design

--- Pebblerock Design Co wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> My apologies if this is of topic.

We may need games to play in a space settlement.

> I'm a 2nd Product Design Student in Scotland and have have recently been
> given a joint project with an interior designer from NASA. I'm in need of
> some assistance/feedback in a number of areas and thought you's could help.
>
> My brief is to design a game for to or more astronauts. However there are a
> number of factors that will affect my final design:
>
> The crew is multinational, but all speak and read english
> They all have differing abilities
> The game must be benificial to the crew in either physically or mentally
> They're on mission to mars. Its takes 5 year to get there,

Isn't that a bit long for a Mars Mission even using Chemical rockets?

> The game is intended to alleviate boredom, stress, being in a confined
> spavce for a length of time,etc,etc
>
> Some questions i need answered
>
> 1. What are safe materials to use?

It really depends on what you need for the game. Although padded materials
would be a good choice.

> 2. What sort of mental condition are astronaust in during a mission?

It would depend on the length of the mission and environmental factors of the
craft. For long term missions like Mars they are going to be bored, homesick
and probably stressed although the astronaughts are very carefully chosen so
that they get people who aren't going to be a problem on the mission.

> 3. What are lauch environments like? gravitional forces, vibration

About 3 or 4 g for most manned rockets, unammend can get up to 10. Vibration
can be pretty bad with some rockets and almost non-existant with others.

> 4. How are things powered in space. I know of solar power, but nothing else

Nuclear is used for space probes going to the outer-planet and some satellites
orbiting earth as well as the Viking and Pathfinder landers and the science
instruments left behind by Apollo.

Batteries and Fuel Cells have been used to power spacecraft. Batteries are
usually used on solar powered craft to provide power when the craft is in the
dark. Fuel Cells are used on short duration missions like Apollo to provide
power. Neither of these are enough on long term missions although they can
provide extra power to supplement Solar or Nuclear if needed and serve as
backup power for a short time (enough to get the main power system back,
hopefully).

Mars Missions would probably be nuclear powered but solar with high capacity
low memory batteries is a possibility. Fuel cells can be ruled out because
they don't provide the power for long enough.