Human Performance in Space

For three weeks here in Montreal it was Department time at SSP14. Participants chose from either Space Sciences, Policy, Economics & Law, Space Engineering, Space Applications and my Department Human Performance in Space. During these few weeks they attended the Departmental Activities that have been planned for the past few months. 

My Department Activities included a variety of professional visits, visiting lecturers and workshops that enriched the lecture material given at the start of the program. As the Teaching Associate for Human Performance in Space, I had the chance to work alongside some fantastic visiting lecturers and participants!

 The first Departmental Activity was a Neuroscience Workshop. Participants used neuroscience equipment flown onboard the Shuttle that was utilised for measuring disturbances in spatial orientation (posture, eye moments, cognition) - typical in astronauts after returning to Earth. It was pretty fun to watch everyone try to write their names whilst wearing inverted mirrored goggles :)

HPS also visited the PERFORM Centre - a research-driven facility with state-of-the-art equipment and ultra-modern laboratories and suites. We were able to see experiments take place in the Functional Assessment Lab and Cardiopulmonary Suite.

Last year's TA for HPS, Ana Diaz visited the Department and gave an interesting workshop on Spacesuit Design.

 

She brought along some sample spacesuits from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - including the famous Biosuit which I'm posing with below.

The nearby Cosmodome in Laval provided hours of fun. The space centre has three different virtual missions that include challenges such as testing piloting abilities and collaborating with crew members to construct the International Space Station (ISS). 

As the Human Performance in Space Department, we had some astronauts visit us including Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronauts Bob Thirsk, David Saint-Jacques and the first Korean astronaut Soyeon-Yi. This in turn led to a astronaut selfie with my friend Hugo - an opportunity too good to miss at space school :)

Bob Thirsk and David Saint-Jacques ran a workshop on Space Scenarios that I devised with help from Bob. Participants spent time imagining themselves in different real-life space situations such as a hard-working yet isolating crew member or a trajectory occurring back on Earth and we discussed potential outcomes of these. It was interesting to put ourselves in the shoes of an astronaut orbiting above the Earth.

Soyeon-Yi took part in the annual Space Studies Program astronaut panel the night before. This was the first year that the panel was all-female! One small step for women and one giant step for gender equality :)

The last week of Departmental Activities included a visit to the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the Montreal Biodome.

We visited the headquarters of CSA and saw the Canadarm training facilities as well as observing mission deployment using a Juno rover prototype in the outdoor Mars yard. The rover was controlled via remote tele-operation from the ExDOC control centre.

The penultimate Departmental Activity took us to the Biodome - the 'house of life' in the heart of the city. Its 5 enclosed ecosystems are a great way to learn about life support systems in space. Animals and plants from across the world are housed here including the adorable sloths and penguins (my favourites)!

The last Departmental Activity was Project Presentation Day. Participants in my Department had been working on a Human Performance in Space project for the past 2 weeks. With topics ranging from embryonic development in space to the influence of plants on humans in space, the talks were very insightful and I loved hearing such interesting presentations from everyone. Below is a presentation on a project that I proposed - Creative Communication of HPS. I was very impressed with the inspiring results of the research done by Ariane and Akane - the wonderful participants that chose my topic :)

Afterwards, we treated everyone to a surprise party complete with balloons, cake and snacks! Always a great combination. As a thank you for my work as their TA, the participants got me a cute teddy and flowers :) I miss my HPS-ers already!

 

Following the end of Department time, Alumni Weekend was upon us here at SSP14. Every summer, International Space University alumni from across the globe attend this weekend wherever that year's summer program is taking place. Below is a photo of alumni from the year that I did SSP in Florida - SSP12  :)

The annual Space Masquerade Ball and Alumni Vs Participant football match also takes place during Alumni weekend. There's a costume competition and this year's prize went to a group that collectively dressed up as the International Space Station! Cultural night was also incredible this weekend since it was Canada's turn - they put on a great show!

