There and Never Back Again: Design in the Next Age of Space Exploration by John Boran jr.

There and Never Back Again Design in the Next Age of Space Exploration

John Boran Jr. Author & Designer

John Boran Jr. ÂŠ 2019

Allan Chochinov Chair: MFA Products of Design at SVA Thesis Advisor

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Andrew Schloss Thesis Advisor

For inquiries, contact howdy@johnboranjr.com or jboran@sva.edu

Lindsay Armor Editor

School of Visual Arts MFA Products of Design 136 West 21st Street 7th Floor New York, NY 10011

Jennifer Rittner Thesis Advisor

Table of Contents 10 - Introduction 12 - Literature 19 - Subject Matter Experts 22 - Mons Tool Co. - Geology Hammers 46 - Omnibot - Companion robot 56 - Astro Post - Smart Mailbox 66 - Conclusion

ne of my earliest memories as a child is going to the Wings Over Houston Airshow at Ellington field with my parents and grandparents. I, of course, loved everything about planes as a young boy. They were fast and loud. However, that last part was only good in theory. In practice, I was not the biggest fan of the screaming jets. In fact, I only saw the airshow’s flying spectacle through my blankie because I had it over my head. I was still watching though, I just needed something to feel safe from the loud noises.

Being from Houston (or Space City as it has recently become known) means you have been to mission control at NASA Johnson Space Center at least once. You probably went to Space Center Houston as a kid on a field trip. You even may know a few people who work there, keeping the International Space Station up and running. It even meant for me that I get a chill up my spine every time I watch Apollo 13 when Tom Hanks says “Okay, Houston, I think we’ve had a problem here”. It wasn’t that my home town being talked about in a Hollywood blockbuster, but more that every person who has gone into space has spoken with someone on the ground in Houston. In a way, Houston (as well as the other mission controls across the world) are the different voices and ears of the Earth toward our people in space. That is where I began my thesis, at age three as ridiculous as that sounds. Though I have gotten far away from my dreams of becoming “someone who drew jets for a living”, I have not gotten far from my dream to allow people to go farther and experience new and life-changing things through my work. - John Boran Jr.

projects to their most public and userfriendly forms, was space on the brink of a new epoch? With private industry taking a critical look into the worth of space travel and space-based resource extraction did that mean that space is due to have its aesthetic and humancentered revolutions?

Why Space Futurism?

he future of human spaceflight is a hopeful topic. It presumes that we won’t, in fact, kill ourselves via the million and one ways we seem to have invented or stumbled upon. We are constantly (and rightly) reminded how we don’t know enough to and are too greedy to prevent our own destruction. However, like all things that have or continue to block and divide us, I believe we can overcome. Humanity is at a critical junction in its short history on planet Earth. This era comes at the crossroads of many wicked problems and brilliant technological leaps. Going to and colonizing Mars is an opportunity to understand not only more of ourselves and what makes us special, but also the basic needs of life in the universe. We as a species must venture farther away from the temporary comforts of home to places where we can learn more by doing what humans do best: adapting to our environment and adapting our environment to us. While

there are many problems around us, there is also the opportunity to explore and to learn from new environments and experiences. More than that is the idea that humans have always craved adventure and finding the next frontier to explore and settle in. As Carl Sagan wrote in his book Pale Blue Dot “For all its material advantages, the sedentary life has left us edgy, unfulfilled. Even after 400 generations in villages and cities, we haven’t forgotten. The open road still softly calls, like a nearly forgotten song of childhood” (Sagan). I do not intend for this thesis to be an escape from reality or a distraction from the wicked problems we face on Earth (of which there is legion). I am using this time and space to explore how I can inspire other designers like me to add our imaginations and skills to new industries that need us most. I believe in the power of design to inspire and change the future for the better. I believe in people. That is why my thesis is about how design is necessary to

allow future people to live in places like Mars and farther afield. I believe that we as a species need to leave Earth. Not all of us, but enough of us that we can all become inspired by their trials and tales. The future has long held the imagination and eye of humanity. More than that, it has become a cultural test-bed of sorts for us to understand how the base natures of humanity play out when amplified by new technologies. As a self-professed sci-fi geek, I knew I could run wild designing for the challenges we will face outside of Earth. America has had a resurgence of space interest through recent events such as President Trump’s announcement of a militarized Space Force, SpaceX’s reusable and self-landing rocket boosters, as well as other private companies trying their own hand at spaceflight systems. Similar to the way other governmental technologies have graduated from top-secret government

