This page is referenced by:

• 1 2022-05-10T00:13:05-07:00 Microgravity Design - Ubiquitous Products 22 image_header 2022-05-12T16:44:17-07:00 Humanity has barely scratched the surface of the potential of extended microgravity. Humans living and working in space won't be able to avoid this wholly new environment and whole industries will emerge around the technology it enables.
  
  The first place we will encounter it is likely in larger orbiting space stations like the ISS. The high velocity orbit of space stations around the earth means that astronauts inside are constantly free-falling, hence they float in "zero g". However zero-g is technically a missnomer because there is always some net gravity from other planets and the sun etc. Microgravity can also come in many flavors, as achieve feelings of Mars of Moon gravity at 0.376 g and 0.16 g respectively or anything above or in between. Image growing up in a space station with constant 2g (or double that of Earth), there are certainly many unknowns about how your body will react but you will potentially adapt to be much stronger than people who grew up on Earth. 
  
  Currently, new space companies like Gravitics are developing Spin Gravity stations to launch as early as 2025, while the first ever commertial space stations (as opposed to government ones like the ISS) are being announced: Axiom Space's components for the ISS, Orbit Reef (Blue Origin + Sierra Space), Starlab (by Nanoracks) and Orbital Assembly. More humans living in space for long durations means more experiments that go beyond the carefully sanctions NASA work on the ISS. More playing and tinkering and discovering properties never before known. For example, astronaut Donald R. Pettit in 2003 decided he would shake some plastic bags of salt, sugar, and coffee grounds and see what happens. "Little did Pettit know he might be about to solve experimentally one of most perplexing paradoxes surrounding the formation of planets." As he shook the particles, within seconds they globbed together to form fractal centimeter-scale stuctures.

  Fellow astronaut Stanley G. Love (NASA/JSC) was working spacecraft communications in Mission Control in Houston, Texas when Pettit began beaming back the images. Love, whose training in planetary science involved asteroids and collisions, immediately realized the implications of this simplistic, gee-whiz demonstration. "Don!" Love exclaimed, "Do you realize you've just solved the middle stage of planetary accretion?"

  
  This is hardly the only example. Since it started experiments on the ISS itself have yielded dozens of breakthroughs. Crystals grown in space have fewer imperfections than those grown on Earth, and industry has caught on to the million dollar potential of making more perfect fiber optic cables in zero g. Startup Varda, whose goal is "building the world's first commercial zero-gravity industrial park at scale" is starting with exactly this beachhead market. 
  
  If space is the new frontier for exploration, microgravity is the new frontier for innovation. The more humans play and experiment, the more industry can pick up insights and create new space-to-earth products. CEO of Orbit Fab Daniel Faber says "soon your microwave might have a gizmo that could only be manufactured in space". 
  
  And where there is a new environment, there is exciting potential for artists and designers to add to the conversation. Projects like OK-Go's music video in zero-g pushed the boundary of filmmaking. Fine artists create spinning light sculptures on the ISS. And especially the field of product design for microgravity, which asks: what will be the ubiquitous daily items that support humans in microgravity?
  
  For one designer Edward L Howell, that means giving new purpose to our legs, which float mostly unused in zero g. What if shoes could be redesigned to serve the purpose of grappling instead of walking? His patented APE (Augmented Prehensile Extrusion) shoes would potentially help astronauts attach to thier surroundings. 
  
  
  For NASA astronaut, Donald Pettit, this means comming up with an open mouth cup--a challenge when liquids like to float spherically in zero g. 

  "The Capillary Cup is a zero-gravity cup designed by NASA astronaut Donald Pettit on the International Space Station. The product is an open drinking cup designed to be used in a microgravity environment, developed from Pettit’s desire to drink water without a bag and straw in outer space."
  
  "The first prototype, fabricated by Pettit on the International Space Station, is made of repurposed Mylar sheeting and Kapton tape. Applying the principle of capillary channel flow, he formed the cup, pinched into a teardrop shape as the fluid flows along a narrow channel to the rim for drinking."

   

  "The prototype was developed into the second version, designed by Mark Weislogel and his team at Portland State University. The cup is made out of 3D-printed food-grade plastic and has been flight-tested by NASA. The use of complex fluid dynamic geometry enhances the hydration experience that is closer to what we’re accustomed to on Earth."
  
  
  
  "Later, Pettit crafted his own handmade version of the capillary cup based on Weislogel’s design. This porcelain ceramic version is now on the International Space Station and is the first patented product invented in orbit."
  
  

  Another designer, Anna Talvi takes the approach of an an engineer + fashion designer, making garments to support humans in microgravity. 
  
  
  See full pdf here of how she explores skin stretch and strain lines to optimize the suit
  
  The emerging field of designing for microgravity is exciting and, while it seems like the field of engineering needs to figure out the technical ways to control it, I beleive it’s the opposite. Artistic experimentation has often been the most creative and pushes the boundaries of engineering and materials before engineering itself does.

  “Technological innovation by artists is nothing new .... Artists like Antonio Pollaiuolo, Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo performed rigorous analytical study, working with physicians and even dissecting corpses themselves. Their investigations surpassed much of the knowledge of anatomy taught in universities at the time, and merged anatomical with architectural concepts — such as plan, section, elevation, and perspective — producing a new vocabulary for scientific illustration” (McWilliams).

  
  Artists will be essential to discovering new ways to use the affordances provided by microgravity.