space Archives - Digilah

Written by : Science Centre Singapore on Digilah (Tech Thought Leadership)

Why is spacesuit technology important?

A spacesuit protects astronauts from those extreme temperatures. Spacesuits supply astronauts with oxygen to breathe while they are in the vacuum of space.

The suits contain water to drink during spacewalks. They protect astronauts from being injured from impacts of small bits of space dust.

Space Suit functions

Astronauts need to wear a spacesuit with various functions to protect themselves from numerous elements of the harsh environment, such as vacuum, heat and infrared radiation.

Space suits are one of the most technologically advanced pieces of equipment designed for humans. These suits allow astronauts to perform spacewalks and carry out various tasks in the harsh environment of space.

Some high tech technologies go into creating a space suit.

Life Support Systems

The most critical component of a spacesuit is its life support system. It provides the astronaut with oxygen, regulates temperature, and removes carbon dioxide. This system is essential for survival in the vacuum of space where there is no air to breathe.

Joint Mobility

The spacesuit’s mobility joints are specially designed to allow astronauts to move freely and perform various tasks in space. These joints are made of metal bellows that are flexible and allow for a full range of motion.

Protective Layering

Spacesuits are made of multiple layers of materials to protect the astronaut from extreme temperatures, micrometeoroids, and other hazards in space.

The outer layer is made of a tough material like Nomex or Kevlar, while the inner layer is made of a soft material that is comfortable to wear and helps regulate temperature.

Water Cooling and Ventilation System

Spacesuits are equipped with a complex water cooling and ventilation system that helps regulate the astronaut’s body temperature and keep them comfortable during spacewalks.

This system circulates water through tubes in the suit, which cools the body and removes excess heat, preventing overheating and fatigue.

Internal fire extinguisher

Even though spacesuits are built to be fire resistant, spacesuits are equipped with a built-in fire extinguisher to ensure the safety of astronauts during spacewalks.

In the unlikely event of a fire inside the spacesuit, the fire extinguisher provides a safe and quick way to extinguish the flames and prevent further damage.

The use of a fire extinguisher in a spacesuit is a last resort measure and should only be used in extreme circumstances.

Sinus pressure

Just like how we feel during a flight or while taking a fast elevator, astronauts will experience sinus pressure as well.

While wearing the bulky suit during a spacewalk, astronauts have a special foam pad call a Valsalva device to aid them from the pressure build-up in their nasal passage and ears.

To perform the Valsalva maneuver while wearing a spacesuit, the astronaut must exhale against a closed glottis while keeping their mouth and nose closed.

This can be achieved by holding their breath and bearing down, as if they were trying to defecate or lift a heavy object.

The space itch is real!

(This thought was first published on Science Centre Singapore Blog)

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Metaverse “The Dream Catcher”

Written by Anuradha Lal on Digilah (Tech Thought Leadership)

Can the meta verse catch our imagination and make it so immersive as a real dream?

I am not a psychologist or a physicist….

Everyone is talking about “The METAVERSE”. Is this really a new concept?

…..I am not a psychologist or a physicist (thank God for that! my brain would explode with the heavy formulas!), though I wish I was one! to be able to connect the emerging new reality of the metaverse to both these fundamental sciences of psychology and quantum physics. However, I will be the end user of the metaverse and I understand a decent amount of technology that goes into creating this new universe called metaverse.

Here is how I understand the need of having a metaverse and envision a future with the metaverse impacting the 7 Bn humans on this planet.

The human mind always wanders to things beyond their physical location and space. So, we have dreams. Nature supported this concept as homo sapiens evolved. Imagination in our sub conscious mind or our wakeful state is what makes us humans different from other species.

We have always tried to capture this need of imagination and transporting ourselves into another world.

The 2 basic needs of the human mind being:

To conquer time
To transport ourselves into another time and location = gather experiences

So how I see the meta verse is an evolution of the human imagination with the innovation of 3D, 4D, 4D…. technology. Some call it Web 3.0

The first new verse had started with a camera and a picture taken when we wanted to capture time. But then as the then technology evolved to video cameras, we created 2 hours of immersing ourselves, our emotions in another world which led to the making of films.

