Imagine being able to glide across the room with a flick of your foot or move heavy objects with one finger. Imagine having no sense of up or down. Things that seem natural and necessary for existing on earth are alien and useless in this environment. There is no walking, no floor, no ceiling, no real sense of direction. This seems like a fun existence, for a while anyway. However a whole host of problems come into view when the effects of Earth’s friendly gravitational pull is taken out of the equation. Designing with this environment as the main constraint opens a whole host of unique solutions to problems to which most of us are unaware.
I am a design student and not a scientist by any means, but I do my research and have a genuine fascination with spaceflight. In the spring of 2018, I participated in a collaboration studio between the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and NASA, creating a concept for a proposed Deep Space Science Vessel to hopefully be realized in the 2030’s. What I learned during this project helped to reshape and enhance my design thinking.
As a warm up project to get us acquainted with designing within a microgravity environment, we were tasked with creating a coffee machine and cup to be used aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Easy right? It’s only coffee, how hard could it be to design a simple coffee machine and cup?
First off, throw away the concept of pouring a cup of coffee. Forget about setting a cup down to fill it. Next take out the notion of a traditional cup. In addition, add in some constraints such as fluid dynamics in microgravity and the need for a closed-system within the machine. Not so simple anymore.
Since there are no gravitational effects, fluids behave differently in microgravity. Instead of seeking level and flowing downwards, liquids form spheres and derive most of their properties from surface tension, which holds the liquid together and allows it to stick to things.
The coffee system we created borrows from existing systems aboard the ISS and refers to familiar aspects of brewing coffee on Earth. This design employs solutions such as shipping up whole beans rather than instant coffee powder and crushing them in on the ISS right before brewing, and figuring out a way to use an open cup to enhance the smell and taste. The goal of this redesign is to make the experience of drinking coffee in orbit feel just like that morning cup of coffee astronauts are used to back on Earth.
A new space coffee machine is great and all, but why is something like this needed? Why design a new coffee machine and cup for the ISS? Are the pouches of instant coffee that are currently used not good enough?
The answer is, at least for short term stays aboard the ISS, there is no real “mission critical” or cost saving reason to design a new coffee system. However, extend the mission to a year, two years, or even five years; crew comfort becomes as critical as the life support systems. Drinking instant coffee from a pouch through a straw is quite different from sipping coffee in the morning with hands cupped around a warm mug, with just the right amount of cream and sugar. Little things on earth we take for granted become pleasures deeply missed by astronauts. The more designers and engineers can do to reduce homesickness and improve the mental health of astronauts, the longer astronauts will be able to stay in space and participate effectively in the mission. This way of thinking is crucial if we ever want to explore our solar system beyond the Moon.
This brings me to the main project, the Deep Space Science Vessel (DSSV).
NASA approached RISD with an idea for a spacecraft capable of supporting up to 48 crew members for years at a time both in zero-gravity interplanetary rolls and planetary habitation configurations. This craft would be able to travel throughout the solar system, allowing the crew to explore and collect valuable scientific data. As with any crewed spacecraft, the DSSV would need to be a closed system, containing everything needed to support human life in the hostile vacuum of space. Unlike the ISS, this vessel would not be supported by resupply missions so fuel, oxygen, food, water, and other consumables would need to be carried with the vessel from the start to then end of the mission.
The DSSV, like the ISS, would be constructed in orbit, each part launching separately and docking together to form the full spacecraft. Some of these modules would be custom built, others would be recycled modules and parts from other missions to save on construction costs. NASA tasked our team to use one of these recycled parts: a large fuel tank, 10 meters in diameter with no options for windows and a minimal number of hatches. In addition, portions of the vessel must be able to be reconfigured to land on the surface of a planet and provide a habitat. These constraints presented many problems that would end up becoming extremely interesting solutions.
Splitting into small teams of 3–4 people, we identified the key areas of the habitation module. We decided to focus on five main components of the habitation module that would each get their own deck of the vessel: galley/ward room, hygiene facilities, crew quarters, exercise facilities, and recreational facilities. My team was tasked with designing crew quarters and the deck in which they would be housed.
