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Space Is More

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Space Is More 1 2 3 PART I SPACE IS MORE Introduction The purpose of Inspiration Mars is to design and launch Mars flyby mission for an american coulpe. Mentioned nationality is important mainly because of the idea that is behind the whole project. Inspiration Mars Foundation sees space exploration as a catalyst for social development, human prosperity, knowledge, and world globalization. For this reason they are trying to encourage the next space race between the nations. Needless to say that this time it's not about the clash of two superpowers, but the competition based on national pride, spirit of competition and desire for human development. Admittedly, the idea proved to be the most accurate, as evidenced by the number of teams competing in a competition organized by Inspiration Mars Foundation along withthe Mars Society. Before presenting our concept for this competition we have decided to share our point of view on the given subject. It is crucial for understanding why we stressed some issues and why we made certain choices. The first thing we had to determine was what is the true foundation for a successful mission and it bacame clear that it was not Mars flyby. Red Planet has always been the dream for humanity, a romantic idea that continues the cult of pioneers and explorers. This objective serves not only as an inspiration for millions of people who want to witness such a memorable event, but also as a motivation and goal for the pioneers themselves. But it is merly a result.The achievment itself will not contribute to the development of humanity but the way how we reach it, will. The real challange is to keep a man who will live for 500 days in the hostile environment of interplanetary space in a good health. Space is More Our focus on a human needs manifests itself in our team's name – Space is More, which is also our motto. It is hard to guess its meaning without putting it in a right context. It is a paraphrase of a saying „Less is More”. It was said by Mies van der Rohe, who among such names as Le Corbusier, Frank Loyd Wright and Alvar Alto is widely recognised as one of the fathers of modern architecture. Modernism changed our perception of architecture. The mouvment dropped traditional methods of erecting buildings for a favor of open plan spaces, transparency, light construction, and above all it focused on people and their needs. The living space has become more human. Now it's the time for the same thing to happen in the outer space. Present structure of space habitats, such as ISS, is designed for science purposes and the majority of space is designated for science equipment. There is very little space dedicated to humans. Any previous initiative of creating a space dedicated to residential purposes, focused on human needs, for some reasons has not been realized or never gone beyond theory. In our opinion, the mission project Inspiration Mars is the best opportunity to not only face the technological challenges during long space missions but also to learn more about psychological and physical comfort of people spending a long period of time in the state of weightlessness. We think that every designing decision in our report has been investigated from the abovementioned angle. Our report is composed of the starting system project, trajectory, habitat and technologies related to these problems which have been designed with the future crew in mind. Below, there are main dangers awaiting the crew during long interplanetary flights. Human health The so far experiences of people who lived in the state of weightlessness had shown a lot of issues that crews had to face daily to maintain their body and mind in a healthy state. Main factors influencing the crew’s condition which appear in most of the sources are problems with accommodation and functioning of the receptors in the state of weightlessness, degeneration of the supporting tissues, 4 sleep deprivation, stress, isolation, irregular day and night work plan. Because of technical reasons we have decided to agree to the crew remaining in zero gravity and the main factors for the crew selection were their ability to function well and the ability of their organisms adapt to new conditions. We decided to treat the issue of degeneration of bone and muscle tissue as priority to the crew’s health who are going to spend over 500 days in such conditions. Apart from designating some space in the habitat for the exercise equipment in zero gravity, members of our team created a complete construction study of the mechanism that is supposed to stimulate the astronauts’ bodies by a centrifugal force of 1,2 G. Its description and technical particles can be found in the forth part of the report . Some problems, such as sleep deprivation or irregular plan of work have been solved via character and construction of the mission itself and more on that can be found in the second and third part of the report. Psychological problems connected with stress and isolation have lost on their troublesomeness through the selection a married couple as the crew. Below we can find a psychological analysis of the human needs. Psychology According to Abraham Maslow’s theory regarding the hierarchy of needs which allow humans to progress spiritually and self-realize the ones that have to be fulfilled first are the primitive needs (such as: physiological needs including sexual fulfillment, sense of safety and belonging) [1] .Needs concerning relationships with others are the basic human needs. Without them “higher needs” – cognitive, esthetic, self-actualization or transcendence cannot be realized. Only covering the need for belongingness ( including the need to bond with people, affiliation and love ) allows further progress [1]. Isolation limits a lot of these needs. The first one is the limitations of freedom of action and possible contacts with other people which regards the outside of the vessel and the inside (a lot of norms regulating behavior on board). In regard to proxemic observation such small space creates problems within itself because humans are not used to remain in such precisely defined place for such a long time [2]. Another difficulty is the deprivation of possibility of sexual contacts. Another is the deprivation of possibility of making decisions (connected especially with physical activity). In addition, the element of lack of security appears. People are social units, as Aristotile finely called it – social animals, and they need each other to enrich their emotional world as via interactions with others people can learn about themselves. People need each other to construct their own “I” which is possible through nonstop social comparisons they conduct throughout their lives [3]. Isolation is caused also by deprivation of human touch. Research indicates a huge meaning of touch as it allows brain to produce chemical substances such as oxytocin and vasopressin which help people to cope with stress [4]. What is more, a lot of research indicates a positive correspondence between touch and creating and maintaining relationships between people. In research concerning isolation scientists often mention discoveries by a Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb, who, in his controversial experiments, analyzed negative influence of lack of sensory stimulation. His team came to a conclusion that long sensory deprivation in its strongest form may lead to distorted perception, thought processes and memory, as well as emergence of anxiety. Taking all the above conditions into account, we can notice that being close with other people is 5 extremely important for humans. The problem disappears when a person has their long-term partner with them. Ensuring all their basic needs is vital, they include: physiological needs, acceptance, intimacy and safety, as well as providing them with comfortable conditions allowing sexual activity. Apart from yielding to basic needs of an organism it will also have a huge scientific potential as there has been no research concerning sexual intercourse in a state of weightlessness. Such research is invaluable in future long-term space missions. Another problem is the sense of confinement. An answer to this issue is to create the biggest living space possible, which could be rearranged and modified therefore should help avoid monotony. This way of thinking is reflected in a few paragraphs further under the title “Wet workshop”. Factors helping people alleviate their stress and control their emotions will be choice of colors which can be either relaxing or stimulating, and a whole range of digitalized cultural goods which will serve entertainment. Crew selection Taking into account the above conditions, we have decided to abandon the idea of the proposed plebiscite to choose the right marriage for the mission. Such journey, despite providing maximum safety and comfort by us, still requires specialized skills and familiarity with the conditions prevailing in aerospace from the crew. Looking for the right couple among lay people involves a risk of sending into space people who may not tolerate the conditions well, and generate huge costs linked to the recruitment and training. Unverified human agent increases the risk of the mission not being successful and has a significant influence on safety as it is unpredictable in a crisis situation. Because of that we have decided to choose our crew from among married couples of astronauts. Right now there are only few married couples among American astronauts who might fulfill the age criteria for the mission. While analyzing candidates we take into account their skills, experience and space mission seniority. According to these criteria the most suitable couple are Karen L. Nyberg and Douglas G. Hurley. Taking into account the nature of a student contest of our work we did not contact abovementioned persons because we treat them as a model couple.
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