The entrepreneur, visionary, investor and all-round Space enthusiast Elon Musk recently shared one more of his stellar ideas. Using social media, he unveiled photos of the new design of spacesuits for his Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, a California company better known as SpaceX. Astronauts within the SpaceX Dragon capsule, which will transport crew members on space missions, will use this new model of suit. It can be seen from Musk's photos that the design of his space clothes is very different from those used since the early 1960s, when Gagarin made the first manned Earth orbit flight. Technology has greatly improved astronaut suits over the decades, making them safer and more functional, however, only now has the heavy and uncomfortable structure given way to a more modern and sleek design. SpaceX has not yet released many details about the outfit, but Musk claims the new spacesuit has been designed to not only look more appealing, but to also associate this elegance with safety. "Was incredibly hard to balance esthetics and function. Easy to do either separately." Musk's revelation reminded InnovaSpace Scientific Director Thais Russomano about a course she taught for the Visual Culture and Contemporary Art (ViCCA) Master’s degree, run by Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland, in which she contributed a module on Space & Design. One of her students decided to revisit the concepts of space suits, trying to add some modernity and visual sophistication to them. Interestingly, both the student and Elon Musk shared the same problems and concern, which was the art in finding the right balance between aesthetics, functionality, and strength. It is clear that the task of creating a space boutique will not be easy, nonetheless, it would definitely seem that cosmic fashion design is about to be launched. Blog written by Mary Upritchard
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The next decades will undoubtedly witness greater long-term extraterrestrial space exploration, as mankind endeavours to establish Moon bases for the commercial mining of minerals, and to fulfil dreams of sending manned-missions to Mars. For such plans to be realised, many technological obstacles have yet to be overcome, which will require fresh minds, new ideas and innovation – but where will this new space industry workforce come from? Already there are reported shortages of qualified workers in the US aerospace industry, a situation repeated in the UK with a lack of skills in the STEM areas. This scenario is set to become worse as the space sector grows. For example, according to the UK Space Agency, the industry is growing four times faster than the rest of the economy and will demand many new additions to the current 70,000 strong highly-skilled workforce, as recently confirmed by former NASA astronaut Stephen Frick for City A.M. newspaper. So how will we plug this gap? How can we capture the interest and enthusiasm of the youths who will become the next space generation? "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand."
Where once there was STEM, there is now STEAM! The classic subject areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics have been joined in recent years by Art and design, as educators try to stimulate and encourage young minds to interweave the traditional learning subjects with art elements and practices, in an integrated approach. The imagination of learners can be sparked by giving them the freedom to apply creative thinking and design skills to STEM projects, leading to innovative thought and greater engagement with subjects that can sometimes be seen as intimidating.
In a project lasting over three years, artist Aleksandra Mir has combined art with a focus on Space and scientific discovery to stimulate thought, particularly in regard to satellites and human space flight. Aleksandra and a team of 25 young collaborators have created a 200 metre long hand-drawn Space Tapestry using marker pens on canvas, which reveals an episodic visual story of space travel. In addition, Mir interviewed sixteen professionals from the space industry and academia, as she sought to gain an understanding of the infinite universe (in which we are merely the tiniest dot) and the science that has allowed mankind to travel into Space. One of the sixteen interviewees was our very own Space Doctor, InnovaSpace Director Thais Russomano, who was happy to explain to Aleksandra about microgravity and the human physiology problems that can be caused by exposure to it. Dr. Russomano is no stranger to the world of the arts and firmly believes in the importance of promoting multidisciplinary learning, bringing together different but complementary sets of skills to enhance the learning experience. She believes that art most certainly has a role to play alongside the STEM subjects, reinforcing this idea in the Space & Design workshops she gives at Aalto University, Finland. Space Tapestry is currently on exhibition for free at two venues in the UK: Tate Liverpool until 15th October 2017; and Modern Art Oxford until 12th November 2017. The book entitled, Can't Stop Thinking About the Future, is available to purchase from Strange Attractor in the UK and MIT Press in the US. TRAILER from Aleksandra Mir on Vimeo.
Blog written by Mary Upritchard
In larger spaces, where they cannot brace against walls, astronauts must revert to what is known as the Evetts-Russomano technique. "This is where the patient float freely and the other person sits on their chest." This method does not give as deep a compression, but does give a higher number per minute - The Times, 5th June, 2017 The Team are delighted to see posted in The Times newspaper (London, UK - 05/06/2017) an article regarding the performance of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in space, mentioning a technique conceived and developed by InnovaSpace Founder and Director Thais Russomano, in conjunction with two space colleagues Lisa and Simon Evetts. CPR is a well-known emergency procedure here on Earth, administered to someone whose heart has stopped beating. Chest compressions are performed to try and manually pump blood through the heart, brain and body. Not too difficult to perform on Earth, with a little training, but is it the same in Space? On Earth the weight of our bodies is used to perform the compressions of the chest – but in space our body weighs nothing! To be more precise, we are in a state of weightlessness. Therefore, in space, giving chest compressions depends more on the force and strength of the upper body muscles of the person providing the CPR. Another problem to overcome in space is that everything is floating - including you and the person with no heart beat. Try to compress the chest as you would on Earth and the force you apply will generate a reaction force in the opposite direction (Newton’s Laws of Motion) – simply put, when you push down onto the chest you will float away from the person you are trying to help! To overcome this, scientists have developed some techniques to allow effective CPR to be given in space – the three main methods being the Handstand, Reverse Bear Hug and Evetts-Russomano. Using the Evetts-Russomano technique, the rescuer performing the CPR wraps their left leg over the right shoulder of the stricken person, and their right leg wraps around the person's torso, allowing ankles to be crossed at the back to aid muscular stability. From this position, chest compressions can be performed. The short video clip seen below, taken in 2000, gives a better demonstration of the procedure being performed in the microgravity provided by a parabolic flight. Dr. Russomano and her extraterrestrial CPR research group have been studying the best methods for administering this life saving technique in simulated hypogravity and microgravity conditions for almost two decades and are the team with the greatest number of scientific publications in this area. More people are predicted to fly into space over the coming years with the advent of space tourism and manned missions to Mars, leading to the likelihood that more serious medical incidents will occur and, therefore, lives could be saved through knowing how to correctly administer CPR in space.
Written by Mary Upritchard |
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