Within Module 2 on Man and Machine I have added three new subsections, all associated with physiology:
– Cardiovascular
– Neurovestibular
– Musculoskeletal
I am not a life scientist and one or two of you are not either, so I have tried to give a brief overview of physiological aspects of spaceflight that are of concern for the habitat designer.
But what this also means is that you may know a lot more about these subjects than I do.
So the assignment/assessment for this week is to pick two of the three new sections and find a relatively recent related paper (journal article, reputable conference, etc). Post the two papers (or a link to the papers) into the course Drop Box.
For each of the two papers, provide me with a 1-page synopsis of the paper,
• Listing significant findings
• Demonstrating you read (and understood) more than just the abstract
• Highlighting the particular significance to human space flight
• No duplicates! If someone else posts your paper first, you have to find another one.
• Advantage to getting started early
• Evaluative factors:
– Quality of publication media
– Quality/appropriateness of paper
– Evaluation of write-up
About Me
- Gary Kitmacher
- Gary Kitmacher has worked at NASA since 1981, in the lunar lab, Shuttle program, Man-Systems Architect designing the Modules of the Space Station. His designs of lunar rovers, outposts, and Mars vehicles serve as the basis for future explorations. Mr. Kitmacher has worked extensively in the areas of payloads and space commercialization. His thesis work was a market demand study space stations. He managed the first Spacehab missions.
I posted the Articles I chose for this week's assignment on the Discussion part of webct in pdf form. I don't think posting the link here would work since a log-in and password are required to access them on-line.
ReplyDeleteOne of the advantages of this being an online class is that I can still get stuff done even while I'm in Cleveland for a PDR at Glenn!
ReplyDeleteI've found a couple of articles and will post them and the review papers ASAP.
Hey Everyone,
ReplyDeleteI just posted the reviews of my articles on webct
Jim Oberg has become something of an advocate of the "Flexible Path" option offered by the Augustine committee.
ReplyDeleteIf Congress and the President choose that route, we would definitely be forced to address the issues raised in this week's lessons!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32767421/ns/technology_and_science-space/
I have a question regarding water as a radiation shield. When water is exposed to radiation in space, what happens to the water in terms of potability? Does it become harmful if consumed by humans?
ReplyDeleteWater is used as a shield against high-energy beta particles, which are essentially just electrons and positrons. The reason you use water (or another low-density, high-hydrogen content material) is because the beta particle interactions with dense radiation shields (like lead) gives off Bremsstrahlung or "breaking" x-rays.
ReplyDeleteWith low density materials like water, the rate of deceleration of the beta particle is slower, so the secondary radiation has a longer wavelength and, thus, less penetration.
The introduction of the ionizing radiation will cause some chemical reactions in the water, such as the production of free radicals and hydrogen peroxide. Whether it affects potability simply depends on the level of exposure and the relative concentration of the byproducts.
Here's a link on the reactions themselves.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ratical.org/radiation/CNR/RIC/chp19F.html
Wow, good to know. Thanks
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's why I'm considering a design that puts the fuel tanks and the radiators for the thermal control system in a kind of annulus around the habitat.
ReplyDeleteThe example we have of a theoretical time frame for a Mars mission in the power points shows a stay on Mars of 455 days, well over a year. Is it absolutley neccesary to stay that long? I suppose it depends on the type of research being conducted, but I just wondered why 455 days was chosen. Could important info be gathered with a shorter stay...like 3-6 months? I am thinking in terms of resources that would need to be carried there and back.
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ReplyDeleteOh, and one more question: I am trying to figure out Mission duration depending on the used propulsion technology. Is anyone familiar with this here, and whether there has been any significant progress with the technology?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nasa.gov/exploration/home/antimatter_spaceship.html
Hi, isn't the main reason for this time window the changing proximity of Mars to Earth and the different trajectory approaches? The link I attached is for an article that investigates these two main approaches. I guess, 3-6 months of stay would be associated with an unfavorable constellation, therefore increasing time required for return and decreasing efficiency. Please correct me if I'm wrong..
ReplyDeletehttp://themarsjournal.org/contents/2007/0002/files/wooster_mars_2007_0002.pdf
I see...I guess that makes sense, I didn't really think of that. Thanks Marius
ReplyDeleteHey, I don't know about you, but I don't feel comfortable yet providing an outline of the vehicle design, I think I don't know enough yet about habitat considerations, propulsion technology etc. I think this forum (see below) is great to learn more about what's going on right now, and to learn about what engineering experts think regarding feasibility etc. You have to register, but I think it's a great resource ..
ReplyDeleteforum.nasaspaceflight.com
I would recommend that ya'll take a look at the following website. It was created for science fiction authors who wanted plausible spacecraft and does a decent job covering the basics of spaceship design.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.projectrho.com/rocket/index.html
It also includes some handy charts for doing back-of-the-napkin estimations for those who aren't familiar with all the math and/or orbital mechanics.
