space sport intro project

Ian Mulcahy | PDE MSc | GSA

COSMICREFLEXESIMPROVING ASTRONAUT RELATIONSHIPS WITH SPORT, ON LONG DURATION MISSIONS


ALIENATION ESCAPISM

INITIAL EXPLORATIONFrom

initially exploring

ideas related to sport, the areas which

interested me were the following.

Additionally, around the start of the project Elon

Musk (billionaire owner of SpaceX and Tesla Motors) gave

his keynote speech titled “Making Humans a Multi-planetary Species”

This sparked an idea.

MUTUAL SUFFERING


PROBLEMWith the successful landings on the Moon

during the 60’s and 70’s the human race now has

it’s sights firmly set on Mars.

As it stands, the furthest a human has ever been from Earth is the far

side of the Moon’s parking orbit. Over the next few decades, expect to see

human presence expand much further into our Solar System. Several public and private

space agencies, such as NASA and SpaceX have plans send humans to Mars in the early 2030’s. Potentially even sooner, if technology allows.

A spaceflight to Mars is akin to a pioneering seafaring journey in the 1500’s. Journey time each way is roughly 9 months. Because of the Earth-Mars transfer window, a stay of 3-4 months on the surface, or orbiting Mars is required.

On the International Space Station (ISS) astronaut’s schedules are highly regimented. Including experiments, maintenance, exercise, meals, sleep and free time.

Due to the comparatively small capacity of the Orion/ATV craft (the likely paired spacecraft used for deep space missions) in-flight experimentation equipment will be kept to a minimum. Such cargo capacity would be given to equipment to perform experiments or take samples from the Martian surface. This leaves a substantial gap in the astronaut’s flight schedules in which to prepare for arrival on Mars.

Microgravity is disorientating to the human body and generally bad for your health. When astronauts return to Earth from a long duration mission on the ISS it takes them several days to functionally readapt to 1G of gravity. Many facets of the effects of microgravity will only resolve months later.

The pioneers of the first Mars landings will not have the luxury of time to acclimatise, as they will be self-supported, fighting for survival in an incredibly hostile environment from the moment they touch down. Therefore anything which can be done during the flight to Mars that will mitigate some of these negative effects will be highly beneficial to both the astronauts and mission success.

(The effects will be lessened somewhat given that Mars only has 0.38G)

Payload mass is also a huge concern for anything which gets launched beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Higher mass means more fuel usage at all stages of acceleration including retro-thrust deceleration.

Any equipment specified should also be robust and durable. Equipment failure would likely spell the end of the potential activity, at which point all components involved become dead-weight.


MARS CONCEPTSTo fulfil my original specification I began generating ideas for team sports which would take place on the Martian surface once a colony had been established. I looked at the aims of sports and tried to ideate around different game objectives which satisfied the following criteria:

• Involve the entire body. Had to be a dynamic workout for arms and legs.

• Player safety. Injury prevention is preferable to injury rehabilitation.

• 2 or more people playing. • Utilise the low gravity of Mars. Take

advantage the environmental aspects. • Fun and engaging. Aid escapism.

Play-area volumetric limitations are much less of a concern as prospective plans for Martian bases involve sending robots to excavate habitats beneath the surface of the planet.

After exploring this avenue for a while I came to the decision that the area was too far-reaching and uncertain. Many technological leaps would first be required. The scope of the project was redefined to encompass modern day and near future scenarios.

All criteria were applied to the new task of designing a compact sporting solution for spacecraft.


full year, in 2017. Reading blogs from members of the

4th experiment crew, they stressed how easy it was to grow irritable with

fellow crew members, just from the constant pressure of proximity.

Two ways which they combated this were finding an excuse to go on a spacewalk (in a full

mock up EVA suit) and salsa dancing.

This was an interesting insight, as it showed that people in a stressful, isolated situation would gravitate towards activities as a release.

RESEARCH

7.12 Recreational Capabilities [V2 7084] The system shall provide recreational capabilities for the crew to maintain behavioural and psychological health.

NASA SPACE FLIGHT HUMAN-SYSTEM STANDARD VOLUME 2: HUMAN FACTORS, HABITABILITY, AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

Q - Did you have any good friends from the squad/team who you would see outside the sport?A - Yeah, actually have some really close friends from doing sport. Tight bond was formed by the mutual suffering.Heather Walker - footballer / rower

Since the turn of the millennium there have been many experiments performed to explore the interpersonal dynamics between members of a highly isolated group.

There exist several Mars simulations around the globe in various locations which are analogous to the red planet. At these Mars analogs (term used for the long running, immersive simulations) the crew can test aspects of upcoming space

missions. Experiments can cover plant growth, equipment testing and power solutions, diet considerations and exercise regimes.