Currently on the ISS, each crew member is given a small, phone booth-sized room with a sleeping bag, computer, reading light, and a small amount of personal storage. In the context of the ISS, this solution works. However, extending the mission time by years without much contact from Earth, this solution becomes problematic for the crew. Imagine sleeping, changing, relaxing, and storing all your belongings in a space the size of a phone booth for a year or two years. For this mission, a different solution is needed.
The easy way to alleviate the size problem is to simply enlarge each room and give the astronaut more space to move around and feel comfortable. However, multiply this by 48 crew members and a different problem of scale emerges. The challenge became striking a balance between giving the crew enough space within their rooms and fitting all 48 rooms inside a 10 meter diameter shell along with life support systems and all the other crucial decks of the vessel. We ended up with a room that allowed for tons of storage, entertainment, workspace, and even a fold-out bed for planetary surface habitation.
The room our team devised houses the astronauts in an apartment-style configuration, consisting of four floor of 12 rooms arranged in a circular shape around a central pillar. The crew quarters deck is capped top and bottom by hygiene decks consisting of showers and toilets. Above and below the hygiene decks, there are the two dome-shaped decks containing the ward room, galley, and recreation facilities.
The central pillar within the crew quarters deck serves to provide necessary life support systems such as fresh air and carbon dioxide removal. The central pillar also acts as a common space as there are hand and foot rails that astronauts can hold onto and interact with their fellow crewmates.
Surrounding the pillar and open common space are the individual crew quarters. The crew quarters are not only a place for the crew members to sleep, but they also provide a space to relax, talk with family and loved ones back on earth, conduct personal work, eat, and grab some alone time whenever possible. Having a space for astronauts to be alone in their own space is an important aspect while stuck in a confined space with a large number of people for years at a time. In addition, offering the astronauts the opportunity to customize their quarters in a way that makes it feel more like home provides a greater level of comfort that will reduce the psychological effects of being in such an environment for a long time.
Each crew quarter is equipped with sound dampening walls to provide more privacy between rooms. In addition, as there is no way to tell day from night aboard such a vessel other than the time, the lighting within each room adjusts based on the time of day as to preserve astronauts natural sleep cycles and simulate a day-night cycle. The lighting can also be customized based on individual preference and can change to any color.
Within each room there is a fold-out bed. Although not needed during interplanetary travel, it provides a comfortable place to sleep if the vessel were to be configured for a planetary surface mission. However, during interplanetary travel, the bed may be used in conjunction with a sleeping bag to simulate a more familiar sleeping situation rather than being stuck to the wall. While folded, the bed adds to the sound abatement panels to provide a more effective sound barrier in between rooms.
By the end of the semester, my team had developed a fully flushed out concept for both the individual crew quarters and the deck in which they are to be housed, taking into account crew amenities, life support systems, and structural constraints.
The question stands: how does design like this affect how we design here on earth?
Design process is something that is common throughout all aspects of design involving research, iteration, refinement, testing, more iterating and more refining that all work together to produce a finalized design. This is as true for designing a toaster as it is for designing a multi-million-dollar spacecraft. One thing that differs is resisting the urge to make assumptions. With more common design problems, assumptions tend to be made based on past experiences. The good thing about designing for space is that the vast majority of us have not been to space.
Why is this good? In this case, it is very hard to make assumptions based on past experience as there is no past experience. Not many people know what it is like to live and work in space. This forces the designer to do a lot of research to better understand the problem. This is true throughout many other problem spaces, however space travel provides a whole host of problem spaces that cannot be fully understood from an earth-bound perspective.
No matter how well you think you understand a problem space, it is always necessary to approach it without any preconceived notions. No not assume anything and keep in mind that research and understanding is key in all aspects of design and it can be easy to forget to step back and look at a problem from an objective point of view. Designing for spaceflight allows designers to focus on a problem space that is most likely an environment they have little to no personal experience with and will need to rely on heavy research to embark on the design process. The design process can become so normal that we fall into a cookie-cutter way of thinking. Having a way to step outside the traditional realm of design is extremely beneficial and will help refresh and advance your design thinking skills.
