​The Hydronaut project is an underwater habitat that started operations in 2020 and is currently the scene for analog space research.  Dr. Miroslav Rozloznik, a Flight Planner for the Austrian Space Forum, conducted an underwater analog space mission in 2021 that was fully dedicated to science. The week-long mission, in which three analog astronauts participated, included a two-day underwater stay, and featured an EVA. Scientist-on-Board, Dr. Miroslav Rozloznik from Slovakia, conducted numerous experiments in the areas of physiology, microbiology, medicine, and space psychology.
 
Dr. Rozloznik explained “Conducting underwater analog missions complements Moon or Mars simulations in land-based habitats. While we might not be able to test rovers, drones, or rock sampling procedures, the feeling in the underwater habitat is much more space-like. I felt very detached from Earth, even the support diver appeared like an alien, when he was looking into our porthole, dressed in his diving suit. The underwater habitat also offers the possibility to simulate more complex conditions like long periods of darkness, or variation in temperature and humidity. Furthermore, the ‘psychological safety net’ of being able to open the door and get help in case something happens, is not there. We can leave the habitat but will face several hours of decompression in cold water before we are back in a safe environment.”

Part of the underwater experiments focused on the internal environment of the habitat, gathering data relating to air quality, temperature, humidity, and the microbiology of the habitat. Another area of research was dedicated to the medical and physiological well-being of the divers. Dr. Rozloznik tested novel diagnostic instruments, for example, a remote stethoscope that transmitted real-time heartbeat and breathing rates to a doctor located in the mission control center. Such equipment will be very useful for future space exploration and also has many applications for telemedicine on Earth. The crew also tested various biosensors, allowing for comparison and cross-link between physiological, neurophysiological, and psychological measurements.

About Dr. Miroslav Rozloznik
Dr. Rozloznik is an underwater scientist with more than 20 years of experience in doing research underwater and on divers. He lectures on hyperbaric medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, Ostrava University in the Czech Republic. When not underwater, he has his own business to run related to quality control, ISO certification, and risk assessments, as well as helping organizations to write proposals for projects and grants. Dr. Rozloznik believes that being involved in extreme missions, whether in polar regions, mountains, or underwater helps him develop a much better understanding of risks and their management. As such, he is currently developing some high-profile training initiatives that will greatly benefit managers, plus his experience in extreme environments benefits the students he has in his capacity as a diving instructor. Dr. Rozloznik can be contacted at info@dnbconsult.com​

December 10th 2021 was indeed a Red letter day for Indian Telehealth. On this day the ISO 13131-2021, certification for Telehealth Services was obtained for the first time anywhere, by Apollo Telehealth Services. This brief note points out the necessity for raising the bar and setting high standards, so that the world will strive to achieve India class.
For decades, Telemedicine/Telehealth services were not centre stage in the healthcare delivery system. COVID-19 changed this. The world has now accepted that the forced lockdown- enforced acceptance of Remote Health Care - will become the new normal even after the pandemic is de notified. Universal acceptance increases the responsibility of all health care providers deploying technology, to ensure constant high quality while bridging the urban-rural health divide.

​The AMADEE-20 analog Mars mission took place in Israel’s Negev desert during October 2021. Over the course of four weeks, an international crew of six analog astronauts conducted a number of experiments to study human behaviour and well-being; tested technical equipment, vehicles, and space suits; and deployed platforms and procedures in the areas of geoscience and life detection. A further aim of this Mars simulation was the development of a state-of-the-art Mission Support structure. I joined the AMADEE-20 team as a Flight Planner two years ago. In this role, I have been using my project management skills to help prepare and conduct scientific experiments as a member of the Mission Support team. Each experiment can be viewed as a subproject in itself and needs to be managed meticulously.