Right now we're in the middle of Team Project work. It's pretty hectic with report writing, editing and deadlines but the end of SSP will be upon us next week as Week 9 arrives and we will start to fly back to our respective corners of the world. SSP has once again ended too soon -my next blog post will include some of the highlights of SSP14 so that I can relive the program through memories of the summer.

-Nikita

*Photo Credits: Hugo Wagner

Mont Tremblant

Another weekend here in Canada usually means another nearby city to explore. And this time, I ventured north of Montréal with some friends to Mont Treblant. 

A sleepy ski-resort in the Laurentian mountains of Quebec, the city is beautiful sans snow. With the blazing summer sun, picturesque lake and artificial beach, it was hard to imagine the place as a snow-capped ski resort in the winter months!

 

 

 We arrived on the weekend of the International Jazz Festival - which made for a relaxing backdrop as we spent our time on the beach, by the lake and generally taking some time out from our very busy schedules at the International Space University's Space Studies Program in Montréal. 

 

We stayed in this cute, family-owned B & B. The owner made us the best French toast I've had and I of course drowned it in Maple Syrup -I'm addicted to the stuff now and even take it in my coffee!

 The highlight of the weekend had to be riding a horse for the very first time. I know, how have I lived the past 24 years of my life and never been on a horse? I get that a lot! Last Sunday morning we toured the hills of Mont Treblant from on top of some very large horses. As a  relatively small person, this was pretty daunting - but I'm glad I finally did it - even if my horse Trixie didn't want to listen to me!

 

 Me and Trixie - we had some ups and downs.

After we were done pretending to be cowboys and cowgirls we spent the afternoon by the Mont Treblant lake before driving only 1 hour and a half home to Montréal. 

It's great to be back and in the middle of Department Activities (DA's). My department, Human Performance in Space (HPS) is going well so far. Once DA time is over next week I'll be sure to write a blog post about space life in the HPS Department and at SSP14 - but for now I'm off to get some well-needed rest (ISU - also is known as the Insufficient Sleep University)!

-Nikita

Québec City

Spending the summer in Montreal means that I'm pretty close to some amazing cities. One of which being Québec City. Last weekend some friends and I drove 2 and a half hours north of Montreal to the beautiful capital city of the province of Québec.

The aptly named city is the oldest European settlement in North America. Winding cobblestone roads are the norm here, so much so that it's easy to forget you're in Canada and feel as though you're strolling the streets of Paris. 

This street in particular reminded me of the Parisian Montmartre. A famed tourist spot - I was told I couldn't leave Québec City without taking a photo here. 

Montmorency Falls was by far the highlight of the trip. The stunning waterfall flows on the Montmorency River and is 30 metres higher than Niagara Falls. We walked up a winding staircase beside it as apposed to taking the cable car - a decision I at first was hesitant about but the views were totally worth it :)

We got pretty up close and personal with the waterfall in this shot! It's incredible being so close to such a powerful force of nature such as this.

This area of Québec City is called the Old Port.  What appears to be a castle or a palace in the first photo is in fact a hotel. Le Château Frontenac was built in 1893 and is said to be the most photographed hotel in the world. It certainly is impressive, as are the views from the pier looking out across the Fleuve Saint-Laurent. 

It was a wonderfully warm weekend in Quebec and a great break from the busy SSP schedule. We've had the opportunity to attend some very interesting panels and events so far and I will write a blog post on SSP life so far very soon :)

Nikita

Geosciences Column: Meshing models with the small-scale ocean

Written for the European Geosciences Union (EGU) on June 12th 2014.

