Recovery Capsule
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.
A more than a year long mission to Mars in a confined workspace implies a great deal of stress, a critical problem which must be addressed for the mission to be a successful social experience. The Space Recreation challenge and the housing development initiative NextSTEP-2, are NASA’s commitment with the wellbeing of its astronauts in this kind of deep space exploration. Both projects intend to guarantee space crews on extended space voyages with a healthy mind and physical experience. Since this is the ultimate object of the challenge and Mars is the goal in question, we believe that the first priority is to destine a module in the mars spaceship to all activities unrelated to work. We named this vital module "Recovery Capsule". This is our strongest contribution to the success of the Mars mission, but this suggestion goes beyond the requirements of the "Space recreation" challenge, for which we have not one but two fun games which can be played right away on any spaceship because they need almost no additional tools and they both meet the objective of interaction and aerobic training, promising to be hits of game space because they are versions of popular games which are played all around the world. The two games are: squash-pong and space-twister.
Squash-pong:
It requires two players, a stress ball and a circle with a 40cm diameter. The circle may be painted on a wall, printed on a textile or even displayed on a digital screen. The court is a specific module, preferably a 3m³ module, free of obstacles, even though it may have not so sensible equipment against the walls.
Features:
- The game starts with the serve of a player, aiming to the circle, using any part of his or her body to hit the ball. The other player responds with any part of his or her body and vice versa. The ball will remain in play as long as it bounces on the circle or on the diameter line of the circle.
- The point and serving rules may be the same as those of ping-pong or squash.
- The stress ball material should reduce the ball's speed when it bounces off the wall so that the player responding the play may reach the ball.
- The players may grab the holding bars, any equipment attached to the walls or any protuberance on the wall to have a better control of his or her body when striking the ball.
- Part of the charm of the game is that the players may be inverted relative to each other.
- The entire crew may get hooked on the game since it is a variation of two proven popular games on earth.
Space-twister:
It requires two or more teams, a digital screen and a program with a feed of images which changes randomly with the touch of a button. The screen image is divided in half: on one side the program displays a color or an object, and on the other side a body part. When the button is pressed the images on the screen change randomly.
Features:
- A player from each team gets ready for the first play. When they all agree they are ready, a player not in play presses the button (probably a key on a keyboard). The players rush to touch the color or object displayed on the screen with the required body part. The team of the player which completes the task first earns one point. The players on play get ready for the next round. After a third or maximum fifth round, a new player from each team replaces the first. When all rounds have been played by all players, the team with most points obviously wins. A second game or set may begin.
- Disagreements may arouse but the relaxed nature of the game, even if it has a competitive spirit, should not have a negative social outcome but instead add spice to the game.
- Part of the charm of the game is that the social structure of the crew, which is mostly based on formal social work codes, may be strengthened by informal playful social codes.
- The entire crew may get hooked on the game since it is a variation of a proven popular game on earth.
Integrating the importance of space recreation with the housing development initiative of NextSPACE-2, Space Games strongly suggests the inclusion of a completely dedicated module to restore the mind and body in long voyage spaceships and space stations.
Recovery Capsule
A person exposed permanently to a stressful work environment, overwhelmed by noise and packed equipment, is in high risk of falling into an unhealthy spiral of mental and physical sickness. Especially in a mission such as Mars mission, which is suspected to take more than a year: 6 months in each direction plus a month in Mars.
The recovery capsule would be the suitable room for the spaceship crew to experience an isolated environment from the working space, free of noise and visual pollution. There they would find a comfortable place to immerse in different activities not related to work; games, dancing, singing, painting, exercise routines, virtual reality experiences, social integration, relaxing activities such as meditation, yoga and reading, among others. The lack of work related equipment in the capsule would additionally allow astronauts to be more confident exploring human movement in microgravity. The capsule would also have a state of the art surround system, which could offer the experience of a natural earth ambient and the delight of music as seldom heard on earth.
Features:
- Dimensions: 4m x 3.5m x 4m
- Walls and doors should be isolated with foam and polyurethane.
- It would have minimal design to allow a calm environment, unpolluted by machine noise and free from work related equipment.
- The courts should be outlined for space games.
- All anaerobic activities to retain muscle mass and healthy heart conditions may be integrated to this module.
- The lights should have a dimmer.
- It should have flexible interior design to renovate the look of the capsule.
- Many other options may be integrated.
