success of a lunar return or Mars mission. With a possibility of as much as half of
surface time being taken up by extra-vehicular activity, the Martian surface space suit is
not going to be just an afterthought, it will be the focus of much of the mission. Likewise,
EVA systems may even be a pacing technology for a manned Mars landing. A planetary
surface suit will have to meet standards of safety, ruggedness, and low mass that no
present system can provide.
This paper will address the technical choices and trade-offs the authors have found most
appropriate, given the present SOA (State-Of-The-Art) for the architecture of an early
Lunar EVA space suit design that also might be evolvable to the Martian environment.
These choices and trade-offs have been arrived at from open literature, personal studies,
proprietary research performed by Weaver Aerospace Inc. in the middle 1990’s, and
latter studies undertaken by De Leon Technologies LLC personnel in cooperation with
the University of North Dakota’s Space Studies Department’s NDX-1 Space Suit
Demonstrator program.
Accordingly, in this paper, we will explore candidate SOA spacecraft cabin/planetary
space suit pressure/atmospheres, planetary suit enclosure subsystem architectures and
related don-doff methods and a cursory look at candidate planetary EVA life support
subsystems.

Ubiquitous, limitless and ever-expanding as it may be, outer space has a history too. Although it is virtually impossible to experience outer space in a direct, unmediated manner, historians can study how it was represented, communicated... more

Ubiquitous, limitless and ever-expanding as it may be, outer space has a history too. Although it is virtually impossible to experience outer space in a direct, unmediated manner, historians can study how it was represented, communicated and perceived. In addition to presenting the core questions that drive the Imagining Outer Space volume this chapter introduces the umbrella concept of ‘astroculture,’ discusses the necessity to ‘Europeanize’ space history and suggests to regard ‘science fiction’ and ‘science fact’ as complementary rather than contradictory. The article also draws attention to two further characteristics of twentieth-century astroculture, that is its futuristic, often explicitly utopian strand as well as a strong transcendental, if not outspokenly religious undercurrent.

АВИАЦИОННЫЕ СИСТЕМЫ, КОМПЛЕКСЫ ВОЕННОГО НАЗНАЧЕНИЯ, НОВЫЕ ТЕХНОЛОГИИ В ОБУЧЕНИИ И ОБРАЗОВАНИИ, ПЕДАГОГИКА, ПСИХОЛОГИЯ

Beginning in 1947, with the first waves of UFO sightings, and continuing in the subsequent decades, debates on the existence and gestalt of extraterrestrial life gained unprecedented prominence. Initially an American phenomenon, flying... more

Beginning in 1947, with the first waves of UFO sightings, and continuing in the subsequent decades, debates on the existence and gestalt of extraterrestrial life gained unprecedented prominence. Initially an American phenomenon, flying saucer reports quickly became global in scope. Contemporaneous with efforts to legitimize the possibility of spaceflight in the years before Sputnik, the UFO phenomenon generated as much sensation in Europe as in the USA. In the public imagination, UFOs were frequently conflated with technoscientific approaches to space exploration. As innumerable reports of sightings led to a transnational movement driven by both proponents and critics, controversial protagonists such as ‘contactee’ George Adamski became prominent media celebrities. Incipient space experts including Willy Ley, Arthur C. Clarke, and Wernher von Braun sought to debunk what they considered a great swindle, or, following C.G. Jung, a modern myth evolving in real-time. Yet they failed to develop a response to the epistemic-ontological challenge posed by one wave of UFO sightings after another. Studying a phenomenon whose very existence has been non-consensual since its genesis presents a particular challenge for historians. Posing complex questions of fact and fiction, knowing and believing, and science and religion, this article analyzes the postwar UFO phenomenon as part of a broader astroculture and identifies transcendental and occult traditions within imagined encounters with extraterrestrial beings.