Design currently sits at a very special position within the societies of the world. It is equal parts aesthetics, deep empathetic understanding, imagining a future different than the status quo, and a dab of black magic which have collectively sculpted our world. For both good and ill, design has enabled humanity to reach this point thus far. Like other futuristic technologies available today (the cell phone, electric cars, drones, medical scanning technologies, etc.) most began in the imaginations of fiction. Design can also function in this way. According to Montgomery and Woebken “By communicating through products, futures become real and relatable, embodied provocations about our technology and society” (Montgomery/ Woebken). In giving the future form we are able to talk about it in a tangible rather than nebulous way. Mars, I feel, would benefit with more design and imagination being directed toward it. As a product designer, I am interested in my ability to make physical a future that I believe in the validity of. “Projects that are future-oriented, that, despite their political difficulties, can be completed only in some distant decade

are continuing reminders that there will be a future. Winning a foothold on other worlds whispers in our ears that we’re more than Picts or Serbs or Tongans: We’re humans” (Sagan). Humans should go to Mars. Not just for bootprints and flags on the surface of a planet millions of kilometers away, but because it is there. It is a challenge to which Humanity can measure itself against and innovate toward. It will not be a vacation spot for the ultra-rich to flaunt their wealth, but a place of discovery and future cultural heritage. Humanity doesn’t need more planets. It needs more rigor to solve the wicked problems we have made and more belief that human creativity might just save us all in the end. Through this thesis, I explore what the people who take the one-way trip to Mars will require outside of their basic physical needs. These citizen astronauts will be extraordinary in their abilities and desire to go outside what is comfortable to experience what is possible. However, these people are still just that...people. Through the lenses of material culture, speculative design, design futuring, and human-centered design I spent a year exploring what the people who go to Mars will really need. These future Martians will, of course, require technologies that provide for their basic human needs (air, water, food, shelter,etc.). However, this thesis is instead centered around the objects

these people will long for to feel at home on Mars. They will need tools to explore with, objects of comfort to share the long journey with, a way to stay in touch with the people they left behind, and ways to get inspired enough to go. The objects in this body of work evoke the spirit of what it truly means to be human. The designed objects we bring with us to wander space will collectively reveal more about us than anything else. Material culture has defined humanity since the dawn of our species, and it will not cease when we leave Earth for the last time. This new material culture beyond Earth will beget a plurality of new cultural expression, form giving, and meaningmaking the effect of which cannot be understated. As culture once endlessly branched out after our ancestors migrated from Africa to cover the globe, so too will it endlessly radiate as we migrate to new planets, solar systems, and beyond.

Literature Review Space How to Get to Earth from Mars: Solving the Hard Part First Casey Handmer This brief book is an engineer’s take on the technical challenges faced when going to Mars in general. What is compelling about this piece is that it deals with each topic (from why to go to Mars all the way to the basics of orbital mechanics) in three separate ways. First, Handmer describes the problem, second, he elaborates on what makes it problematic, finally he details a suggestion about the best way to tackle or think through the problem logically. Casey is an amazing person whom I met early in the thesis process at the 21st Annual International Mars Society Convention, and I am so glad I started the thesis with this book. He also greatly added to this work through my interview with him as one of my subject matter experts.

Casey’s assertion that “Ultimately, all attempts at metaphorical description fall short. A journey to Mars will be the new yardstick by which all previous adventures will be measured; we still don’t really understand the cultural importance and significance of such an event” aligned with what I hoped to convey with my work (Handmer). Not only is going to Mars and hopefully starting a new branch of civilization important for science, culturally speaking it is a giant step for humanity as a species.

Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space Carl Sagan Carl Sagan is perhaps the original big thinker of the meaning of the vastness of the Universe in relation to the infinitesimally small humanity. His book, Pale Blue Dot, speaks not only about what humanity could be amongst the

vast oceans of space away from home, but also how small minded we have been when attempting to comprehend space and our relation to it in the west. What struck me most from Sagan was how matter of fact he can be in explaining and wrestling with history and morality in terms of future human possibility. Sagan offered “Our ancestors walked from East Africa to Novaya Zemlya and Ayers Rock and Patagonia, hunted elephants with stone spearpoints, traversed the polar seas in open boats 7,000 years ago, circumnavigated the Earth propelled by nothing but wind, walked the Moon a decade after entering space—and we’re daunted by a voyage to Mars? But then I remind myself of the avoidable human suffering on Earth, how a few dollars can save the life of a child dying of dehydration, how many children we could save for the cost of a trip to Mars—and for the moment I change my mind. Is it unworthy to stay home, or unworthy to go? Or have I posed a false