The latest Geosciences Column is brought to you by Nikita Marwaha, who explains how a new generation of marine models is letting scientists open up the oceans. The new technique, described in Ocean Science, reveals what’s happening to ocean chemistry and biology at scales that are often hard to model…

Diving into the depths of the ocean without getting your feet wet is possible through biogeochemical modelling – a method used by scientists in order to study the ocean’s living systems. These simulated oceans are a means of understanding the role of underwater habitats and how they evolve over time. Covering nutrients, chlorophyll concentrations, marine plants, acidification, sea-ice coverage and flows, such modelling is an important tool used to explore the diverse field of marine biogeochemistry.

Barents Sea plankton bloom: sub-mesoscale flows may be responsible for the twisted, turquoise contours of this bloom (Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC)

There is one outstanding problem with this technique though, as the very-small scale or sub-mesoscale marine processes are not well represented in global ocean models. Sub-mesoscale interactions take place on a scale so small, that computational models are unable to resolve them. Short for sub-medium (or ‘sub- meso’) length flows – the smaller flows in question are on the scale of 1-10 km. They are difficult to measure and observe, but their effects are seen in satellite imagery as they twist and turn beautiful blooms of marine algae.

Sub-mesoscale phenomena play a significant role in vertical nutrient supply – the vertical transfer of nutrients from nutrient-rich deep waters to light-rich surface waters where plankton photosynthesise. This is a major area of interest since the growth of marine plants is limited by this ‘two-layered ocean’ dilemma. But the ocean is partially able to overcome this, which is where sub-mesoscale flows come in. Sub-mesoscale flows are important in regions with large temperature differences over short distances – when colder, heavier water flows beneath warmer, lighter water. This movement brings nutrient-rich water up to the light-rich surface. Therefore, accurately modelling these important small-scale processes is vital to studying their effect on ocean life.

Global chlorophyll concentration: red and green areas indicate a high level or growth, whereas blue areas have much less phytoplankton. (Credit: SeaWiFS Project)

A group of scientists, led by Imperial College’s Jon Hill, probes the technique of biogeochemical ocean modelling and the issue of studying sub-mesoscale processes in a paper recently published in the EGU journal Ocean Science.  Rather than simply increasing the resolution of the models, the team suggests a novel method – utilising recent advances in adaptive mesh computational techniques. This simulates ocean biogeochemical behavior on a vertically adaptive computational mesh – a method of numerically analysing complex processes using a computer simulation.

What makes it adaptive? The mesh changes in response to the biogeochemical and physical state of the system throughout the simulation.

Their model is able to reproduce the general physical and biological behavior seen at three ocean stations (India, Papa and Bermuda), but two case studies really showcase this method’s potential: observing the dynamics of chlorophyll at Bermuda and assessing the sinking detritus at Papa. The team changed the adaptivity metric used to determine the varying mesh sizes and in both instances. The technique suitably determined the mesh sizes required to calculate these sub-mesoscale processes. This suggests that the use of adaptive mesh technology may offer future utility as a technique for simulating seasonal or transient biogeochemical behavior at high vertical resolution – whilst minimising the number of elements in the mesh. Further work will enable this to become a fully 3D simulation.

Comparison of different meshes produced by adaptive simulations: (a) Bermuda, taking the amount of chlorophyll into account (b) the original adaptive simulation at Bermuda, without taking chlorophyll into account (c) adaptive simulation at Papa, taking the amount of detritus into account (d) the original Papa simulation, without taking detritus into account. (Credit: Hill et al., 2014)

The fruits of this adaptive way of studying the small-scale ocean are already emerging as the secrets of the mysterious, sub-mesoscale ocean processes are probed. The ocean holds answers to questions about our planet, its future and the role of this complex, underwater world in the bigger, ecological picture – adapting to life and how we model it may just be the key we’ve been looking for.