With 50 million kilometers and a 20-minute communication delay separating Mars explorers from Earth’s resources and support, human missions to the red planet will be characterized by an unprecedented amount of autonomy and independence.... more

With 50 million kilometers and a 20-minute communication delay separating Mars explorers from Earth’s resources and support, human missions to the red planet will be characterized by an unprecedented amount of autonomy and independence. In order to alleviate the logistics within Mars orbit, the SICSA team at the University of Houston is proposing a unique design for a permanently crewed base on the surface of Phobos. The baseline for a design approach was driven by analysis of habitability requirements, Phobos environmental conditions and capabilities of known launch systems. Those drivers called for researching and evaluating emerging technologies and their applicability to mission goals and objectives. Design concepts are evaluated for their safety provisions, emergency response strategies, and evolutionary growth potentials. After evaluations’ analysis, trade studies findings are incorporated into the final concept development .
The team chose crew safety, health maintenance and operational sustainability for making critical design decisions. Trade studies reviewed zero-gravity countermeasures options, location and deployment sequence on Phobos surface, primary power sources, primary habitat structure choices, and support trusses configurations and materials. Special considerations are given to logistical re-supply missions from Earth and contingency plans that are critical for continues mission success but constrained by limitations posed by 26-month Earth-Mars synodic cycle . This design is therefore a proposal based on actual knowledge to establish a sustainable human presence in outer-space in order to facilitate human exploration of Mars and beyond.

The first European space simulation habitat, the Self-Deployable Habitat for Extreme Environments (SHEE) was built by a European consortium within three years (2013 – 2015) under an EU framework 7 contract. Coordinated by the... more

The first European space simulation habitat, the Self-Deployable Habitat for Extreme Environments (SHEE) was built by a European consortium within three years (2013 – 2015) under an EU framework 7 contract. Coordinated by the International Space University, France, the team was composed of LIQUIFER Systems Group from Austria, COMEX from France, Space Application Services, Belgium, University of Tartu, Estonia, and Sobriety and Space Innovations, both from the Czech Republic. SHEE is a rigid segment deployable habitat test-bed designed for use in space analogous environments. The objective of the
SHEE project was to develop a self-deployable habitat test-bed that will support a crew of two for a period of up to two weeks in duration. During this time the habitat will provide for all of the environmental, hygiene, dietary, logistical, professional, and psychological needs of
the crew. For habitat simulation purposes and for other research, SHEE can be moved to various terrestrial analogue sites by standard commercial, thus cost effective, transportation.
Testing of the habitat included subsystems performance, interior operations, and effectiveness of the SHEE habitat as a self-deployable and foldable autonomous system. This will be the focus of the paper. It will further be described how these tests can inform future
anticipated operations in the field and any other future exploitation opportunities. One example is the SHEE deployment as part of the Moonwalk FP7 campaign in Rio Tinto, Spain in April 2016. Rio Tinto is an internationally recognised Martian analogue site, mainly because of the presence of extremophile aerobic bacteria that dwell in the water. The project Moonwalk focuses on human-robot interactions and the team will conduct simulation
missions in two analogue sites as preparation of future exploration missions. It is currently planned that the SHEE habitat will be one of the elements to be tested as part of the Mars related simulation in Rio Tinto.

By comparing two distinct governmental organizations (the US military and NASA) this paper unpacks two main issues. On the one hand, the paper examines the transcripts that are produced as part of work activities in these worksites and... more

By comparing two distinct governmental organizations (the US military and NASA) this paper unpacks two main issues. On the one hand, the paper examines the transcripts that are produced as part of work activities in these worksites and what the transcripts reveal about the organizations themselves. Additionally, the paper analyses what the transcripts disclose about the practices involved in their creation and use for practical purposes in these organizations. These organizations have been chosen as transcription forms a routine part of how they operate as worksites. Further, the everyday working environments in both organizations involve complex technological systems, as well as multi-party interactions in which speakers are frequently spatially and visually separated. In order to explicate these practices, the article draws on the transcription methods employed in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis as a comparative resource. In these approaches audio-video data is transcribed in a fine-grained manner that captures temporal aspects of talk, as well as how speech is delivered. Using these approaches to transcription as an analytical device enables us to investigate when and why transcripts are produced by the US military and NASA in the specific ways that they are, as well as what exactly is being re-presented in the transcripts and thus what was treated as worth transcribing in the interactions they are intended to serve as documents of. By analysing these transcription practices it becomes clear that these organizations create huge amounts of audio-video “data” about their routine activities. One major difference between them is that the US military selectively transcribe this data (usually for the purposes of investigating incidents in which civilians might have been injured), whereas NASA’s “transcription machinery” aims to capture as much of their mission-related interactions as is organizationally possible (i.e., within the physical limits and capacities of their radio communications systems). As such the paper adds to our understanding of transcription practices and how this is related to the internal working, accounting and transparency practices within different kinds of organization. The article also examines how the original transcripts have been used by researchers (and others) outside of the organizations themselves for alternative purposes.