The common theme which these analogs try and measure is group dynamics over the course of their mission.

HI-SEAS (pictured) is based on the The Big Island of Hawaii and will be running it’s 5th experiment, lasting a


PERSONA

Astronauts already do a lot of exercise per day on the ISS. Two and a half hours are allocated, split between a static bike, treadmill and hydraulic resistance machine (which provides ‘weight’ for them to lift in microgravity)

On a deep space mission the only piece of equipment that will be taken is a resistance machine because of volume restrictions.

All these pursuits are monotonous, solo endeavours. I wanted to set out to discover if it was possible to bring partner or even team sport into the lives of these crew.

Also pictured is Scott Kelly playing table tennis with a water droplet, on his own. I was drawn by the subtle loneliness of the image and kept revisiting it throughout the project.

Original Persona

A ticket paying customer on a colonising mission to Mars. They would be a normal, most likely rich, person without any military training who was not a career astronaut. The situation, whilst exciting, weighs heavily on their mind due to their perceived fragility.

Updated Persona

After the shift in scope, the persona changed to a pioneering, professional astronaut within a much smaller crew (4-6 persons, versus

the much larger groups proposed for a colonising mission)

Eager to have another pastime to while away the months of

repetitive spaceflight.Excited to arrive at the red

planet, but is worried that the effects of

microgravity will affect their ability to

perform.


SCENARIO

There are many flashpoints at which tensions could arise within a crew. The unique situation of isolation that pioneering deep-space crews will find themselves in will only serve to exacerbate this. In addition to intra-craft frustrations, there have been cases where the crew of the ISS have been operationally compromised due to tensions with the commanding ground crew on Earth. Most of these situations transpired because of a breakdown of communication between the two parties about needs and capabilities of the crew.

The communication aspect becomes more critical on deep-space missions as transmissions can take up to 20 minutes each way, leading to

potentially a 40 minute wait for orders or assistance.

A video prototype was made during the research stage. No product ideas were involved directly in the video, but it helped me to ideate situations

that might arise and explore a sense of what a dysfunctional crew would be experiencing.

As far as user experience with the final product, it is hoped that regular play would prevent such explosive tension erupting in the

first place.

If tension does boil over, from interviews and personal experience squash is a fine way to vent anger. It is

inherently powerful and satisfying to strike the compliant ball.


RACQUET SPORTS

• Participation in all racquet sports improved his reflexes.

• Gave him the confidence to interact with other, more confident players that he might have shied away from in a different circumstance.

• Found squash to be a very explosively physical game compared to tennis and badminton. Had to hit the ball a lot harder than he was used to.

Lewis ShearerBadminton, tennis, squash and table tennis player.

• Squash was more socially intense than the other opposite court racquet sports. Proximity forced interaction and opened an avenue for conversation.

• Enjoyed it because it kept him fit. More effort in a session compared to badminton.

• Good way to release aggression, smashing the ball.• When he played badminton, people would sometimes

smash racquets in competitive frustration

Jonny Raine National level Northern Irish Youth Badminton,squash player

I began to look at racquet sports as I identified that they would be an efficient use of available play-volume.

Considerations dealing with the physics of microgravity have to be taken in to account. The majority of racquet sports rely on gravity to draw the ball/ shuttlecock down into the court to be returned.

Attempting to play in this manner in microgravity would result in a game of endless volleys, which would limit the interest in repeat play.

From anecdotal evidence the competitive nature of the sport should encourage participants to push themselves harder than they would on their own. This ties in with the theme of mutual suffering.


The hinged bat was abandoned as

it doesn’t lend itself to alternate uses for the handle as

readily as the screw-in solution.

In order to test out the shape and airflow I made a prototype of the bat which would be used.

Testing the air resistance by swinging the prototype revealed that the drilled holes did not have a pronounced

effect on how easy the bat was to swing. The holes will be kept for the final design though, as they reduce the bats mass.

Keeping with the theme of weight saving, the head of the bat is constructed of two plates with a hollow gap in the middle. Due to the fact

that it is not a strung racquet, this should hopefully give it more compliant properties upon striking. A further prototype would need to be made to

check this, as the MDF used was much too thick and rigid to be compliant.

A squash ball was chosen because of the following reasons:

• Slower play speed than a tennis ball• Durable compared to a table tennis ball, which could easily

get crushed and render the game unplayable.• A shuttlecock would not be able to bounce off walls

• Not covered in fuzz like a tennis ball. This could detach and float around detrimentally in microgravity.

Additionally, balls with various bounce heights and different shapes will be provided. The non-

spherical balls are an added challenge if an astronaut chooses to play solo.