dichotomy? Isn’t it possible to make a better life for everyone on Earth and to reach for the planets and the stars?” These false dichotomies he and other authors referenced in this body of work have come up numerous times while exploring my own work. A common and understandable theme from skeptics of human spaceflight is that the time and resources could be better spent elsewhere. While this is true in a sense, it also has the fuzzy logic capacity of being false as well. Technologies pioneered in human space exploration have aided tremendously in giving us the ludicrous speed of advancement that we see over the Information Age. This, I believe, is a meta-narrative to the why of my thesis, it is the idea that technology and ideas gained through extreme pursuits (making water on Mars drinkable) can help alleviate wicked problems on Earth (water shortages in disaster scenarios and in droughts). Sagan goes on to state that “there’s plenty of housework to be done here on Earth, and our commitment to it must be steadfast. But we’re the kind of species that needs a frontier—for fundamental biological reasons. Every time humanity stretches itself and turns a new corner, it receives a jolt of productive vitality that can carry it for centuries. There’s a new world next door. And we know how to get there.” I couldn’t agree more.

The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must Robert Zubrin Robert Zubrin’s book is another engineering treatise on the technical capability (as of 2011) of sending humans to Mars with some added historical context on Martian robotic missions. It was written as a direct counter to the Space Exploration Initiative (also called the 90-Day Report) proposed by George H.W. Bush on the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. This plan priced a manned mission to Mars at an astronomically bloated $450 billion. This price tag came from a rehashing of Wernher von Braun’s plan for the future of space exploration laid out in his book Die Marsprojekt. Which included a low Earth orbiting space dry docks where fleets of spacecrafts could be assembled and launched from. From there, a Moon base was to be built and then sometime later we would get to Mars for a ridiculously short twoweek stay for “flags and footprints” as Zubrin aptly puts it (Zubrin). While this may seem to make sense to have a progressive approach to getting to Mars, it is in fact technologically more difficult to land on the Moon than it is to land on Mars. This is counterintuitive as many within the government and Jeff Bezos (head of SpaceX competitor Blue Origin) think that a Mars mission should never be attempted before a Moon base is completed.

Zubrin then uses the rest of the book to describe a plan which he and his colleague Dr. Ben Clark dubbed Mars Direct. This plan advocated for “living off the land” as much as possible to emulate the way successful arctic explorers from Europe did in the 1900s and Indigenous people across the world have done for millennia. This plan counters the price tag set by the 90-Day report with one of $10 billion if entirely done within the bounds of current aerospace contracts with NASA and $6-7 billion if done through private industry. Which, as a book most recently updated in 2011, seems to have been very forward thinking. Both Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin have been ramping up testing and production of rockets aiming at taking business away from previous large corporations, making space expensive and inaccessible. This proves that similar to how the digital revolution started, we are on the cusp of the space revolution. While it was dense in engineering and technical logic and new mental models, Zubrin’s later chapters on the next steps after initial Mars missions were what interested me most. There he laid out the concepts around the different eras of Martian presence as initial exploration, base building, colonization, and terraforming. The first three lenses provided an amazing context through which I could define distinct user groups and temporal periods for my speculative designs to live in.

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void Mary Roach This book by Mary Roach is primarily about the history and strange anecdotes of historical spaceflight. While it was enjoyable to read, it didn’t deal as directly with Mars or the packing for the journey as I would have hoped. Even though this book was not about the journey to Mars, it did provide some useful context “Space exploration is in some ways an exploration of what it means to be human. How much normalcy can people forgo? For how long, and what does it do to them?” (Roach). This quote gave me the framework through which I spoke about my work going forward. I wasn’t designing for physical needs but instead to give agency to explore humanity to more people.

Design The Shape of Design Frank Chimero This short book is about the philosophies of design as a bridge between the different areas of art, commerce, people, clients, makers, and customers. It also delves deeply into the reason thinkers and optimists should employ their creative spirits to be stewards of a better future. It was an illuminating book and one which gave voice to the joy that is creating. Chimero’s way of describing design, and the labor of love that is design, elevated my pursuit from simple form giving and aesthetics to one focused on giving, empathy, and futurecrafting for people. “In this guise, design not only becomes a way to push toward a desirable future but also works to establish the vocabulary we use to define the terms of our engagements with one another” (Chimero). This idea that design not only pushes toward a desired future but also creates the language (and culture) of the future allowed me to contextualize my work not only as singular objects but also as an artifact of future change. I would personally list this as one of the most seminal texts to not only this body of design work but also my personal views as a designer.

