The seven principles of Universal Design can be directly applied to elements sought in the aerospace industry with respect to the present air travel industry and the future space travel potential.

The space flight environment is characterized by confinement, reduced mobility and lifestyle, temperature extremes, microgravity, solar and galactic cosmic radiation, lack of atmospheric pressure, and a lifelessness that is under-stimulating to the human being. These factors induce a host of physiological, biomedical and environmental stressors to flight crews. The effects of such stressors and the roles played by the behavioural sciences and life sciences and systems can mitigate the stressors, and are substantial when they pertain to sustaining perception and human performance.

Taking it all to the next stage, currently, NASA research involves experiments in the growth ofplant materials and their benefits as food crops grown in reduced atmospheric pressures. Their goal is to reduce the time and engineering costs of missions through the creation of sustainable, life-support systems that will provide a food supply. What is missing is the relationship that the human being will have relative to their interaction with the plant material.

Donna does research and writes about space horticulture Given that Mars normally has clear skies (except for the occasional dust storm) the net amount of light available to plants on Mars may well be better – and more reliable – than available in the most optimal agricultural regions.

Studies of plants and their responses to gravity and the space environment have concentrated on three main themes. The first is space horticulture, the study of how to grow plants successfully in space, either for experimental purposes or for human consumption. The second is the necessity of gravity, or whether there is any facet of a plant’s growth, development, and metabolism that is impaired if there is no gravity. Finally, their response to the direction of gravity or a gravity vector, how do plants respond specifically and if they alter their pattern of growth and development.

The fourth area of research which Donna is helping to pioneer is the therapeutic benefit of space horticulture. Anecdotes and excerpts from the Astronaut’s comments, diaries and reports, indicate that the plant experiments where eagerly looked forward to as part of their routine work activities.

The images here reflect the vision that Donna has had since high school when she received an Award of Merit from NASA on the design of an environmental habitat which included edible plant material and the ergonomic design of a space capsule to include plants. The year was 1968.

Donna does research and writes about space horticulture. Given that Mars normally has clear skies (except the occasional dust storm) the net amount of light available to plants on Mars may well be better – and more reliable – than available in the most optimal agricultural regions on Earth. A close approximation of Mars light levels is a greenhouse on Earth whose outside is in need of a good cleaning. Earth and Mars have nearly identical axial inclinations with respect to the sun (23.5 Vs 25 degrees) and days of almost identical length (24.0 Vs 24.7 hours) such that plants used to seasonal and daily light cycles will have little problem adapting to Mars.

Human Factor issues are the root cause in over 80% of the aviation incidents. Aviation occurrences decrease customer confidence along with directly and indirectly increasing costs. Each organization can and is responsible for creating a safe and informed corporate safety culture. In doing so, the prepared organization will develop an effective safety management system. Human factors research can help with the preliminary stages of evaluating the
effectiveness of a human factors based safety policy. Such work would include assisting with the assessment procedures of an inhouse safety management system and the designing of an inhouse training schedule which increases an employee’s awareness of Human Factors and encourages the employee to proactively take prevention and awareness in the workplace to the next level as they work within their team and department.

Human factors include:

• Extreme fatigue which leads to loss of precision, dexterity, reaction time
• Extreme stress, fear, violence, withdrawal, limited higher performance
• Attitude shifts, impulsivity, questioning authority, reduced motivation, increased motivation
• Reduced communication, breakdown, empathy, assumption, memory loss, dissociation, greater assimilation, better association
• Tolerance for error, managing risks and hazards
• Balance, posture adjustments
• Documentation and processing, logic approaches, cognition processes
• Stamina, fithess measures

Donna Rodman worked in the Aerospace industry for an international company engaged in helicopter overhauls and new design. Before firmly entering the profession of landscape architecture, Donna was identified and acknowledged for her potential as an aerospace designer. She can provide highly detailed AutoCAD drawings, either from basic sketches or from the actual parts.