Sorry to be so late in posting this, but I was on travel for a friend's wedding this weekend. I actually ended up going into quite a bit of discussion of the iterative process involved in vehicle design in my write-up for today. If ya'll would be interested in meeting up sometime soon, I'd be more than happy to go over it with ya'll.
Wow, there is so much information, thanks! Yeah, it would be great to meet at some point soon and discuss some of this!
ReplyDeleteMy wife is on-call tonight, so I don't have any plans after work. If ya'll wanted to meet somewhere, I'd be amenable. Everyone is welcome at my house, too.
ReplyDeleteFYI
ReplyDeleteThe Mystery of Space – Conference
Crossroads Cultural Center – Houston, in collaboration with the Physics and Astronomy Department at Rice University and the Rice Space institute, will present “Knowledge is Infinite: The mystery of space,” 6:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 2, at Rice University Herzstein Hall 210 (6100 Main Street).
This conference is free and open to the public and will feature a conversation with Thomas I. Hanson, team lead for NASA's Training Division, Capt. Mark Kelly, NASA Astronaut; and Massimo Robberto, Ph.D., full scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute.
For more information, visit Crossroads Cultural Center – Houston, 713-823-2263.
How much sharing and collaboration was there between the soviets and americans regarding their space programs. I know each tried to remain secretive in their experiments and acomplishments, even though it seems they both could have benefited greatly from sharing data and information. Was there any type of sharing at all, or was each completly isolated from the other?
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that there was very little sharing until Apollo-Soyuz. Even then, there were still a lot of uncertainties on a technical level. The one exception might be sharing of scientific data that would have been open to all anyways.
ReplyDeleteMany people believe the Apollo 1 disaster could have been averted if the Russians had told us about the death of one of their own cosmonauts when he accidentally threw an alcohol swab on a hot plate in a pure oxygen environment.
This is a general question for our professor that I think all of the class would benefit from.
ReplyDeleteAre there any particular topics or sections you would recommend we study for the midterm exam? I ask because I did not expect to need to note the name and position of every person shown in the Moon Machines videos, and, thus, found myself largely unprepared for the matching portion of the most recent quiz.
yes, that was my problem too, i read the articles and watched the documentaries and thought i was ready, but i never memorized the names of everyone interviewed or mentioned briefly in the readings, it took forever to figure that out, going through all of the material once again.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know if NASA's overall idea regarding a mission to Mars would involve a larger ship orbiting Mars while a smaller one lands on the surface and houses research crew, like in the apollo lunar landings? Would a ship be able to orbit Mars for such a long time without any problems? Would it require a member of the crew to stay on the orbiting ship, or could the entire crew descend to the surface and leave the ship unattended?
ReplyDeleteIf you were to do a crew landing, that would almost certainly be the approach. There's no point in landing and relaunching all the hardware and fuel you'd need for Earth return. With automated stationkeeping, the mothership should be able to orbit unattended.
ReplyDeleteSo, what kind of rescue protocols should be considered in a Mars mission? Any kind of rescue from earth is basically impossible, and an "escape pod" would not be able to keep crew alive and be flown back to earth in a timely manner. Is escape/rescue even worth considering and spenidng money and time on?
ReplyDeleteIf your vehicle has something like a nuclear thermal rocket or VASIMR (i.e. the ability to throttle and change your trajectory mid-flight), then there are options for emergency return trajectories. You might try getting in touch with our professor's contact at Ad Astra, as I know they were looking at those sorts of things when I was a summer intern in Franklin's lab in 2000. He hasn't responded to my emails on a separate issue, though, FWIW.
ReplyDeleteIf you're using conventional rocket propulsion, though, you are limited to the departure windows proscribed by the minimum energy trajectories.
You could try to build limited rescue capability into your architecture. For example, the "cycler" architecture (like that proposed by Buzz Aldrin) uses gravity assist maneuvers to keep a series of transfer vehicles in special trajectories that correspond to the synodic period between Earth and Mars.
Each individual cycler vehicle is out away from either planet for periods of years, but the Earth/Mars transfer portions of their orbits can be as relatively short as 75 days. By timing it so that you stagger the inbound and outbound vehicles, it would be possible to transfer the crew module for an early return.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_cycler
For my own design, I've decided to investigate minimum time trajectories. With the "dusty" fission-fragment rocket for exoatmospheric propulsion, I've estimated transit times of about two weeks and done preliminary sizing that indicates the entire mass could be launched on a single Ares V heavy lift rocket. Such a vehicle would be capable of doing emergency return under its own power.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fission-fragment_rocket
This may be a stupid question. But I've been reading the literature regarding equipment such as water purification systems, waste compactors, etc. I can't seem to find answers as to the size or dimensions of these systems in order to know how big my spacecraft will end up being.
ReplyDeleteJust about everything on the Station that is designed to go in the USOS is designed to fit in one or more of the racks.
ReplyDelete