I wouldn’t consider myself a great poet, far from it, but I would argue the case that poetry (and many of the other arts) have a rightful place in the future of space exploration. Life in space is not only about engineering solutions or medical data. Indeed, many astronauts onboard the ISS have found a need to reflect on and share their experiences, giving us a glimpse of space through human feelings and humour, more specifically through poetry.
Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden published Hello Earth: Greetings from Endeavour in 1974, a collection of poems about his experiences as an astronaut and the feelings of joy and solitude that being in space provoked. Decades later in 2012, Don Pettit shared his own reflections while on the ISS in a short poem entitled Space Is My Mistress. These examples show that astronauts often look beyond scientific reporting, choosing poetry as a way to express moments that are difficult to put into ordinary words.

​Artistic work, including poetry, helps connect the public with space exploration. Scientific papers and technical reports can feel distant, but a poem sparks curiosity and imagination in new audiences. Some projects have even included artists directly in space-related activities, such as analog missions and exhibitions that mix art with science. These efforts highlight that exploration is not only about technology and survival, but also about culture and community. In the long run, creative expression will be an important part of how people adapt to life away from Earth.

​In honour of this blog, I thought I would write a few lines of poetry about spending time on the ISS, though let me remind you I warned in my first sentence that I am far from being a good poet – so bear with me! Here in the UK, I’m of an age that remembers an ITV television talent programme called Opportunity Knocks, decades before Simon Cowell and Britain’s Got Talent appeared on the scene. It was the mid-1970s and onto the stage walked a homely young lady called Pam Ayres, who in a little more than two minutes recited a humorous poem called ‘The Embarrassing Experience With A Parrot’. The audience loved her, I loved her, and my older brother Chris spent the following years of his life reciting Pam Ayres poems as his party trick to impress his friends! Considering all this, and remembering my brother who is no longer with us, I created a short light-hearted ode in the style of Pam Ayres, called Six Months Aloft.

​As we plan for longer missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, it becomes clear that astronauts will need more than machines and medicine to thrive. They will also need ways to express themselves and to stay connected with their own humanity. Poetry, along with other forms of art, helps bring meaning to the experience of living in space. Whether serious or humorous, it reminds us that exploration is not only about survival, but also about creativity, culture, and simply being human.

I created my first visualization of exoplanets in 2015, which included a size comparison of over 500 individual exoplanets. After finishing a book on the universe, astronomy and space exploration, the "Curious Cosmic Compendium", with infographic chapters about the "Scale of the Universe", "Timeline of the Universe" and an entire section focused on exoplanets, I decided to further expand upon this and create the two exoplanet infographics you see below.

​Both graphics plot the planets from left to right according to the amount of heat they receive from their star and their projected equilibrium temperature, from cryogenically cold planets on the far left to molten scorching-hot worlds on the far right. A small strip of green leaves shows the optimistic habitable zone, where some liquid water might exist on the surface of terrestrial planets or potential exomoons. All planets in the solar system are included to scale for comparison. Coloration of  planetary atmospheres is based on the different chemical composition of cloud layers at different temperatures (sulfur compounds, chlorides, alkali metals, silicates),  the Sudarsky Scale, as well as existing exoplanet art.

​"Icy and Rocky Worlds" focuses on earth and super-earth planets that could have a terrestrial composition, with almost 900 planets shown, while the "Exoplanet Zoo" zooms out more to show ice and gas giants, including some of the largest known exoplanets, with many other record-holding planets included (highest/lowest albedo, most distant, least dense, hottest, shortest orbit, closest, etc.). In total, around 1600 individual exoplanets are featured on one or the other graphic, but that's still less than 1/3 of all exoplanets confirmed to exist!

If you would like to see these infographics (and others) in a higher resolution, please feel free to visit my website by clicking the following links:
EXOPLANET ZOO  & ICY and ROCKY WORLDS

Posters are also available at Halcyonmaps:
​

I was inspired to write this blog in response to a post I saw on social media, where during an interview, one of the attendants asked: Who invented gravity and why do we need it? To the best of the attendant’s knowledge gravity was invented by Isaac Newton. These simple yet complex questions demonstrate the fragility of our knowledge and appreciation of gravity and reveal the inter-connection of these questions to each other. To be clear the reflections on gravity in this blog are not scientific, rather I am exploring the significance of gravity in our everyday as a design researcher. Throughout history the chain reaction of scientific explorations by Aristotle, to Bruno, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, much later Einstein, and then Hawking led to the discovery and adaptation of the theory of gravity. Although Newton could not explain the origin of gravity he did adapt Johannes Kepler’s law of gravitational theory, invented calculus and gave this force its name: gravity.  Through this exploration, I open the scope of discussion for other disciplines to examine the power of this invisible force in our universe. Through interior and food design I demonstrate how gravity controls our daily lives from lifting an ordinary object to launching a rocket into space or designing a sustainable food system. We rely on gravitational forces of the planets during our interaction with our environment, especially in the food system gravity plays an integral part in the production, distribution, manufacturing and consumption of food. The images below of the Chinese mountains and Australian ocean show how the food system on our planet Earth is connected through a force that holds everything together called: gravity.

Our thanks go to space enthusiast Ermis Divinis, aged 11, who used his digital media skills to create this fun summary of the Mars rovers, which have provided the scientific community with so much valuable data about the Red Planet. Enjoy!

The Stellar Music project in summary - take musical notes generated mathematically from a star, arrange them into a beautiful tune, and then use your imagination to think of unique ways to illustrate the music. To discover how the music was created visit the blog: innovaspace.org/blog/stellar-music

Music:
- Star used = Delta Cephei, part of the constellation Cepheus
- Music arrangement = Miko Mike Oliver Gimao
Visuals:
- AI-generated visuals = Elerias
- Mermaids = Yanyue Lee;  Jingfeng Liu;  JingYi Lee;  Surong Wang;  Meijing Lee;  & Xiao Qian Bai
Enjoy the cosmic music 🌟🌟🌟

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.