Of course, films were not customised to each one of us. Yes, the gaming industry evolved to more customised simulations for example war games, which should have led to less wars!, as more boys and men imagined and satiated their imagination of shooting others and planes!! But this unfortunately could not stop wars even in the 21^st century. However a teenage boy with no legs can play an immersive football game and score goals and feel the rush of adrenaline through him and make him a winner!

So now with the metaverse every individual can realise their own head space. The question is “Can we still beat nature’s 30 sec film called “DREAM”?” Maybe.

The meta verse is just the start, where we want to imagine not only while sleeping but also when awake!

The Metaverse consists of a 3D virtual world where users interact with various spaces and virtual reality components using digital avatars. We all know large IT companies, such as Facebook and Microsoft are busy exploiting its potential. We will soon see notions of 3D virtual reality in metaverse projects embodied in a range of spheres — from a virtual land market to an office space. Some of the short term use cases of this are gaming, remote work environment in virtual spaces, tourism, education, fashion, medicine, shopping, real estate etc.

The marketers are the first customers of this extended reality. There are big brands, big social media platforms who want to own this imagination of the human mind and sell more, easily giving their customers a real experience of what their products, services look like. Tickling the human imagination with more customised rooms, products, and services.

Yes, Metaverse has made it to the top contenders of the most trending key words of 2021. Metaverse is here to offer a parallel virtual universe to all of us. The Metaverse opens a whole new world of economic prospects, from virtual music events to NFT-based products, to name a few.

So, will “METAVERSE” just stop with being another commercial success for big brands and companies or will we be able to really change human lives with this immersive and imaginative technology.

Before I start dreaming future use cases of this new reality, a question that comes to my mind is how will the metaverse look in a non IOT world. Can it function in a non IOT world bringing back the 2 fundamental sciences of psychology and quantum physics together? along with our human desire to conquer time and transport ourselves into a different or unknown arena.

Will we be able to capture the Theory of quantum physics in which an infinite number of ever-growing alternate realities are created by our choices. In any alternate reality any choice that is made creates universes where each choice is explored.

Will we be able to catch “THE DREAM” as best as nature has been doing it for us? in 30 sec sleep mode, without the help of IOT!

Here I want to explore a life changing use case of the meta verse which can change the world 100 years from now. Will the Metaverse help me be in 2 places at the same time? Can I experience an alternate life experience? Can the meta verse quench my thirst sitting in a desert without having water around me?

The Big Tech billionaires are all headed to search another verse, away from our current universe – called Earth. This new verse can be exploring another universe or another planet, or creating an imaginary verse where all our dreams, needs, desires, and wants are fulfilled at the click of a button or a count down as the space shuttle takes off!

The future of this new verse whether “meta” or “mars” is linked to our need to transport ourselves to different experiences and the need is indeed important as our life span has increased over the last century. On average we accomplish our physical responsibity of pro creation, wealth creation, productivity by age 50 and then are living upto 100 and imagining immortality! So, what do we do with our imagination from 50 to infinite life expectancy.. Let it rust!

We need to create experiences to truly enjoy life.

As I envision the new verses, meta or mars will in the future have new experiences circulate within the 7 Bn people with science and technology providing them not only imaginary but real experiences like quenching thirst sitting in a desert to the need for humans to not be born again and again to experience different life situations. It will create the power to have the same 7 Bn experience different combinations of life in the real verse and the meta verse. Guess the need to explore space may cease then!

This exploration of the new verse and the future reality comes with a great amount of responsibility on our current generation and the big tech giants. The creation of a virtual universe can pose several challenges in the coming 50 years. The metaverse will still not be a replacement for the real world but it should represent an improvement on it in every possible way. Even looking at our 30 sec dreams, the psychologists are still deciphering them. So, as we create the new universes there will be many unanswered questions passed on to the next generation. These unanswered gaps towards creating a perfect new verse must be passed on carefully, articulately, and responsibly to the future generation to not only catch but to CONTROL THE DREAM.