Extrapolation Factory Operator’s Manual Elliot P. Montgomery and Chris Woebken This book in the same vein as Speculative Everything by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby is a guide to how to design with futures in mind. In a different way, it seeks to democratize futures research through the showcasing of their methods for extrapolating design at the intersection of futures studies and speculative design. This book became a lodestar for how to postulate critical design intentions for uncertain futures. As my thesis is instantiated in products, this work reaffirmed my own notions that we define a future by the degree to which the products they use differ from our own. Stating that “By communicating through products, futures become real and relatable, embodied provocations about our technology and society” (Montgomery/Woebken). The film, science fiction, and audio traditions have long used this alienness as a way of marking a new world as futuristic. I will also use this trope as a way to mark my own work as one not quite belonging in our current time. As well, the book offered a defining assertion that aided the visual plurality of the products that follow in this work. “We do not - nor will we ever - live

within what Foster calls ‘a unique visual singularity’” claims Montgomery and Woebken. This multiple styling of the future has also been used extensively in media to show new amalgams of currently understood cultures.

designs focus heavily in areas other than aesthetic.

Fiction

Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse Book 1) James S. A. Corey

Never Leave Well Enough Alone Raymond Loewy Part memoir and part design methodology, this book by Loewy is a fascinating look into the earlier history of industrial design told by one of its most prolific founders. While outdated culturally, it served as a wonderful introduction into how I could design using a retro-futurist idealism. Loewy’s motto of “beauty through function and simplification” was a major help when redesigning the Mons Geology Hammers found later in this book.

Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things Donald A. Norman In this book, Don Norman added immensely to the dimensions that I as a designer could use to touch my audience. Stating that “Visceral design > Appearance | Behavioral design > The pleasure and effectiveness of use | Reflective design > Self-image, personal satisfaction, memories,” this new framework was easily applied throughout this work in that some

While my love of science fiction did not start anywhere near the first time I picked up Leviathan Wakes in college, it did, however, become a major impetus for this thesis. The book centers around the solar politics of the human race at a time when people have colonized out to the edge of our solar system. Each planet has its own culture, heritage, and way of interacting with foreign people that is all their own. Mars, in particular, is portrayed in a similar light to the USSR in the Cold War as the unknowable war-like nation of strength. When in fact they are a people trying to build a new planet for themselves without the interference of Earth’s government trying to treat it like a colony. This book (and subsequent SYFY show) gave me a vision of a possible future where humanity had spread out and had emulated the geopolitics of today onto the larger scale of the solar system. Parts of which, like interplanetary war, I hope we can avoid.

Podcast Anatomy of Next: New World Mike Solana In his podcast produced by Founders Fund, host Mike Solana does an amazing job explaining why humanity must go to Mars as the first step beyond Earth. Beyond that his assertion that “We don’t see an abundance of people as a solution to anything. We see our swelling population as a problem. Thinking like this extends naturally to population suppression, not to building a new world on Mars. If you think of people as a problem, how could your focus ever really be on preventing calamity?” added urgency to my thesis work (Solana). We must go so we can prove to ourselves that more people living is not just a drain on our resources, but an opportunity for a new plurality of ideas, cultures, views, and humanities. Mike was also amazingly gracious with his time and helped add perspective to why people outside traditional STEM fields need to get involved in space exploration in my interview with him as a Subject Matter Expert.

Subject Matter Experts

s part of the initial research into this topic, I have had the honor of speaking with a variety of experts in the fields of space sciences, engineering, design, futures, human factors engineering, and art. The generous guidance and feedback from these people allowed this thesis to have the backing of more than my reading list and gave it the energy it needed to go the distance. To each of these people, I am eternally grateful for their time, energy, and perspective.

