BTE Space Tag

Journey to Mars

There is a great deal of interest from national space agencies to go to the Moon and Mars. ESA wants to go to the Moon and establish a village there. NASA wants to go to Mars. Astronauts and Cosmonauts from all over the world are already living aboard the ISS. What can they do in their free time? It can’t be all about reading books or game play on computers. Think of new sports or games that could take into account the low gravity (e.g. a space lacrosse game, extreme basketball). What about real or virtual experiences involving the Apollo 11 landing site on the Moon? Or following the paths of Sojourner, Spirit or Curiosity on Mars using a form of cross-country skiing? Think of new ways for to astronauts to use their free time. To present your results develop an app that makes use of virtual reality tools.

Explanation

The main issue is that the astronauts are situated in low gravity, so we had in mind that we need to design games and exercises that can be performed in low gravity. According to our research program we found information and material of astronauts in space while they were enjoying their free time, but as we can see, they have a lot of free time, so we want to organize their free time by doing some activities. Activities where they are going to use their mind as prevention from psychological disorder, by using the mind they can enlarge creativity and creative thinking. Also our problem is referring to group and team activities, where astronauts are going to know each other better, practice their navigational skills and get better at their team work. So we created a model – a concept of an application that astronauts are going to use during their entire trip. The application itself is contained with 5 brain games that are going to help them in many ways. They will probably have free time during their trip for example to Mars, so they will have the application installed on tablets and that’s how they will use the application. The games are designed so that they won’t get tired but opposite will relax them throw fun and happy moments with the other astronauts. When it comes to the physical difficulties that the astronauts are facing we also developed an exercising plan, due to the bone-loss and the possible muscle loss. Exercise is an important part of the daily routine for astronauts aboard the station to prevent bone and muscle loss. On average, astronauts exercise two hours per day. The equipment they use is different than what we use on Earth. Lifting 200 pounds on Earth may be a lot of work. But lifting that same object in space would be much easier. Because of microgravity, it would weigh much less than 200 pounds there. That means exercise equipment needs to be specially designed for use in space so astronauts will receive the workout needed. With the physical exercises the hormone endorphins excrete more and the depression is decreasing. So with this solutions and ideas we are trying to increase the presence of happiness and physical activities and solve the problems incurred by the above mentioned reasons.

How to solve the problems (models and concepts)

Everybody can benefit from having good problem solving skills as we all encounter problems on a daily basis, some of these problems are obviously more severe or complex than others. It would be wonderful to have the ability to solve all problems efficiently and in a timely fashion without difficulty, unfortunately there is no one way in which all problems can be solved. In our case in some way we found the solutions for the problems, for astronauts living in the space and having their fun time there. We have two possible solutions for these issues and those are: psychological methods of recreation and physical methods of recreation.

Psychological methods of recreation

According to the brain methods and the continuous development in the space air we try to maintain the astronauts’ mental health in low gravity and long distances. We created a model of an application which is going to be used in Tablets in the space, purposed for the astronauts and their free time. As the brain games we proposed:

1.Commonalities and Uniquities
2.Photo Scavenger
3.Stranded on an Island
4.Reaction game
5.Twenty questions

1.-A group - team building activity which people identify common things that everyone has in common, along with interesting characteristics that are unique to a person in a group. Form a group of several people, and wright down the points into the tablet each person is going to score by guessing things typical for one person. After 5 minutes, have a spoke-person from each subgroup read their list. It can be played both by a group or individually, in both cases the one side must guess at least 2 unique things about a person. Than after 5-7 minutes, you can have each person say one of their unique things or have them a person read them one by one, having others try to guess who it was. (Again you want to go beyond the superficial, avoiding those things that people can readily see.) This is an excellent team-building activity because it promotes unity, gets people to realize that they have more in common than they first might realize. The awareness of their own unique characteristics is also beneficial in that people can feel empowered to offer the group something unique.

2.A team based scavenger hunt with a twist – bringing back digital photos (or Polaroid’s) of interesting space bodies or objects. Prepare a list of about ten, interesting of space bodies or objects and circumstances than can be captured using a camera. You could list: Stars, Planets, Asteroids, the Sun and Moon etc. The astronaut who is going to capture all the requested space objects or bodies by the challenger which could a group or an individual astronaut gets most of the points from this game. Set a time limit for the group or the one astronaut (two weeks). Instruct the team or the one astronaut to find as many things and take a picture with all the group members in the photo. When time expires have all members reconvene and present their photos along with the checklist. Award one point for each successful photo item and bonus points for extra creativity or effort. This activity is good for building team chemistry and for creative funny memories.

3.A team building activity that asks people to identify what object they would bring if they were to be stranded on a desert island. Each person discusses why they brought the object. Within groups, people decide how to improve their chances of survival by combining various objects. Is a team building activity to help people get to know each other better. You may only bring one item to the island, and you only have few minutes’ notice. Share with your group your object, why you chose it, and what you plan to do with it. After everyone has shared, instruct the groups to figure out how they can improve their chances of survival by combing the items in creative ways. Allow ten to fifteen minutes to brainstorming time, and then have each group present their ideas. Give most of the points to the winner.