After the Apollo moon landings, disillusionment set in. With the return of the last astronaut in 1972, the skies – rather than the distant stars – once again became the limit. No longer considered the inevitable destination of infinite... more

After the Apollo moon landings, disillusionment set in. With the return of the last astronaut in 1972, the skies – rather than the distant stars – once again became the limit. No longer considered the inevitable destination of infinite human expansion, outer space lost much of the popular appeal, cultural significance and political urgency that it had gained since the end of the Second World War. With the rapid waning of the worldwide Apollo frenzy, the optimism of the Space Age gave way to an era of planetized limits and space fatigue. Bringing together the history of European astroculture and American-Soviet spaceflight with recent scholarship on the 'long 1970s,' the thirteen chapters in this cutting-edge volume examine this period of transition and reconfiguration from a multiplicity of disciplinary perspectives. Rather than invoking oft-repeated narratives of a bipolar Cold War rivalry and an escalating Space Race, Limiting Outer Space breaks fascinating new ground by exploring a hitherto underrated and understudied decade, the Post-Apollo period.

My aim with this short paper is to visit the interface between Nietzsche’s infinite recurrence and Dark Forest theory both physically and metaphysically and to examine how a difference in a prime movers’ motivation and approach can... more

My aim with this short paper is to visit the interface between Nietzsche’s infinite recurrence and Dark Forest theory both physically and metaphysically and to examine how a difference in a prime movers’ motivation and approach can influence the eternal.

This paper discusses a conceptual design of a new countermeasure device named Virtual Gravity Artificial Reality (ViGAR). The device was part of a complete concept called The Human Spaceflight Training Recommendations Against... more

This paper discusses a conceptual design of a new countermeasure device named Virtual Gravity Artificial Reality (ViGAR). The device was part of a complete concept called The Human Spaceflight Training Recommendations Against Weightlessness Project (H-STRAW Project). The H-STRAW Project was a submission in the Human Missions Category for the European Space Agency’s 1st Aurora Student Design Contest. ViGAR is a combined countermeasure concept design for a space station, which includes artificial gravity, exercise and virtual reality. The subsystems of ViGAR are outlined in this report and the potential difficulties are identified. ViGAR is a complete system that could potentially be a key design guide for future space missions beyond low Earth orbit and on to Mars.

Medium-range (here defined as under 100 km from a given habitat) extra-vehicular activity (EVA) on Mars will undoubtedly use some variety of mechanized all-terrain vehicles (ATV’s), but there will be times when it is desirable to... more

Medium-range (here defined as under 100 km from a given habitat) extra-vehicular activity (EVA) on Mars will undoubtedly use some variety of mechanized all-terrain vehicles (ATV’s), but there will be times when it is desirable to transport small loads (here defined as under 300 kgf Earth mass 114 kgf Mars mass) without powered, mechanized aid. There is good reason, then, to design a simple vehicle capable of transporting small loads on Mars, similar to the Modular Equipment Transporter (MET) used to transport gear on the moon during the Apollo 14 mission. On Earth equipment is carried in backpack, but for the forseeable future, on Mars explorers will wear a backpack-like portable life support system (PLSS). We propose a ‘wheeled sledge’ or ‘Marscart’, towed with simple traces. This paper introduces the essential design elements and dimensions and presents considerations based the authors’ experience with pulling similar vehicles in Arctic and Australian expeditions. The basic ‘MarsCart’ design is based on lessons from these expeditions as well as lessons from a general anthropological
consideration of equipment design among mobile human societies in which low-tech but reliable tools are used to adapt to various environments for survival and exploration.