B.H. Bapna

Casey Handmer

Dr. Jessica J. Marquez

Nicole Stott

Former NASA engineer

Author of How to get to Earth from Mars: Solving the hard part first currently at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Human-Systems Engineer at NASA Ames Research Center within the Human Systems Integration Division

Artist, engineer, and retired NASA astronaut

Ariel Ekblaw

Joseph Herscher

Charles Miller

John Thackara

Founder & Lead, MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative and PhD student/ research assistant at the MIT Media Lab’s Responsive Environments group

Rube Goldberg Youtube Entertainer and Kinetic Artist

Aerospace Engineer at BLUE ORIGIN and formerly at SpaceX, GE Aviation, and Cornell Mars Rover

Design expert/Author

John Draikiwicz

Ethan Kramer

Arpit Sheth

Evan Twyford

CEO at a stealth startup and former team lead for Cornell Mars Rover

Mechanical Engineer at Booz Allen Hamilton and formerly at SpaceX, GE Aviation, and Cornell Mars Rover

Software Engineer at WeWork and former Cornell Mars Rover team member

Industrial and vehicle designer at Google X’s Project Wing and formerly at NASA Johnson Space Center

Sands Fish

Nicole L’Huillier

Mike Solana

Artist and researcher at the MIT Media Lab’s Civic Media group and part of the MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative

Transdisciplinary artist from Santiago, Chile. Currently based in Boston as a PhD student and researcher at the MIT Media Lab, Opera of the Future group and part of the MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative.

Vice President at The Founders Fund and Podcast Host for Anatomy of Next: New World 21

Mons Tool Co.

hen designing a product for future Martians, I immediately went to what items the first people to visit Mars would carry. These people, probably professional astronauts, would be surveying and learning about their new home. They would likely be similar to astronauts that visited the moon decades ago or ones that are currently on board the International Space Station, where their primary duties revolve around scientific experimentation, sample collection, and habitat construction/management. This led me to imagine what objects would be the everyday companions to these first Martians. In the idea generating stage, many genres of the potential product came out. Most notable were furniture pieces designed for the lesser gravity of Mars, farm implements, food utensils for micro-gravity, and geology hammers. As I have no way of testing the microgravity or Martian gravity dependent designs for efficacy, I thought it most

prudent to design hand tools for use on Mars. Whilst tools for the farms needed on Mars were interesting, the geology hammer won out in the end. Hammers were likely one of the first created implements by hominids. While these were likely fist-sized stones used to break nuts or split bones for marrow, the hammer has followed our earliest ancestors and their progeny to modernity. It is also an intensely behavioral focused object, one that constitutes success through usability and feel of use. According to Norman, “The behavioral level is about use, about experience with a product. But experience itself has many facets: function, performance, and usability. A product’s function specifies what activities it supports, what it is meant to do—if the functions are inadequate or of no interest, the product is of little value. Performance is about how well the product does those desired functions— if the performance is inadequate, the product fails. Usability describes the

ease with which the user of the product can understand how it works and how to get it to perform. Confuse or frustrate the person who is using the product and negative emotions result. But if the product does what is needed, if it is fun to use and easy to satisfy goals with it, then the result is warm, positive affect.” How could I design a hammer for geological sampling that was aesthetically unique for Mars yet retained its core functionality as a good hammer? This line of behavioral inquiry also led me to ask questions in my sketching such as: What should a hammer for Mars look like? What could a hammer for Mars look like? What makes a hammer?

hrough my sketching and imagining, I found generative forms similar to Joris Laarman Lab’s Bone Chair to be the most aesthetically stretching of possible futures. I originally became entranced by his digitally enabled design process while viewing his museum survey, Joris Laarman Lab: Design in the Digital Age, at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. The story of the Bone Chair began with German General Motors subsidiary, Adam Opel GmbH, which developed software with the goal of creating better car engine mounts. This software used 3D modeling and repeated simulation in order to find the optimum strength to material weight ratio. Similar to the way bones grow in reaction to repeated stresses over time, this software found the most optimized way to design the chair. According to Laarman “If Mother Nature wanted to create a chair, it would probably look something like the results we would get.” This algorithmic simulation of organic processes deeply influenced how I imagined new hammers. By using similar generative techniques I could aesthetically change the hammers’ look yet retain its required strength while also saving on much-needed weight (critical for all space ventures). This started to give form to one of the first answers to my earlier questions “What should a hammer for Mars look like? What could a hammer for Mars look like?”. It could look like an organically engineered 26

object that happened to grow into the shape of a hammer. However, it didn’t answer the final question of “What makes a hammer?”

or that answer, I had to do dig into the history of hammers as left behind by our earliest ancestors. While we may imagine flint or obsidian knives or handaxes as being proto-humansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; first stone tools, we rarely imagine the tools that made those tools. These first hammers are known as hammerstones. K. Kirs Hirst, an archaeologist writing for Thought.co states that â&#x20AC;&#x153;A hammerstone (or hammer stone) is the archaeological term used for one of the oldest and simplest stone tools humans ever made: a rock used as a prehistoric hammer, to create percussion fractures on another rock. The end result is the creation of sharp-edged stone flakes from the second rockâ&#x20AC;? (Hirst).