One major difference between the projects I am normally working on, and this Mars simulation is the detail to which experiments (subprojects) have to be managed. Usually, I plan tasks for my project teams on a daily basis. For analog Mars projects, we have to plan tasks in time slots of 15 minutes. During a simulated and later real Mars mission, astronauts must wear space suits to protect themselves from the hostile environment on our neighbouring planet. As it takes a long time to put on a space suit and as they are very heavy and not comfortable to wear and work in, the time the astronauts can spend outside their habitat is very limited and therefore, very valuable and must be scheduled in great detail. Another difference is the high risk to human life and well-being, as well as to the safety of the usually very expensive equipment. Communication also poses a big challenge. The entire team has to almost learn a new language, consisting of many acronyms specific to space exploration. Simple Earth-words like “yes” and “no” are not used, since they can easily be misunderstood; we use “affirmative” and “negative” instead to express approval or disagreement.
Despite these differences, as a certified PMP® and trained analog Mars Mission Support team member, I am well prepared to take on this challenge. And as a Project Manager, I am of course, very much enjoying to expand my skills beyond Earth and to be part of creating the future of space travel and project management.
 
If you want to learn more about this analog Mars mission, please visit https://oewf.org/en/portfolio/amadee-20/. If you want to learn more about project management for analog Mars missions, please contact me at karin@4CEE.eu or https://www.linkedin.com/in/karinbrunnemann/.

InnovaSpace congratulates the hard work and dedication of Space System Engineer Marco Romero and Daniela Barbosa and their team of helpers, who dedicate their own time and resources to promoting science & technology initiatives in Angola and beyond. Well done all on your latest activity to inspire the future space generation!

The Thematic Week to Celebrate Rural and Urban Development and looking at the contribution of the Education sector to sustainable development, saw the launch of 10 Editions of Space Science and Technology Comic Books, produced in Angola.
“Ruvi Humbi” illustrates the life of a girl born and raised in a village in southern Angola. She dreams of reaching the stars but a conflict between the cultural and empirical knowledge of her friend Humbi and the scientific knowledge of her physics teacher makes it difficult to realize her dream of exploring the universe.
“Xiamy” recounts the story of two boys who are invited to travel back in time to use the knowledge they acquired in physics and maths classes to help Punguandongo elders improve space surveillance and planetary defense techniques.
“Katutu – The Space Engineer” - Young Katutu is a dreamer who goes through the phases of discovering his profession. His regular routine of life as a student and homework is interspersed with dreams in which Katutu discovers a robot with whom he learns what it is like to be a Space Systems Engineer and how he can contribute to space science and technology that changes the world.
“Tropa dos Kandengues” - A group of young scientists go on a study trip to the Namibe desert, imagining its dry red landscape to be like a trip to the red planet Mars, and they apply all their knowledge acquired in classes on human and robotic exploration of the Solar System.

Introduction from Eija Salmi, Secretary General, Cumulus Assoc. & Thais Russomano, CEO, InnovaSpace:
During the 21st century outer space has become a topic for discussion by passionate people in design universities worldwide. Some institutions have piloted initiatives and have ongoing activities in the art, design and media curriculum focused on space, considering how design can contribute to overcoming the challenges humanity will encounter when exploring this new frontier. We know for certain that living off-Earth will bring multiple challenges that require innovative solutions if we are to inhabit another planet. The field of design will be an essential element in facilitating space life, just as it is present everywhere in our lives here on Earth, whether on its own or collaboratively with other disciplines, such as medicine, engineering etc. Design education and research plays a massive role not only for the design profession, but also for business, industry and other institutional stakeholders in the space era to ensure a good, healthy and secure space future.

The aim of this blog today, written by Dr Dolly Daou, is to share knowledge and inspire all of us to rise to the challenges of humanity’s tomorrow in outer space – inspired by design. This is the first in a series!
​Enjoy and please do share on your social media!     

On Planet Earth, we have been accustomed to living our lives conditioned by daily habits; we eat, sleep, cook, work, walk, build, interact according to our environments, grounded by gravity. Culturally, we differ in customs, in habits, we eat different food, we live differently, we speak different languages, however what unifies us is the relationship between our physiology and our topography. This relationship is the result of the universal gravity system and the evolution of beings and their environment on Planet Earth, the Blue Planet. The colour blue refers to the interaction of solar rays with the gases of Earth's atmosphere. Similarly, Planet Mars is known as the Red Planet in reference to the mass of red soil that covers its surface. The colour coding of both planets reflects the relationship between our biological existence and our environmental characteristics, which influence our daily habits and our survival traits on these planets.

