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Space design

Visual interface of space habitats

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Abstract

Space stations, Moon bases and Mars bases are artificial habitats intended to support human life in extreme conditions. Their purpose is to pursue human progress and to gain knowledge and experience of the environment surrounding our planet. This research focuses on visual investigation in order to improve interface design in space habitat interiors. The subject of this article is why the visual interface (as created through color, light, and artistic and natural visual inputs) is to be considered as fundamental for user reliability in isolated space habitats. The aim is to improve the quality of living conditions in today’s International Space Station (ISS) and in future long-term missions to Mars but also in more immediate prospects such as Space tourism. Taking into account experiences from an internship in Thales Alenia Space, ESA Space Habitat Workshops and PhD studies on Space Habitability, the authors’ purpose is to enhance the development of concepts and projects on spacecraft visual interface with an ergonomic approach. The main topics in this paper are the following: (1) Visual needs in Space habitat interiors. (2) Sight modification in Space environment. (3) Design: Project Requirements for Outer Space. (4) Moon Base Design.

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Notes

  1. Visual perceptions are movements, shapes and colors “caused by certain quality of light that the eye recognizes and the brain interprets”. Therefore light and color are inseparable elements, and, “in the design of human habitat, equal attention must be devoted to their psychological, physiological, visual, aesthetical, and technical aspects” [17].

  2. Approximately 80% of the sensorial information about the world is of a visual kind, 1/3 of the brain function is dedicated to visual information elaboration and in details 83% of our memory is visual [26].

  3. “One of the most startling conclusion to emerge over the past 40 years is that approximately 50% of the cerebral cortex of the machaque monkey is devoted to vision; the estimate percentage in human is slightly smaller” [15].

  4. An anomaloscope is an instrument used to test for color blindness. It is able to detect whether a person is a dichromat or a tritanope. The apparatus was invented by the German ophthalmologist and physiologist Willibald A. Nagel (1870–1911) who named it "anomaloskop" in 1907 [21].

  5. Fine art or creative art has the aim to engage the astronauts’ aesthetic sensibilities.

  6. Note: Considering the extreme human capability to adjust its own ritual behavior in relation to new environments, new approaches will be developed, moon life will have different rituals. To design a moon habitat, the every-day-life habit will have to be completely reconsidered how can it be the meal ritual in 1/6 g, sleeping, using the toilet ?… Which social play may be developed to increase crew motivation?.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Human-Machine Systems, Department of Psychology and Ergonomics, Technische Universität Berlin, Extreme-Design.eu Research Group, Sekr. FR 2-7/1, Franklinstr. 28-29, 10587, Berlin, Germany

    Irene Lia Schlacht

  2. Aerospace and Aeronautics Engineer, Extreme-Design.eu Research Group, Am Friedrichshain 9, 10407, Berlin, Germany

    Henrik Birke

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  1. Irene Lia Schlacht
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  2. Henrik Birke
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Correspondence to Irene Lia Schlacht.

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Schlacht, I.L., Birke, H. Space design. Pers Ubiquit Comput 15, 497–509 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-010-0326-4

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