These proto-hammering implements were palmed by the user rather than gripped by the handle and swung like modern hammers. As well, Hammering tools are not exclusive to only hominids, with other mammals, birds, and even fish being seen to use stones as hammers. To answer my question from earlier, a hammer is anything strong enough to break something else to create a new desired outcome. This hammering need not be done only by humans but is found in most types of creatures in the animal kingdom.

round this time I was invited to attend Beyond the Cradle 2019 at the MIT Media Lab in Boston by SME Ariel Ekblaw. Beyond the cradle is the annual conference hosted by the Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative which brings together astronauts, engineers, industry leaders, entrepreneurs, designers, and artists involved in space to convene and hear the latest developments in the field. While there, I had the privilege of meeting three of my SMEs in person (Ekblaw, Fish, and L’huillier) for the first time as well as interviewing Nicole Stott, retired Astronaut. This 5-minute interview with Flight Engineer Stott completely changed how the Mons Tool Co. project moved into the final stages of production. Due to the nature of my area of inquiry, finding a person in the user group of astronauts has been somewhat difficult. There have only been 536 people worldwide as of writing this that have gone to space in history. Thankfully, Nicole’s feedback proved invaluable in disproving all of my assumptions for what was needed in the future hammers for Martian geological sample collection. Her lived experience in space as an astronaut and emphatic directions completely reoriented me on a better path.

Interview with Astronaut Nicole Stott at Beyond the Cradle 2019 MIT Media Lab | Cambridge, Massachusetts Nationality: American Occupation: Artist and Retired NASA Astronaut Background: Engineer Time in Space: 103d 05h 49min

So when you’re in space, what sort of tool use did you mainly use inside the cabins of the ISS and on the Space Shuttle? Most of the time it was a torque wrench or like an Allen wrench kind of thing. What I would say about any of that kind of stuff; (cuz) because we had people try to design really fancy things for us to use. Simpler the better. I mean if you’re already familiar with a tool, and it works, use it. The biggest thing in the microgravity environment is just put a piece of Velcro on it so you can stick it to the wall when you’re not using it. You know that kind of thing. There’s no need to design some like fancy interface to it for microgravity.

So right now I’m mainly working on geology hammers to go to Mars as one of my major projects. I know you didn’t go outside of Earth’s immediate orbit, necessarily, but as far as using tools when inside of a spacesuit. What sort of… Yeah. Well, I did one spacewalk. And again the simpler the better. Of course, in the suits, we have now it’s really cumbersome to use anything. So it’s got to be robust and simple. Yeah, even in a...it’s not zero-G, but a lower gravity environment I would say tethering is still probably a good idea. Especially if you’re in a suit, because if you start dropping stuff… The spacesuits have a really hard time bending correct? At the waist is a very tough point. Yeah, even the advanced ones. I’ve tried them on and it’s like...you’re not bending a whole lot.

As far as materiality goes, I know weight is, of course, the primary factor of what a tool is able to do when going up [to space]. What sort of materials did you enjoy working with? Well, most of the tools I used were standard tools you would have in your Craftsman toolkit. Do you have any last thoughts on where design can have a bigger role in human spaceflight? I really think the simpler the better, and I cannot say that enough. Because so many times I saw these; like a solution trying to find a problem that didn’t exist. There’s enough out there. Thank you so much, this was amazing feedback. Yeah, good luck with it.

I am also looking into putting a ruler of some type across the head of the hammer. Because one of my friends who is a geologist, she recommended that because geologists use their hammers as a known size. So when you take a photo of it you can clearly see delineations on it, you don’t need to measure your hammer. Yes. Yeah, that’s simple.