On Planet Earth, when we travel from a lush green environment to a yellow desert environment, or a blue beach environment, our habits change. We see a change in our built environment, building material, urban landscape, interior living conditions, our diet, temperature, and there will be a change in our physiology, our characteristics, and our daily habits. When designing a habitable environment on Mars, a planet with completely different atmospheric qualities to what we are used to on Earth, adaptation to the new tough living conditions must be taken into consideration for survival purposes - biological, social, and cultural. Hence, self-sufficient cabins and new food ecosystems have been tested in space shuttles and on Mars searching for new short and long-term living solutions. In the 1950s the term “cabin ecology” appeared to describe the interior living system or environment of a space vehicle. Science historian Peder Anker mentions, the design of Cabin ecology, “was to make their [space crew] environment as close as possible to the environment found on the surface of the earth”. Similarly, Suzanne Flinkenflögel mentions the adaptation to living on Mars is similar to adapting to other extreme environments on Earth and architecture has a role to play in designing the living conditions, Flinkenflögel writes: “Much like in Antarctica or aboard the International Space Station, human life is impossible in challenging environments without the aid of life support systems. Keeping a crew alive, comfortable and healthy...”

Since adaptation to the Mars living conditions is impossible in the exterior environment, exploring these interior systems from an interior architecture and design perspective offers a new approach to understand and design new solutions for the Martian daily habits, while respecting our relationships with our new planetary environments.

​So, what happens when we change our living environment from Blue to Red with gravitation difference of 2.66 times on Mars to that of 0.375 on Earth, which is one-third of Earth gravity. On Mars the red soil indicates a high presence of iron oxide chemicals with 96% carbon dioxide, and less than 1% oxygen and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. These tough atmospheric conditions render Mars unhabitable on the exterior for terrestrial beings. However, to survive these conditions we would have to live in supported interior environments and construct artificial ecosystems of air, water and soil in controlled capsules known as, ‘Mars habitats’. Thais Russomano describes the long-term effect of living on Mars and how micro-gravity influences our physiology: “Bones are no longer required to support the weight of bodies as they do on earth and as a result, they begin to lose mass. This effect is seen mostly in the lower limbs where up to 2% of mass a month can be lost in the calcaneus.” In 1976, a feasibility study by NASA revealed that even extremophile organisms, specifically adapted for the Martian environment would take a few thousand years of evolution to be fit to inhabit Mars. Since eating is one of our main biological need for our survival, on Earth we dedicate a large amount of space and time in our cities and in our interior environment for the pleasure of preparing food and of eating. This is why, NASA space missions have been researching and testing new Martian food systems on space shuttles for new short and long-term solutions for food storage, and for a new Martian diets, mainly made from algae and insects.

​Food consumption and production on Mars include conceptual solutions to convert large amounts of carbon dioxide on Mars into oxygen and exploring recycling water for the Martian plants’ habitats. The above picture was shared on Astronaut Scott Kelly’s Instagram for Valentine's Day, who successfully nursed dying space zinnias back to health on the International Space Station using an artificial support ecosystem. From an interior architecture/design perspective, when designing interior spaces, we explore the purpose of the space by researching people’s everyday habits and activities and the relationship between the space and its environment. So, how would the Martian archetypes and typology of artificial ecosystems and habitable spaces/places reflect our new habits in the Martian environment, which include eating and food production? Will we be taking our terrestrial bad habits with us to Mars by exploiting the Martian natural resources? These are open provocative questions to be researched and explored. Although they are rhetorical questions for now they do open the opportunity for a dialogue across professions and across disciplines for the settlement on the new ‘Martian colony’.

In interior architecture/design space and place mean different things. While space is the overall environment (the form or the shape), place is about the experience and the identity. Placemaking is how we transform the space into place, making it our own. We can forever discuss architectural forms and science-fiction buildings that defy gravity and float in space but how will we live, where will we work, eat, sleep, walk or even fly? These intimate details of the everyday construct our placemaking, which contain our cultural habits, and identities. The domed shaped structures of the homes designed by The Line Visualisation architectural studio, reflect the architecture cliché when we dream about science fiction celestial living. This typology might not have been the original intention of the architects, although on Instagram Moon is mentioned under the geolocation of ‘The house in the clouds’, which indicates an intention of a celestial design.