4.A funny icebreaker/stationary acting game in which a person randomly chooses an event and must act out his/her reaction to this event. Based on this reaction team members try to guess what the event was. If playing this game with a very large group as an icebreaker you can also choose four or five volunteers and have them go to the front of the Space shuttle. The first step is ask players to create some events. Give each astronaut a Tablet to write down some events. Encourage creativity. After astronauts are done writing events collect the Tablets and put them in one place. Within groups choose three or four people to act for each round. As the players to randomly draw an event for the container. Without giving away what the event is, give each player 30 seconds to 1 minute to act out of reaction to the event they received. They may act out using charades rules, and they can also make noises and talk to the other actors (while staying true to their character). As players act, this should lead to funny results. When time expires the other team members attempt to guess what event each person had. If you want to keep score (optional) ward a point for each correct guess and you will be winning.
5.A guessing game in which people try to identify a personal object in twenty questions or less. The objective of twenty question is quite simple: guess the person, place or thing in twenty questions or less! This game is stationary game, and also good travelling game. Little or no movement is required. It takes five minutes per round to play. There are no preparations or special material required to play. Select one player or one person to begin one question. This person is designated as “it”. For each round this person must choose any person, place, or thing. The person can be living for example as current athlete, deceased famous person history or fictitious movie character. The place can be anywhere in the world, including creative places. The thing can be an inanimate object, animal, food, etc. Basically anything can be chosen, but try to make the selected item something that can be reasonably guest. It’s no fun to play a guessing game that is impossible to solve! After the person as chosen person, place or thing the guessing begins! The other players take turns and ask “yes” or “no” questions in an attempt to figure out what the chosen answer is. That is, the questions must be answered with simply “yes” or “no”. After each guess, keep track of the number of guesses that are used until it reaches the limit of twenty. Once 20 questions are used up, players may not ask any more questions. If a player correctly guesses the object before then, they become “it” for the next game and choose the next person, place, or thing. Otherwise the answer is revealed.

Virtual Gym

Why is it so important for astronauts to exercise while they're in space? If astronauts don't exercise, their bodies start losing bone and muscle. Bone and muscle loss mean decreased size and strength, and can reduce an astronaut's ability to do work because it makes them weak. Many astronauts spend weeks or even months in space at a time. Astronauts have ‘flight planners’ back on Earth that help to schedule time to exercise throughout their days in space. Even though they’re inside a shuttle, exercise is still an extremely vital part of their routine in order to stay healthy and fit. Exercise is a great stress-reliever and relaxation tactic, which can be extremely valuable when given the job responsibilities of an astronaut. While we all know that exercise can keep us healthy, for astronauts, it’s even more important. About a year ago, a medical study found that a proper, balanced diet and plenty of exercise can actually help protect an astronaut’s bones. Weight lifting machines in space don’t really weigh anything, but they still create resistance and allow an astronaut to gain muscle. Some astronauts were ‘lifting’ as much as 600 pounds of weight while in space! Previously, astronauts were found to suffer a great deal of bone-density loss once taking flight. Fortunately, this type of exercising can help prevent that! Weakened astronauts would be less able to do tasks while in space. Also, if there were an emergency, the astronauts would need to be in good shape to get out of the Space Shuttle or Space Station quickly. Once they land on Earth, weakened muscles and bones would make walking difficult. Male astronaut exercising with portable CD player and headphones Muscle can be built back up with therapy. But lost bone is not as easy to get back.

Solutions

To fix all this inconvenience our team have created an application model that is supported in Android.

It is consistent of mix of solutions that would help to solve the issues related with the challenge we faced. The Space Recreation challenge is one of the common problems for the astronauts, so our group created a scheme of activities for the astronauts. They can use them to stimulate their brain and their body, as like as using the virtual gym and the gym equipment which are embedded in the Space Shuttle. First solution that our team create is the virtual gym which helps astronauts to entrain their body and to prevent from muscle and bone loss which is happening in the Space Shuttle during low gravity. Astronauts sometimes develop Space Adaptation Syndrome -- disruption of the vestibular system that controls a person's balance, with symptoms similar to that of motion sickness, and even visual illusion or anomalies, Pawelczyk said. "It would not be safe if the pilot or other crew members began experiencing something like this during the landing process," he said. We try to explain how the gym equipment can be fixed in the Space Shuttle and be easy to use without causing any difficulties in the vent. Body training helps to secretes the endorphin, the hormone for happiness and prevent the astronauts from depression which is a common occurrence. The second solution is brain developing, where astronauts have games and they need to use their mind, imagination and visualization. By games their brain is activated and think less for the Earth and their families, so they use the free time for some kind of recreation. According with this solutions we create a model of an application for Tablet which is going to be useful for the astronauts to count their point as individuals or as group team. By the application, we also create a website where astronauts can see their points and play from the computer also. The points of the astronauts’ game can be seen also from the Earth, by people who follow them in the Space and who wants to see their travelling to Mars.

Resources Used