After half a century hiatus the moon flights are progressing to resume in 2023 with moon landings now scheduled to take place in December 2023. Here is my flight crew interview where I outline my reasons for applying for the historic moon... more

After half a century hiatus the moon flights are progressing to resume in 2023 with moon landings now scheduled to take place in December 2023. Here is my flight crew interview where I outline my reasons for applying for the historic moon flight which Yusaku Maezawa 前澤友作 of Japan has funded and which Elon Musk's SpaceX corporation of the United States is the flight organiser. My aim to enrol for a moon flight (until September 2022) has been to draw attention to our very rapidly deteriorating environment and the fact that there appears to be a systematic bias in the West to underestimate the speed of climate change in the forecasts. (This bias to much later dates stands in stark contrast to the First Nations of Americas United Nations General Assembly Ethnoclimatology Motion 101292 which stipulated a much faster progression on climate change than the Western academia has been generally forecasting or even admitting - based on indigenous people's ancient ethnohistories how the last Ice Age was ended by then global warming with ice sheets destabilised rapidly. As a result, it is likely, if not almost certain that much faster changes in our climate will occur than those stipulated in the official documents released by UNFCCC, IPCC, WMO, UNEP, IEA, and WTO. Despite my setback in September 2022 regarding my plans to shout about climate change from the moon to get more attention to this important matter, I continue my efforts from this platform to continually remind world's nations that there are "red lines" laid down by others on climate inaction: what they will tolerate and what they will not. We need to avoid a crisis over our sharing of the atmospheric resource of our planet that needs protected against greedy users. This is important as in the past when men were fighting over access to the water holes and clubbing themselves to the death, today such fighting over global warming, climate change, Asia's monsoon rains, and sea level rise would automatically occur in industrial scale with deployment of nuclear weapons (Asia's monsoon can be re-instated by 260 nuclear explosions after the Arctic Ocean sea ice cover melts away by so-called "nuclear winter" effect - but this would involve unacceptable death tolls in the North.)

Der Weltraum war nicht immer da, sondern ist ein Produkt des 20. Jahrhunderts. Lange vor dem Kalten Krieg entstand im Wechselspiel von Astrokultur, Zukunftsdenken und Raumfahrttechnik ein Imaginationsraum, der bis heute als... more

Der Weltraum war nicht immer da, sondern ist ein Produkt des 20. Jahrhunderts. Lange vor dem Kalten Krieg entstand im Wechselspiel von Astrokultur, Zukunftsdenken und Raumfahrttechnik ein Imaginationsraum, der bis heute als Projektionsfläche und Sehnsuchtsort fasziniert.

Co-authors Sandra Häuplik-Meusburger (architect and habitability researcher Vienna), Carrie Paterson (artist-researcher, Los Angeles), and Daniel Schubert (DLR-German Space Agency) consider the role of plants in long-term space missions... more

Co-authors Sandra Häuplik-Meusburger (architect and habitability researcher Vienna), Carrie Paterson (artist-researcher, Los Angeles), and Daniel Schubert (DLR-German Space Agency) consider the role of plants in long-term space missions historically since 1971 (Salyut 1) and propose design requirements for greenhouses and constructed environments given a range of plant-human relationships. Greenhouses in space will require advanced technical systems of automatic watering, soil-less cultivation, artificial lighting, and computerized observation of plants. In addition, functions discussed for plants in space habitats include physical/health requirements and human psychology, social cohesion, as well as the complex sensorial benefits of plants for humans. The authors cite recent research conducted by the German Space Agency (DLR) into the use of greenhouses in extreme environments to reveal the relative importance among of greenhouses for people living in isolated locations, and where ...

Human spaceflight presents new challenges for traditional approaches to risk assessment. From the onset human, spaceflight has been recognized as an inherently dangerous activity. Consequently, U.S. laws and regulations have grown in... more

Human spaceflight presents new challenges for traditional approaches to risk assessment. From the onset human, spaceflight has been recognized as an inherently dangerous activity. Consequently, U.S. laws and regulations have grown in tandem with space launch activities and operations to protect public health and safety. The recent development of the commercial space transportation industry is now seeing the burden of risk shift from government and government-sponsored missions to private commercial entities and individuals, and yet ethical frameworks are lacking for the private space sector. Opening access to space to the public inherently raises novel concerns for increased risk awareness, communication, and management among commercial entities and voluntary participants. This also highlights the need for evaluating and clarifying social perspectives on issues of risk, uncertainty, and standardization. This article offers a multidisciplinary analysis in ethics, law, and business organization to support responsible decision-making and risk assessment for commercial spaceflight activities.