​The above structures express an imaginary dream of transporting our homes and our daily habits to celestial environments with us, as we transport our belonging when we go for a terrestrial holiday. How realistic will this life be on Mars or how relevant will these structures be in the new environment? If we know what our purpose on Mars will be, we will know what and how to design. Since we cannot adapt to the new Martian environment, we are already forcing the environment to adapt to us, hence repeating the same mistakes we are experiencing on Earth. What will our daily habits be on Mars? Will we lie down when we sleep, as we have been accustomed to on earth or will we stand up? Especially that we know with low gravity our muscles will function differently. Although these are scientific and biological questions, I am approaching these questions of survival on Mars from an interior design and a food design perspective to understand how to design our new artificial interior and food ecosystem with low gravity and oxygen.

In our current living environment on Earth our brains have been conditions to live and act in a certain way acquiring cultural living habits over centuries and millions of years of adaptation and evolution to the point that we perform these daily banal tasks automatically. We have learnt to experience our cities on the exterior on a micro and a macro scale. The above image of Hong Kong is a familiar landscape of an urban skyline that we immediately recognise its architype, although we might not know its geolocation, or we might never have visited Hong Kong. We know how to live and build without thinking about essential survival elements, such as oxygen, water, and gravity. We design and live with what we know, based on historical architectural archetypes and typology. We think of gravity when we need to defy it in our architectural creation to make the building look weightlessness or floating in mid-air as shown in the image of the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion. How will we recreate our own Martian place in space? Especially that the colour scheme has already been selected by the red soil and its material condition, which has already determined that we will be living in interior capsules.

​So far designs for the ‘Martian colony’ reveal that we design with what we know, from our existing knowledge and memory, from our experience and since we have not yet experienced life on Mars we will be designing based on our own terrestrial experience. However, we will need to understand more our purpose on Mars and our relationship to the Martian environment to design with respect the eco-systems of ‘the new colony’. By definition ‘colonisation’ mean “the action of appropriating a place or domain for one's own use”. Judging from previous colonisations experiences on earth, will we be imposing our ‘bad habits’ on Mars as we did on Earth repeating the same mistakes by disregarding the existing environment and its original identity? Also, a question has been posed lately by Prince William shouldn’t we fix our problems on earth before we ‘colonise new planets’? Especially, with the ‘Mars habitat’ we will be forcing terrestrial living habits on a new planet with completely different environmental conditions. Our eco-cabins will change the environmental composition of Mars as we are currently doing on Earth. Research is still underway to find solutions for the new Martian colony and only time would tell how we will transform a space into our place. Before we move into Mars, we need to answer clear questions such as: What would be our purpose? And what Martian activities will we be performing everyday? Answering these questions will determine our Martian living lifestyle as aliens on Mars.

The Peoples Republic of China (PRC) is scheduled to complete its first space station in the next two years. With its Tiangong, Chinese Space Station (CSS), China has also raised many questions on how its capabilities are comparable and competitive with the International Space Station (ISS) also due to be decommissioned by 2024. The space race is on, and the CSS is a landmark of independent human flight capability that is just the beginning for China.

In the past ten years of research and development of space technology, China has enjoyed various opportunities to be a superpower in outer space. Steady economic growth rate and increase of its GPD enabling government funding are some of them. It has also developed its own national space technology with spacecraft launching capabilities, and its space activities are in accordance with the current international legal framework.
On October 16, 2021, three Chinese Astronauts in the Shenzhou mission entered the Tiangong for a six month stay, its longest mission in history. China has launched 12 spacecraft, plus the Tiangong 1, and the Tiangong 2 Space Laboratory. The country has trained and sent 11 astronauts to outer space 14 times and returned them safely to Earth. The design life expectancy of the 5-module station is 10 years with possibility of extension.

This week we introduce our readers to an article written by social impact entrepreneur and futurist Thi Hien Nguyen, Director and Creator of SpaceConneX, featuring the Space Show, which was conceived to support the Space4Women initiative of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA).  

It is a well established fact that the world's population is aging as declining fertility rates and increased longevity lead to a growing proportion of older persons within our society. This creates many new challenges and opportunities for scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs, seeking to improve the aging experience while at the same time harnessing the new business opportunities provided by the expanding longevity industry. Click the link below to gain open access to Nguyen's article and exploration of the components of this emerging sector.

