Overview
Role
Team
- Prof. Paul Parsons
- Phd. Zixu Zhang
- UG. Jackson Murray
Undergraduate,
UX Research Assistant
Project Description
Tasked with combatting the Grand Challenge of Space Exploration, RETHi was established to learn, research, and advance knowledge about for future space exploration, life, and technology.
Project Timeline
RETH Institute received a $15 million grant from NASA for research between 2019 - 2024.
My Goals
Be a sponge! Contribute to the team as much as possible.
Experience unique opportunities. (Interviewing, Networking, Attending Conferences, Flight Simulators, etc.)
Advance space design knowledge!
Scope
The future of space exploration will encounter unprecedented challenges and situations differing in scope from previous space missions. Unlike in the past, the crew's reliance on Mission Control will be limited for reinforcement and decision-making. Realistic scenarios, such as life on Mars and the voyage to Mars, lead to many untouched design opportunities for technology, experiences, and displays, for future space exploration.
The three main domain focuses are supporting the astronauts through resilience, awareness, and robotics. Drawing upon relevant scholarship and literature (HCI, Engineering, Psychology, NASA, etc.), our team is crafting ideas about the role of design in supporting the future astronaut and mission control experience.
Current Progress and Results
Publications:
Currently, our team has published one paper with hopes of publishing more.
In April of 2022, our team wrote and published a paper at CHI (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems) suggesting that adaptive performance can be used as a generative theory for problem and solution framing in design.
CHI is a āpremier international conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). CHI annually brings together researchers and practitioners from all over the world and from diverse cultures, backgrounds, and positionalities, who have as an overarching goal to make the world a better place with interactive digital technologies.ā
Figure 1.1 - Publication at SpaceCHI about Future Human Factors Space Exploration.
Interview Study:
Goal - The focus of this interview study is to learn about expert perspectives and experiences to draw more data on how ISS flight controllers and astronauts respond and adapt to anomalies using situational awareness from displays to provide suggestions for future Mars challenges.
Our team has interviewed 23 expert participants and collected over 45+ hours of data.
Figure 1.2 - A photo of myself conversing with an Anonymous Astronaut during the Interview Study.
What have I been up to?
In the past 3 years, the project has made leaps in a variety of measures featured below. From conducting research to analysis to developing habitat interfaces, Iād be happy to discuss any of my contributions to this process.
Experience Takeaways
A passion to work on complex systems and advocate for users.
I found joy in learning how to navigate the complexity and uncertainty in these systems. Through the project, I was able to meet many intelligent minds. When asking probing questions (about the challenges we will need to overcome), their novel ideas inspired me. It was incredible to hear about many of their experiences. I'd love to learn more about working and researching in this domain.
Interest to pursue further higher education.
While learning under my professor and Ph.D. team member, I've seen this project kindle a curiosity for in-depth investigation into complex systems. The opportunity to pursue higher education would open more doors for research opportunities and specialization, enabling me to increase my chances of contributing to cutting-edge knowledge in various domains.
