The journey of a lung cell into space and back.
How our bodies react to living and traveling in space.
Context
CIRiS (Center of Multidisciplinary Space Research) in Norway, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency) worked together with Inventas, design and engineering agency, to create best possible incubator for lung cell harvesting. The incubator with the cells is to be sent to the International Space Station, researched there by astronauts and sent back to Earth for further studies.
The context of the project brought us to a completely new framework and we had to consider things such as the maximum volume of the air-liquid covered cell culture incubator, lack of gravity and time astronauts have available for cell harvesting in their, defined to the nearest minute, daily schedule. The design had to provide for a model that best mimics real «lungs» and is robust to last over 2 years in extraordinary conditions.
Project goal
The goal for CIRiS, 3DBM (three-dimensional harvesting of the Bronchial Mucosa cells) -project was to research and analyze lung cell behavior in space in order to scan possible changes that might occur when staying long periods of time in a weightless state, exposed to various types of radiation. This information is valuable when researching the possible effects of space travel to human body.
In order to do this, a safe and reliable incubator for lung cell culture harvesting had to be developed. This meant a physical product that can hold right environment for the cells, allows user friendly and fast nutrition intakes given by astronauts and in the end freezing of the cells for the return transport.
Below: Steps taken from the research and preliminary design consept phase to the start of the critical design development.
Process
In order to answer the specifications in the best possible way we mapped out the whole journey of a lung cell, from its first day in the incubator, shooting up with a rocket, its life at the space station and again journey back to the research centers table for post mission review. This was also the part of the project of which I was responsible for. We worked together to find out the biggest risks and failure points, both scientific and economic ones, to avoid and solve them. As well as to understand people and resources connected to the journey.
For us this was naturally a big product design challenge in a new, unknown environment. My role in the project was to help the development team in the beginning of the process to map and define the problem space(s), validate the design brief specifications and inspire information sharing between ours and client’s team. To succeed, it was vital to have a common understanding of the limitations, goals and possibilities and get familiarized with the background research.
Key takeaways
Yes, travelling to the International Space Station had been the best. But we got as close as we could in Norway by visiting experts, researchers and laboratories they work at and where they communicate to the space station. This was definitely one of my strangest projects and I still feel exited to have been able to contribute. Still, whether on Earth or space, the methods of experience design were adjustable to the context and provided clarity, overview and base for ideation.
Below: Pictures from the “lung cells journey” workshop, where we mapped out the vital touch points together with CIRiS.