Click this LINK to gain open access to “Hien's" article.

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Final blog from ESA-sponsored Dr Stijn Thoolen, from his series written while spending 12 months at the Concordia research station in Antarctica. Catch up on the rest of his fascinating blogs by following the links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12

It’s midnight. Since our departure some hours ago the sun has steadily moved towards the horizon behind us, and it has started to paint the sky in colours that make me think of winter again. Huge icebergs are slowly passing by, and every once in a while there is a bunch of curious penguins waving us goodbye from their ice floe. Not much earlier I saw a seal chilling, and there have been whales too. In the very far distance I can still recognise the enormous ice mass on which we have been living our lives the past year. It’s my last view of the Antarctic, and it’s perfect.

Standing here alone on the deck of the Astrolabe surrounded by all this beauty I have found myself a special opportunity to appreciate once more where the #$%!! (beep) we have been all this time. It is just so different there on top of the ice, so far away from the rest of the world, that as we are slowly being re-introduced to civilisation I am having a hard time believing it actually happened. With all the changes that we have gone through lately and with all the new impressions time has gone fast, and it has made Concordia feel like a distant, almost unrealistic memory. Like ages ago, even though it has only been eight days since we left…

It started when the ‘orange and fat’ people (and kiwis!) arrived at Concordia about a month ago. With the start of the summer campaign our winterover isolation had come to an abrupt end, and I remember the calm, safe and familiar environment of the ESA lab feeling surprisingly pleasant after some intense hours of new social interactions. As a positive summer energy took hold of the station and fresh ESA MD Nick gradually took over the lab, there was no way for me to hide anymore. Unavoidable steps out of our rigid routines, but at that ‘c’est l’Antarctique’ rate of change that isn’t always easy to keep up with.
Our departure from Concordia last week was much the same. Emotionally numb from a lack of realisation of what was happening (or a lack of sleep the night before…) it just passed by so quickly, and surprisingly smooth. I said my goodbyes without any affection for the tears around me. I gave the station a good last look for the sake of memory. But when the plane started accelerating for lift-off, suddenly that strong desire came up to make it stop and bring me back safely into the station. Apparently part of me wasn’t ready to leave at all. Too big steps too quickly I guess, but lucky for me there were pilots taking care of that...

Then, in the plane already, as we approached the coast, we could feel the air getting denser, and breathing becoming easier. There were thick clouds, the sort of which I hadn’t seen in a year, and in front of us there was so much water. Actual liquid sea water! At Dumont d’Urville we caught up on hours of lost sleep, running did not cost any effort (our bodies’ oxygen transport system had become quite efficient after a year at altitude), and even penguin-watching was a comfort after the complex social dynamics of Concordia. Everything seemed easier here, and it gave us an extraordinary opportunity to process our adaptation to life on ‘Earth’, before continuing our journey homewards.

But it is only now, here on the deck of the Astrolabe in this beautiful, perhaps spiritual moment, that I have taken the time to say goodbye. After all these impressions over the past weeks and finally having finished my last work (yesterday I performed my last round of measurements with the crew, to see how we physically adapt to the sea level environment again), I now realize my great Antarctic adventure is over. Happy with the results of my efforts over the past year, I feel relieved, proud, and incredibly lucky. And as I slowly leave the continent behind me, I also feel more and more ready to look ahead again. The empty (and perhaps COVID-infected) horizon here at sea makes me curious. What will I find there, back home? How will I adapt? What do I bring back from Concordia, and what effect does that have on me and the people at home? Some have warned me the world isn’t the same anymore after all what happened the past year. Others made me rather excited about the increased awareness that I may experience being a true revelation. I guess it will always remain hard to foresee what the future brings, but I find my comfort in the idea that it must be as much an adventure as coming here in the first place!
All the above also means I am writing my last blog entry here. Hopefully you have enjoyed my efforts to share some of my adventure with you. It has been a huge privilege living and working in Concordia. A beautiful and very interesting year that I (already) look back at with much gratitude and satisfaction, and that I imagine to stay with me for a looong looong time. A big thanks to everyone who made this possible and who has supported me along the way, all the very best for Nick and his crew in Concordia the coming year, and as we liked to say up there on the ice: allez-ciaooo!
Signing out from the Astrolabe,
Stijn