3 New Constraints • The simplicity of design aides use and storage of tools in space

Case Study

his pair of hammers designed and created for use on Mars by the first astronauts to make the journey originally had a very different aesthetic than the final presented above. Originally the geology hammers had an ergonomic handle that contoured to fit the hand of futuristic skin-tight mechanical pressure spacesuits. Later in the sketching process, it was even beginning to have a branched handle similar to Joris Laarman Lab’s Bone Chair. While this was an excellent foray into the whimsical what-if forms of the first Martian tools, it was not something that fit the actuality of current space travel/usability. As part of this thesis journey I have had the privilege of attending two separate future of space conventions, the Mars Society Convention in Pasadena, CA and Beyond the Cradle 2019 at the MIT Media Lab. At the Media Lab, I was able to sit down for five minutes with former astronaut Nicole Stott who has over 105 days in space. This short interview not

• The heft of tools aides use while in a spacesuit • Tethering tools to spacesuits aides in keeping tool close and prevents dangerous dropping of tools

only made me completely reimagine the final result and form of the hammers but also realigned the goals I wanted to satisfy going forward in the project. As Nicole stated in our interview, the hammers were until that point “a solution trying to find a problem that didn’t exist.” I was looking to explore a new formal language and have it happen to function as a hammer. However, that is not what I believe to be design’s greater role in this or any world. Designers are not the makers of a thin veneer of beauty added frivolously onto something useful. We are both givers of form and beauty, yet first, we are stewards of simplicity. According to Raymond Loewy, a famed industrial designer of the 20th century, in his book Never Leave Well Enough Alone, “It would seem that more than function itself, simplicity is the deciding factor in the aesthetic equation. One might call the process beauty through function and simplification.” My original hammer designs did not fit into the world of

Nicole’s experience as an Astronaut nor into Loewy’s definition of aesthetic beauty. This marked an extreme pivot point where I needed to reimagine my hammers to be aesthetically different yet functionally similar or better (an age-old industrial design dilemma). From this point, I went back into my interview recording with Nicole and took out the 3 new design constraints I would design through.

Results

By gaining anecdotal feedback from a lived experience expert of space like Nicole I gained a completely new appreciation for the time it takes to design simple and useful objects. I was proven wrong in nearly every assumption of what I thought mattered when initially approaching the project. As often happens in modern circles of the online design community, I was designing for my exploration and for appreciation by other designers. This pitfall of internet age design nearly reduced the project’s worth and meaning to little more than an art project.

This final fact is the most important learning in all of this for me. When designing speculatively, one must figure out where on the gamut of reality they wish to place their design. Is it one new technology away? Is it only time and place away? Or is it a parallel reality to ours where this would make sense if (insert handwaved magical technology) was commonplace? Design Futuring and speculative design is the heart of this thesis body of work and has been invaluable in asking questions not only of myself but of human space flight at large. However, it is easy to get away from wanting the work to ask questions or provoke into it becoming a useless chimera of aesthetics and lack of real understanding. I am so thankful for the driving insights given during my short time interviewing astronaut Nicole Stott, the invitation to attend the conference by Ariel Ekblaw, and for the guidance provided by all Space Exploration Initiative members and speakers I was able to meet at Beyond the Cradle 2019.

Were the original geology hammer ideas bad? Not at all. Were they a useful tool of exploration and design futuring? Absolutely. Did they fit the near term user that I wanted to aim these at? Not at all.

Omnibot

o matter how much they train you on Earth, there really is no way to fully prepare someone for microgravity. It doesn’t feel like falling forever, it’s more like having your bonds cut. You’re truly free in zero-g. Eventually, however, you come off of the high of not feeling the tug of your weight toward the floor. You wish with all your being you could sleep without having to strap your arms to the bed (they float up if you don’t). You wish you could take a normal hot shower without the water flying everywhere. You miss the little blue pebble you and all of your ancestors called home. Against the side of my footlocker floated an octagonal box. It was made of a lightweight matte paper with the words Omnibot in oversized silver foil-stamped letters. A tab when pulled bisected the box like a clamshell and revealed the pearl inside. 48

The robot wasn’t large; about the size of a tennis ball. The body is bright metallic yellow with blue vents (it matched the electric bike I had hacked together back home). Its 6 vent holes allowed it to float and fly freely around the cabin as long as we were in zero-g (well according to the commercials anyway). I tapped on the unit‘s insignia which breathed life into it as its halo glowed with soft yellow light. After a few moments, the robot’s fan spun up with a light hum and breathed life into the unit. As it rose into the air and slowly pirouetted once to scan the room with radar, it spoke. “Hello. What is your name, friend?” it said in a childlike chirp. As the words hung in the recycled air, it cocked its body to the side in a questioning movement. Speaking with robots for the first time is always a strange thing. I don’t know why I always feel so much stage fright.

