schneiderism

Almost exactly 40 years ago in 1969 the world watched with excitement and anxiety as the Saturn V rocket of Apollo 11 shot skyward from Kennedy Space Center. The launch of this rocket was the first step in Apollo 11’s mission of putting NASA astronauts on the Moon, the commitment of a nation to deliver on President Kennedy’s call to do so not eight years previously in 1961. Obviously, this endeavor was incredibly risky, and the astronauts knew very well that there was a significant reality that they would never return. The entire world knew this, too. And yet, we sent them, and they went willingly.

I was born in January of that year, and was almost six months old when Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong would conduct the first ever moonwalk. Obviously, I cannot remember the event, but this single human achievement has played an enormous role, and been of huge influence, on my entire life. It is exciting to be celebrating the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11, and I am amazed at how absolutely relevant this achievement still is. I will spare you the history lesson, as there is an abundance of these seemingly everywhere. I will say, though, that it is interesting how things have developed since this historic moment.

Not Yet Four Days Ago.

In a case of either appropriate or ironic timing, depending on your perspective, NASA launched Space Shuttle mission STS-127 on July 15th after several delays. The Space Shuttle has been an important program for NASA, and for all of us, really, but in the shadow of the achievements reached by the thousands of people who were part of the effort to put humans on the moon you cannot help but feel that, for NASA, time has gone backwards. Regardless, the video below of the launch of STS-127 is incredible, and I am pleased that we are still sending brave people into space to help us learn, dream, and explore, even if they never actually leave Earth’s orbit.

I was pretty excited to read Designing For Space at Core77 earlier this week, space exploration and NASA’s latest moon program being large on my personal interest radar. In this piece, Core77 looks at the addition of an industrial design team to the group developing the prototype for the pressurized lunar rover pictured above, a group that appear to exude that “I’ve landed my dream job, I work for NASA” vibe.  NASA has not previously employed an industrial design focus in its efforts, so this is a recent change that appears to already be benefiting the program in a multitude of ways. At NASA, industrial design has previously been relegated to addressing small ergonomic challenges with NASA not having a formal design group at all, the engineers being considered the “designers.” In fact, this industrial design team falls under a larger human factors group. Whatever works to improve the human/machine interface, performance, and user experience.

Part of the Core77 piece is the interview below with team member Evan Twyford (who graduated from RISD in 2005) where he explains their approach to designing the view area of the lunar rover’s cockpit: