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Issue 13

Exploring Earth and Space

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Cover image: Northern lights. Thanks to the photography of andersgaard on pixabay.

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Communicating science Combining art

Features SCIENCE What Will It Be Like to Live on the Moon? An Anthropologist and Astronomer Answer Our Questions AI solves problems in Biotech and Space Exploration Sci Snapshot showcase

conservation Conservation In Focus

Editor’s note

Welcome to issue 13 of NatureVolve magazine, welcoming the new year 2023

Issue 13 brings together diverse thinkers across science

and art with a special focus on exploring Earth and Space. Themes will range from an artistic appreciation of natural organisms on Earth, through to technologies being developed, all the way to space exploration and the pursuit of discovery.

At NatureVolve we believe there is an important connection between science and art, and we thank our community who help us to broadcast ideas in both subjects. If you have friends who may enjoy this issue, please feel free to share naturevolve.com with others. To support us and stay tuned with our journey, on our website naturevolve.com you can subscribe, or register interest if interested to be featured in an upcoming issue.

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We hope you enjoy issue 13!

Scicomm illustrator showcase - Aaisha Muhammad

Best wishes,

Exploring the artistic beauty of fungi

Clarissa Wright Editor-in-Chief

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Art Art Gallery

Written Word A boat ride to Howth

Bio Clarissa Wright is Editor of NatureVolve and a freelance science journalist. She has contributed to Big Think, Eos and journal news sites. After completing MSc Applied & Petroleum Micropalaeontology from University of Birmingham and BSc Geology from University of Aberdeen, Clarissa entered the academic publishing industry in London at Springer Nature. She later went on to be a Chief Editor at Meteored and later held a role at Frontiers. If you need help writing about complex science or environmental subjects feel free to email her. Having created geology inspired paintings and joining environmental science expeditions to Oman, she went on to lead editorial content for NatureVolve, from Scotland in the United Kingdom. Links Researchgate: www.researchgate.net/profile/Clarissa_Wright Academia.edu: bham.academia.edu/ClariWh Email: Clarissa@naturevolve.com p2

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What Will It Be Like to Live on the Moon? An Anthropologist and Astronomer Answer Our Questions For centuries, the concept of lunar habitation has remained a matter of great

speculation for humans. Scientific efforts in this area began in the 1950s, and recently, NASA and other space agencies have been reviving their mission programs, which focus more on advancing long-term research facilities on the Moon and its orbit. So, we ask: Will scientists and others be able to settle humans on the Moon? In short, yes! The success of the ambitious programs such as NASA-led Artemis I, II, III may lead to the construction of moon bases suitable for a long-term human settlement. Amid growing hopes, scientists anticipate the physical, social, and behavioral challenges that lunar inhabitants may have to face. Anthropologist Margaret Boone Rappaport and Astronomer Christopher Corbally suggest that the Moon’s low gravity may have physical and psychological effects on inhabitants, such as in their gait, musculature, and emotions. Inhabitants will probably require more exercise to adapt. Dr. Rappaport and Dr. Corbally met for an informal conversation based on some questions posed by NatureVolve’s community about how humans may adapt to life on the Moon;

1. The need for even more innovation on the Earth’s &A - than on Moon Mars. 2. The technologies and infrastructure anticipated for early lunar inhabitants. 3. The activities of a usual day, all in the Moon’s lower gravity. 4. The importance of sustainability and its integration into everyone’s life.

Above: Christopher Corbally and Margaret Boone Rappaport imagine what life would be like on the Moon. Credit: Christopher Corbally and Margaret Boone Rappaport.

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Credit: Moon image. Credit: NASA.

Margaret Boone Rappaport and Christopher Corbally discuss... Margaret Boone Rappaport (Anthropologist): Good morning. We first should say that this dialogue derives in part from a chapter on “Projections for Lunar Culture, Living, and Working: How Will We Be Different?” It is Chapter 20, the last chapter, in a recent book titled The Human Factor in the Settlement of the Moon. [1] The activities we describe will come after “base phase” on the Moon, which will occur at the South Pole, and after the “wiring up” of the earliest transportation and communications lines. Therefore, it attempts to anticipate a lunar lifestyle after a number of habitations are built and after they form a small village. Christopher Corbally (Astronomer): Even in that early phase, life on the Moon will take more innovation than on Mars. Why? Well, Mars has one-third of Earth’s gravity, but the Earth’s Moon has only one-sixth! That will make a big difference, in everything from the human gait, to work and leisure. Remember the Apollo astronauts back in the 1970s? They skipped rather than walked or ran on the Moon! Margaret: I remember! Now, fifty years later, we still don’t know what that lower gravity does to the human mind and body! We can guess some of it from the experience of crews on the International Space Station, but there is much we don’t understand about changes in human musculature and brain in gravity as low as the Moon’s. What we are almost certain of is that lunar inhabitants will need to exercise to keep their hearts strong. Christopher: Indeed. Exercise will help to maintain health of body and mind, and to keep stress down. Some people may not be able to cope with the isolation they experience on the Moon. However, as we have discussed before, there will be communications during work and in recreation time. We don’t expect that a lunar crew will be as isolated as feared. They’ll be in communication all the time with someone on the Moon or on Earth. There’s a time delay between Earth and Moon, but not much. © NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

Margaret: Agreed. The time delay between Earth and Mars will completely prevent normal conversation. People will have to send recordings between the Earth and Mars… But Mars has a dayand-night cycle that is very close to Earth’s— Christopher: --It does! The diurnal cycle will seem more familiar on Mars. On the Moon, as you move away from the poles to more equatorial areas, each day and each night will be about 14 Earth days. Margaret: That’s an enormous difference! Days and nights two weeks long! We’ve talked about this before… I think the lunar crew will simply adopt an Earthside daily schedule. The Moon is physically so much closer than Mars! Keeping in touch with people on the Earth will be relatively easy. Christopher: Lunar inhabitants may well adopt Earth’s clock. Still, even in the dark two weeks, we’re going to get substantial Earthshine—the Sun’s light reflected off the Earth. During the Moon’s bright two weeks, the light comes directly from the Sun. Margaret: But things are different at the poles, aren’t they? Our first Artemis base camp will be at the Moon’s South Pole… Christopher: For the initial settlements, day and night will be extraordinarily long. It will be dark for 173 Earth days at the lunar poles, and light for 173 days. They will have 18-day transition periods at the Moon’s poles. In fact, there has been talk of using the mountains near the poles for solar power. The idea is to set the solar panels high enough to get continuous light from the Sun. Margaret: I’ve read about that, and in the chapter on power options on the Moon in the same book that has our chapter. [2] There are designs for giant solar collectors in orbit around the Moon. Christopher: You’re right, but that’s for future settlers, not the earliest ones. Margaret: What about power for the early greenhouses on the Moon? You say there will be generators? They can’t haul fossil fuel up from Earth to the Moon to run generators! p5

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Christopher: No, but they might use the Moon’s own “fossil fuel”. They could split the Moon’s water into hydrogen and oxygen, and those are two very handy rocket propellants. They would generate power. But remember, plants also need darkness. They have to rest.

Margaret: I thought water on the Moon mainly came ultimately from meteorites. That’s one theory. The meteorites crash into the Moon, and the water migrates gradually to the poles. Christopher: That’s the theory.

Margaret: So rocket fuel to provide electricity for extra Margaret: Let’s get back to what makes lifestyle light in the lunar greenhouses? That sounds strange! unique on the Moon. The diurnal cycle and gravity both do. Crew will probably become Christopher: Well, there is also the option of nuclear “deconditioned” fast if they don’t work their hearts generators. and muscles in the Moon’s low gravity. But... we’re not yet sure how much human deconditioning will Margaret: You don’t hear much about nuclear occur. generators. Christopher: Again, the theory is that humans will Christopher: If you’re going to split water on the react at one-sixth gravity much like they do on the Moon into hydrogen and oxygen, it’s going to take International Space Station. But, that may not be some power. Other than solar, you have nuclear. true, over time. Margaret: Interesting. That may be controversial.

Margaret: I know they can reverse some of that physical and neurological deconditioning in Christopher: Remember, we have to find out exactly rodents by having them run around a centrifugation how much water is on the Moon. Satellites and probes apparatus on the ISS. The rodents are back to are looking for water. We are not sure about the water normal with a little artificial gravity! proposed to be in dark spaces on the Moon.

“Remember, we have to find out exactly how much water is on the Moon. Satellites and probes are looking for water.” Above: Liftoff! NASA’s Artemis I Mega Rocket Launches Orion to Moon. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls © NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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Christopher: The question remains: Will humans seriously decondition on the Moon? Margaret: It’s a possibility. I have thought to myself that we are about to engage in this expedition to conquer space and settle on other worlds, without knowing exactly what it’s going to do humans! You don’t hear much about the absence of knowledge of what space and lower gravities will do to humans. Christopher: They don’t know. Margaret: They don’t know. Christopher: Typical for exploration. Margaret: That’s true. But here, let’s turn to the questions about daily life on the Moon. We began by saying we are envisioning a small village of domed habitations. Everyone lives in a dome. Everyone works somewhere – another dome, a greenhouse, a launch pad. How do they get from one dome to another? If they work with interplanetary rockets, how do they get to work at the launch pad?

Margaret: That’s right! There’s no organic material on the Moon, and there is probably little or none on Mars, too. We’ll need to conserve, or compost, as much organic material as possible. Christopher: Mess hall activities will be centralized for efficiency and for environmental protection. Less waste – less trash. A cleaner Moon! Margaret: So, there is a cluster of domes to form a moon village. Everyone works. Everyone lives in a dome. Light rail connects them, along with electronic communications. They move from dome to dome on walkways or leapways. They skip instead of walking or running. They eat in a communal mess hall, where the serving, eating, cleaning, recycling, and composting all occur. It doesn’t sound too bad to me! Something like living on a western military base in a foreign country. Christopher: They get their stores of food from Earth, or from lunar greenhouses. They prepare their meals efficiently. As little as possible goes to waste, and ALL water is re-cycled.

Christopher: Walkways. Leapways!

Margaret: Well, what about a replicator?

Margaret: Covered leapways! If they don’t have weighted boots or slip-on magnetic soles, they’ll be skipping and leaping! …What about a light rail?

Christopher: Maybe. The technology is improving.

Christopher: Perfect. That would get you to the cafeteria, canteen–-whatever they call it. As for getting to work at a launch pad or landing site for interplanetary spaceships, they’ll probably either live nearby, sleep on site for tours of duty, or catch a bus-like rover to work. You’ve seen the rovers they use on Mars – these will just be bigger. Margaret: An important aspect of human life anywhere is the need for both solitude and communal life. Humans need both. The sleeping quarters will probably be private space, but communal space? Will there be a central dome that includes a cafeteria, space for games and movies, even a bar? Christopher: The functions inherent to a cafeteria will need to be communal to conserve time, energy, and to recycle and compost as much waste as they can. © NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

Margaret: Maybe they’ll have chocolate bars from the replicator! Hershey’s chocolate! Christopher: Well, Cadbury chocolate for the Brits, of course. Margaret: As we’ve noted before, there mustn’t be any open flames, so cooking is done in a microwave or a convection oven. On the Moon, all open flames will be dangerous indoors, and besides, they use up the oxygen! Precious oxygen. Christopher: They will perhaps have glowing logs from LEDs. Margaret: And fake bear skin rugs… vegan bear skin rugs. Christopher: A gym in one of the domes. Hiking in the mountains of the Moon. Jet packs to travel farther distances.

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Margaret: That’s an important difference compared to Mars! They’ll have ultralight planes on Mars. In fact, they already have one: Ingenuity! It’s a very thin atmosphere on Mars, but enough to carry an ultralight aloft. Christopher: The Moon has no atmosphere, so they’ll have to use jetpacks on their suits. There’s no air resistance, so they’ll zoom! Margaret: I’ve thought of one common area they’ll need – a library, or an office, a place to work with one or two others. Group privacy. Christopher: The domes will all be round. They’ll use the Moon’s own regolith to construct Add-Man domes. They’ll bring the mastic from Earth. It works like a printer, as you know. Layer by layer of regolith and mastic will be laid down over an inflatable dome from Earth. Margaret: Indeed, Add-Man, or additive manufacturing. Layer by layer, they will “print” the domes. But these are the features of the landscape and cultural hardscape. What will a day be like for a lunar resident? Christopher: Someone will get up, have something to eat in the mess hall, go to work, then eat dinner back at the mess hall, then enjoy rest or recreation. They’ll have fun with their friends. Margaret: It’s going to be expensive to get a human to the moon and support him – or her -- there. I think people are going to work 12-hour days, maybe with blocks of time off. With all that work, they’ll need to communicate with family and friends on Earth. They’ll need private space. Christopher: A person will have small sleeping quarters for privacy, a small desk, maybe a little larger for couples. A place for private communication. Margaret: Isolation. People have worried about this, but I am not so sure they will be all that isolated. If you can call grandma on Earth at will— how isolated will they be? Besides, people often group for meditation. Christopher: I hope there’s a theologian at the table along with all the planning engineers! © NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

Margaret: I think what we’re getting at is privacy for groups – not just individuals. People may want to meditate, pray, or do aerobic exercises together. Aerobics. There needs to be a space for groups. Christopher: How big a group? Margaret: Who knows? The number will grow with time. At first people will probably group by occupation. They do that on Earth. Engineers with engineers. Techies to refuel rockets, with other techies. Groups and layers of people. It’s the way people form communities. They come together. Christopher: I think that the early Artemis group at the South Pole is going to be like crew on ISS, or like a group at the South Pole of Earth. One captain, period. One head. And early on, they’ll still be taking directions from Earth. They won’t be completely independent. They can’t be. They need supplies— and directions--from Earth. Margaret: I think the initial lingua franca will be English, don’t you? Christopher: Yes, it’s already the language of air transportation and communication. But tell me, you’re an anthropologist, when does it change from “crew” to “community”? When does a lunar culture begin? Margaret: The roots are in the people first there. They will create the first birthday rituals, the first observances of Christmas, the first gift-giving and festival occasions. They will make it up as they go. Christopher: Remember, we wrote in our chapter about the first meal on the Moon at the Sea of Tranquility, long ago: bacon squares, peaches, sugar cookie cubes, pineapple grapefruit drink and coffee. [1] Not bad! Margaret: Perhaps they will immortalize that meal, or versions of it, in a Moon-wide lunar festival. Christopher: We were asked about sustainability. We mentioned conserving waste and compost in meal preparation. What about the conservation of larger resources, management of waste, and recycling.

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Margaret: This is going to take a great deal of learning. Conservation principles will have to be taught again and again to each new crew member on the Moon, until it’s integrated fully into their culture. I think that more than anything, we need crew who can learn, we need flexible learners and people who can care about the lunar environment. Managing construction mess is going to be important.

Christopher: Well, that introduces a whole new topic – robots! They will play an important part in helping to keep the Moon clean! We simply don’t know now how much of a role. Margaret: I guess we’ll find out! Christopher: We will find out, that’s for sure.

References: [1] Rappaport, M.B.; Szocik, K. 2021. The Human Factor in the Settlement of the Moon. Cham: Springer Publishing. [2] S. Lumbreras, S.; Pérez Grande, D. Power System Concepts for a Lunar Base. 2021. In: Rappaport, M.B., Szocik, K. Cham: Springer Publishing. Pp. 55-74.

About Christopher Corbally

About Margaret Boone Rappaport

Dr. Christopher Corbally is a research astronomer of the Vatican Observatory, having held the position of Vice Director for the Vatican Observatory Research Group in Tucson, Arizona until 2012.

Dr. Margaret Boone Rappaport is a cultural anthropologist and biologist who works in the area of human cognitive evolution. She specializes on offworld settlement and neuroplasticity in space.

Based in Tucson, he is an Adjunct Associate Astronomer at the Department of Astronomy, University of Arizona. He earned his doctorate at the University of Toronto, in 1983.

Previously, she lectured in Sociology and Anthropology at Georgetown and George Washington Universities, having completed a doctorate at the Ohio State University in 1977.

The above discussion between Corbally and Rappaport is based on The Human Factor in the Settlement of the Moon,

Chapter 20: Projections for Lunar Culture, Living, and Working: How Will We Be Different? Find out more: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3030-81388-8_20

Above: Portrait of Astronomer Christopher Corbally and Anthropologist Margaret Boone Rappaport. Credit: Christopher Corbally and Margaret Boone Rappaport. © NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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Science illustrator showcase Aaisha Muhammad

Being a bioinformatician, data scientist and scientific illustrator, Aaisha

Muhammad has a highly diverse skillset that also spans photography, digital art, web development and writing. How is it possible to pursue so many of these avenues? Perhaps being homeschooled allowed Aaisha to be more selective in what she spent her time pursuing, allowing her to follow her curiosity. This has in part led her to become an accomplished science communicator with a diversity of skills and projects. In our interview, we will soon find out more about what lies behind Aaisha’s motivations and aeclectic interests.

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Q & A - Aaisha Muhammad What it was like being home-schooled and self-taught? Being homeschooled and afterwards self-studying has allowed me to pursue my various interests as I want to, as opposed to a school system where I’d be hard-pressed for time as well as having to study the given curriculums. Homeschooling means I can skip around and study what I like and what is most likely to benefit me. Also I would not function well in the structure of schooling systems, so self-studying allows me to work in whatever way works for me, even if it is unconventional.

“One of the most consistent challenges I’ve faced with selfstudying is a diffficulty in finding help... the advantages are you get good at finding help and googling.

Aside from that, homeschooling gives a lot of freedom and generally is just so much more flexible. But I wouldn’t say it is vastly different, at least not to me as someone who is homeschooled from the beginning.

Do you think your background has presented you unique challenges or advantages? One of the most consistent challenges I’ve faced with self-studying is a difficulty in finding help. Most of what I’ve learnt has been through courses and resources that aren’t that popular, and all of them online – this means a generally smaller pool of active participants to ask for help if you get stuck anywhere, and often little to no support from the providers of the content. This can make studying a bit more challenging because you have to figure out a lot more on your own. The advantages are you get good at finding help and googling. This might not even be specific to selfstudying, but generally working on solo-projects and the like improves research skills a lot.

How do you balance being a bioinformatician, data scientist, scientific illustrator, photographer and digital artist, in addition to a hobbyist web developer and writer? With a lot of chaos and fumbling around! Seriously though, I work in a bit of a chaotic manner. I don’t function very well with rigid timetables so I just give myself deadlines that I try my best to fulfil, and then © NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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work on whatever project/topic is the most inviting at the time. So long as I have time before my deadlines, I shuffle between the different things I do. This method is maybe not the most efficient but it works for me, and when I inevitably run short of predeadline time then I just grit my teeth and do whatever I am running out of time on. Mostly the pressure of ‘oh goodness - deadline’s here’ grants enough motivation and focus to get the work done in time!

Tell us about your latest scientific illustration project and please discuss a few visual examples that you’d like to share with us. One of my latest projects was an illustration of a species of phytoplankton. I picked this subject because they had a curious – to me, at least! – appearance, and very intriguing they are, for they armour themselves in shells of calcium carbonate. I painted them in an unrealistic scale, floating in the open ocean with the dazzling sun shining above. I like painting scientific art in this style – like a

Final thoughts

“I like painting scientific art in this style – like a “normal” work of art. I think it drastically increases the appeal of scientific content. “normal” work of art. I think it drastically increases the appeal of scientific content. This is a main goal of mine – to make science approachable and easy. It’s with this goal also that I started a series of mini-courses, where I present interesting scientific concepts in a social media story format, with engaging illustrations to go with simplified explanations. Previously I painted also a species of pine tree that needs fire to release its seeds from the cones in a very dramatic, story-telling fashion that I felt worked with the piece but was maybe a bit bold for a ‘scientific illustration’, but it’s the style I like working in best.

We can see from Aaisha’s painted illustration of a species of phytoplankton that she is not only a talnted artist. Like many of the science artists at NatureVolve, Aaisha sees art as a means to make science more appealing, approachable and engaging. Arguably, she works in an unconventional way, having followed her interests outside of constraints imposed by school systems while allowing her to work in her own way according to deadlines as opposed to rigid “one-size-fits-sall” timetables. This sense of freedom allows a student such as Aaisha to develop unique skills and lesser-known avenues of knowledge, so that she may communicate science in diverse ways for all.

Bio

Links

Aaisha Muhammad is a 17-year-old Muslim, who self-studied bioinformatics, data science, scientific illustration, and is currently studying machine learning. She loves presenting science in an approachable way and making appealing art for science communication. In her free time Aaisha does photography, makes digital art, writes, and reads.

Web: https://aaishamuhammad.co.za

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ ZealousMushroom/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZealousMushroom

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