BAT


BACKBOARD

The playing surface comprises of 8 triangular carbon fibre plates held together by a living carbon

fibre hinge. The entire assembly can be folded down into a much smaller volume. Each triangle comprised

of 1mm carbon fibre sandwiching 3mm of Nomex aramid honeycomb structure. This saves weight over 5mm of pure

carbon layup.

The need for a dedicated backboard arises from the fact that spacecraft interior walls are crowded with storage, equipment and

controls, leaving no flat areas against which to play.

Existing exercise equipment on the ISS is vibrationally isolated from the superstructure. This is to prevent undesirable oscillations spreading to other

parts of the spacecraft, such as the solar panels.

It is for this reason that I decided to suspend the backboard in the middle of the play-space on elastic bungees, rather than providing some form of wall fixings.

Whilst a greater play area could have been achieved with more segments, this would have in turn greatly increased the complexity of the attached inflatable walls used (see next page).

With the flex induced by the folds in the backboard, the structure needed some form of reinforcement to resist bending under hard ball strikes. This took the

form of the tensioned carbon tubes on the back surface.

Due to the tension applied to the centre of the tubes by the bungee cords, no substantial fasteners are required to keep the structure

together. This aids a simple, quick assembly and disassembly.


SIDE WALLSBoth table tennis and squash balls were bounce tested on an inflatable surface. I was pleasantly surprised at just how much energy was retained by the ball after contact.

Made of Chikara Nylon rip-stop fabric. This is used for parachutes as it is a tough, air-tight material. There is a slight weight penalty of 230g (total weight being 946g) for the structure over a polyester rip-stop fabric, but the greater strength (and therefore resistance to tearing) makes the trade off worthwhile. A simple patch repair-kit would be provided as well, in case of any mishaps.

In lieu of prototyping the walls, I worked out the foldability of the walls mathematically.

After removing air and flattening the four walls out, 5 folds are required to bring the dimensions down to 250 x 527mm. This fits within the box.

At this number of folds there will be 128 layers of fabric stacked. Taking the thickness of nylon rip-stop to be 0.08mm, the ‘perfect’ depth occupied is 10.24mm. The depth left in the box after the other equipment has been stowed is 95mm.

This affords a 9.57 ratio of perfect occupied depth to maximum possible depth with folding, which I am satisfied will work.


IN PLAY

The rules of the game

would be similar to that of

any racquet sport. Namely, play a shot

which your opponent cannot return in order to

score a point. Borrowing a rule from squash, players can call ‘let’ if they feel their opponent has impeded their ability to hit a shot. This will encourage a loose rule of one half of the play volume per player. This should also serve to reduce all manner of potential collisions.

Much like in the Earthly game of squash additional nuance is added by the ability to play an angled shot which bounces off one or more walls. This takes on a risk/reward aspect here, as the inflatable walls will absorb more energy from the ball than the carbon backplate. This gives players the choice between a fast, straight shot and a slow, complex one.


ALTERNATE USESAs previously mentioned, Cosmic Reflexes will not be the only exercise equipment on board the spacecraft. NASA ran an open competition in 2015 to design a compact resistance machine (pictured) for use on the small Orion spacecraft. The constraints were the ability to fit within a 21 x 13 x 7.5 inch (53 x 33 x 19cm) volume and weigh less than 20 pounds (9.1kg).

I decided to apply the same specification to my solution, so from the beginning it was being designed with modularity and size constraints in mind.

The Micro Exercise Device (MED) requires handles, akin to that of a rowing machine. The bat design allows for the handles to be unscrewed and reused as the handles for the MED. As they are a titanium construction they will withstand any weight an astronaut attempts to lift.

Where possible, the other parts have also been given a dual purpose.

The elastic bungees can either be used for securing cargo, or cargo bungees could be adapted to affix to the backboard clips.

The inflatable walls will be very similar in construction to a sleeping mat and could also serve as beds for 4 crew members should the craft land anywhere with gravity (a sleeping surface isn’t required in microgravity).

Similarly, in a gravity environment the backboard could be suspended horizontally and used as a table.

Furthermore, parts which will already be on the spacecraft will be utilised in the sport to increase safety.

Namely, attaching the crews sleeping bags around the exposed parts of the play area. This should soften any overenthusiastic collisions with the craft walls, preventing injury.


FINAL CONCEPT

Here is the final highly conceptual product called Cosmic Reflexes. The aim behind the product is to provide a constructive outlet for crew frustrations, though a modified version of squash.

The game would be fast paced and difficult, requiring honed

reflexes. This adds to the replay value as there would be a progression in skill

over time.

Below all equipment is folded and stowed into a visual box representation of the

dimensional constraints set by NASA. Half the volume remains for the

folded inflatable walls to be placed on top. The racquet heads are

resting on the folded carbon backboard.

space sport intro project

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