Category Archives: Living in Space

Living in Space, Space participation

The Overview Effect – A panel discussion event at National Air & Space mission

The Overview Effect will be the topic of a discussion panel at Air & Space next Thursday: The Overview Effect:  Bringing it Down to Earth – National Air and Space Museum

Thursday, November 7
2:30 pm
Moving Beyond Earth
Museum in Washington, DC
Admission: Free

Human spaceflight has changed our world, but can a perspective born in space change the world too?  The Overview Effect, a term that describes a shift in worldview fostered by seeing the Earth from orbit or the Moon, has had a profound impact on the astronauts who have experienced it. Join us for a discussion with Overview Institute co-founders David Beaver and Frank White, and astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and Sandy Magnus. The program will be moderated by Roger Launius, associate director of the National Air and Space Museum.

The Overview Effect is a phenomenon that is often intellectually understood, but the experience itself is difficult to communicate because the astronauts and those listening to their message do not have a common framework for understanding.  The founders and supporters of the Institute feel that its message could have a salutary effect on the environmental movement, international relations, and a multitude of humanitarian issues.

The program will begin with a viewing of the short film “Overview.”

Living in Space, Space Systems

Cause of ISS spacesuit water leak still unknown

The culprit that caused the leak in Luca Parmitano’s spacesuit that nearly drowned him has still not been completely isolated: NASA Still Probing Cause Of Spacesuit Water Leak – Aviation Week.

I think this problem is relevant to the endless arguments over Moon vs Mars in an exploration/development priority list. There must be many such subtle problems that won’t come up until we see lots more activities in space and for longer periods. It is much easier to find and fix this sort of problem when earth is nearby than if it is 9 months away.

Living in Space, Space Arts

A spiral top with LEDs produces beautiful patterns in micro-g

Via Universe Today comes a pointer to an interesting in-space microgravity art event carried out a few years ago in the Japanese Kibo module on the International Space Station : “Auroral Oval Spiral Top” Performed in Kibo:Experiment – International Space Station – JAXA

The “Auroral Oval Spiral Top”, which was proposed by Professor Takuro Osaka of the University of Tsukuba,  involves a “spinning top that has arms illuminating with LED linear light sources and point light sources. Various movements of the spinning top floating in microgravity show aurora-like light traces.”  The image below came from a “performance” on May 11, 2011.  Unfortunately, I can’t find a video of the event.

Photo: Aurora Oval Spiral Top

Aurora Oval Spiral Top

An earlier trial in 2009 used a simpler “spiral top”:

Spiral Top (performed in April 2009)

Spiral Top (performed in April 2009)

According to the JAXA page:

The project’s precursor mission “Spiral Top”, which was performed on April 30, 2009, was designed to produce light arts using a spinning top that has arms illuminating with LED point light sources. “Auroral Oval Spiral Top” was the second version and designed to produce aurora-like luminescence traces using a spinning top with both linear and point light sources. In microgravity, the center of gravity of the spinning top continuously and randomly moves while it is spinning. Using the characteristics of the top in microgravity, the project tries to produce various light arts using its unexpected movements/spins, by changing attaching locations of its arms and weights.

I hope that in a few years, the cost of putting people into space will drop to the point it will be possible for many artists and artisans to experience space and microgravity first hand. I expect there will be many amazing things they will come up with as they experiment with the effects that microgravity can produce.

Education, Living in Space, Simulators

Univ. North Dakota students to simulate deep space mission by living 10 days in inflatable habitat

The University of North Dakota UND Human Spaceflight Laboratory, which recently participated in the World Space Walk event with two other space suit teams, will start a ten day simulation of a planetary mission this Sunday: NDX Planetary Exploration System First Test Starts this Weekend! – NDX Space Suit Projects

Final preparations are taking place at the UND Department of Space Studies for the initial 10 days testing of the Lunar/Mars Inflatable Planetary Habitat. Three crewmembers , all UND Aerospace Graduate Students, will take part on this first mission. The objectives are to test the habitat, pressurized rover, and NDX-2AT space suits for habitation, and to test if all systems are operational.
Further details will be published on [NDX Space Suit Projects blog …], Saturday [Oct 26, 2013].

More details about the project:

Drawing of the habitat in which the 3 “crew members” will reside for 10 days.