“Uh, I’m Alex. Well, Alexandria is my full name, but I prefer Alex. What shall I call you?” Phew. Not as bad of a first impression as I thought. “Well my serial number is way too long to speak comfortably, so let’s not do that. Hmmm...where are you from Alexandria?” He seemingly bounced in slow motion as his engines got used to the movement of the ship through space. “Originally my parents were from Kenya, but they moved to Indiana shortly before I was born.” “I like it. My name is Indiana.” His voice seemed to age then. Less questioning and more sure of its own being. “What’s on your mind, Alex?” There aren’t many small talk topics in space. No weather, same 75º and dry each and every day. Despite all of the fanfare of exploring space, it’s a pretty mundane existence since the ships do most of the routine checks on their

own. “I’m thinking about my parents. Specifically what my father smelled like. Not in a bad way, just that I miss them. All of them.” Indiana stayed silent for a breath to make sure I wasn’t going to continue. “Well, that makes sense. What did your father smell like?” “Pipe tobacco and old books mostly. Grass on the weekends when he would tend our small community garden with our neighbors. He was a historian at a few different universities and museums throughout my childhood. He was never far away from a tome older than everyone in the house combined.” “What do pipe tobacco and old books smell like?” Indiana didn’t have a nose obviously, but he seemed curious to know or at least know through me. “Tobacco smells like the Earth. It’s pungent and distinctive. You can smell the ground it was cultivated from. Some days I get a whiff of a few smells together that tickles my nose in a similar way and it takes me back. Old books smell like people a bit. The pages have this texture that’s a bit indescribable... it feels used but in a nice way. You can feel the presence of anyone who’s thumbed through it before you. It’s a bit communal if that makes sense.” “I like that. Can you tell me more about Indiana?”

Life Cycles of robot companions - Epilogue

hen originally designing the Omnibot I knew I wanted to create a free-flying robot similar to the Astrobee designed by NASA for the International Space Station. While the Astrobee is a utility robot, I instead imagined a robot that would be the companion of all astronauts on their 9-month journey to Mars. Companionship and emotional stability, I believe, will be one of the most needed and most difficult to design for elements of future human space travel. The Omnibot’s prime directive is to accompany their assigned astronaut throughout the journey to Mars. As the robot only works in the microgravity of space, it will not be able to continue it’s companionship once they reach their destination. This means that it will functionally die when you reach Mars. This limitation of the design then turned into an opportunity to explore our relationship with smart technology. What if the 9-month lifecycle was designed into the experience of the relationship with the Omnibot? Could planned obsolescence and nonownership be of positive value to a product rather than a way to force consumerism? Would people treat an Ai companion differently if they watched it grow, learn, and age? As described in the short story, the moment you first turn on Omnibot it is

more childlike in its relation with you. It asks questions, laughs more often, and doesn’t understand many things. This endears the user into wanting to teach the Omnibot about themselves and where they came from. Similar to a relationship with a pet, the Omnibot ages at a much faster rate than we do as people, so we get to watch it grow from infancy to adulthood into the waning years of its life. While the Omnibot’s planned lifecycle is relatively short, it will have an added benefit for future generations of Martians.

companion on the previous mission. While it still ages with its current user over their journey, it’s stored memories become a cultural and oral history of the people going to Mars. This planned robot lifetime and reincarnation pattern allow for not only stability of individual astronauts on the way to Mars, but also the creation of culture on the trip to Mars from Earth.

In our relationship to dogs, we have adopted a special temporal language regarding how quickly they age. Dog years describes a simple concept (normally to explain aging to children) that dogs age 7 years for every one normal year. In a similar vein, the Omnibot could have its own temporal language where each month represents 7 years of age in its behavioral responses. This purposeful aging of the robot will endear it to its companion. Watching your friend grow up and then progress toward its final days will be a way of marking the adventure as more than a boring intermediate time between worlds. In reference to SpaceX’s planned mission architecture of Mars colonization where the ships that bring us to Mars are reused similar to airliners, the Omnibot would live on these ships. On every journey to Mars from Earth, each Omnibot brings memories from its previous lives as a

Astro Post The Astro Post is my response to how the first settlers on Mars will communicate with their family back on Earth. Even when Mars and Earth are at their closest point, radio signals take 4 minutes to make the trip one way. Because we live in a world of instant communication, having a lag time once we move to Mars will create friction in the communication between worlds. The Astro Post is sold as a pair which use dry erase ink and plastic cards to cut down on waste. While the Astro Post is no faster than a text, communicating through Astro Post will help recent immigrants to Mars feel more connected.

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