By Nikita Marwaha

Reference:

Hill, J., Popova, E. E., Ham, D. A., Piggott, M. D. and Srokosz, M.: Adapting to life: ocean biogeochemical modelling and adaptive remeshing. Ocean Sci., 10, 323- 343, 2014

Space Studies Program 2014: Montreal, Canada

The day I wrote my last blog post was also the day I packed my bags and flew across the Atlantic Ocean to Canada - Montréal to be exact. A 6 and a half hour plane journey and lots of apple juice (my go-to in-flight beverage) later, I landed at Montréal-Trudeau airport. After spending just a few days here I've noticed that the city is a unique blend of Europe and North America. The Montréal skyline resembles both concrete jungle and actually jungle - with shades of grey and green complementing each other perfectly.

                               

I'll be spending the next 9 weeks here working as a Teaching Associate (TA) for the International Space University - the very place I earned my Masters in Space Studies last year and also participated in the 2012 Space Studies Program (SSP) which was held that year in Florida. If you'd like a glimpse of life as a participant first before I tell you all about what it's like to staff the SSP then read my first ever blog post here. Otherwise, I'll give you a brief overview of what exactly I'm up to this summer.

                        

During my time here, I'll be working as staff for the ISU summer program. We are kindly hosted by École de technologie supérieure (ETS) and HEC Montréal - two world- renowned engineering & technology and business institutions that have established a close cooperation for space related activities. 

                                   

SSP teaches it's participants about space through various perspectives, each of which have their own Deparment. Ranging from Space Humanities and Space Management & Business to Space Sciences and Space Engineering - ISU has a truly interdisciplinary, intercultural and international approach to teaching. The Department I am the TA for is Human Performance in Space (HPS).

The human side of space is explored within my Department. Understanding how the human body reacts and adapts to the space environment is a major factor to travelling through our solar system and beyond - and the HPS Department will delve into the depths of space medicine, biology, psychology and physiology this summer.

                          

I'm looking forward to writing future blog posts on the exciting visits we have planned as part of the Department. Two of which are  a trip to the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) as well as a one on one discussion with astronauts about living and working in space and the ins and outs of life in orbit. Other subjects that will be covered are spacesuit design, neurobiology and planetary surface exploration by humans using a rover. Diego Urbina of the long-term isolation experiment Mars 500 will also run two workshops on this subject.

               

This is a photo from the day the rest of the SSP14 staff got our staff shirts before welcoming over 120 participants on registration day last weekend. Being at SSP as staff this time around is a different way of experiencing the summer. The summer of 2012 and my Masters year were amazing and most of the staff this year are graduates of my SSP12 and MSc13 classes - so it's great to be surrounded by friends working together to make this SSP as wonderful as we can for this year's participants. 

I'll be sure to write an updated blog post once lectures are in full-swing and I have more photos to share :)

Au revoir!

-Nikita

Goodbye Germany

I've spent the first half of this year working as a Science Communication intern at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and it's sadly my last day in the German state of Bavaria. My time in Munich has completely flown by. I watched the seasons change from icy and dark winter and then springtime blossom, to the summer sun. It's hard to believe that I'm leaving soon but I'd say the time has passed by in a flash due to my love of the work, city and people I've met here. 

The flags of ESO's 15 member states stood tall in the morning, Munich springtime sun this particular day — a Committee Meeting was taking place and the flags are saved for such occasions. I've been told that the winter this year was exceptionally mild compared to chilly Munich standards and spring definitely sprung early this year as the city has been in full bloom.

I arrived in Munich on New Years Day and had some incredible opportunities such as visiting the Columbus Control Centre and the stunning Austrian city of Vienna,  but most importantly I learnt first-hand how to communicate cutting-edge astronomical science to the masses and how to do it well.

The people I've met and friends I've made have made me feel at home in this new city and I'm looking forward to returning one day, hopefully in the near future. The past 5 months have been an incredible learning curve both personally and professionally — I've gained a range of skills and experiences that I believe will better equip me for whatever lies in store for me next. 

Adorable teddy in lederhosen — the perfect leaving present! 

Speaking of what's next... I'm flying to my summer home of Montreal this weekend as I begin work at the International Space University (ISU) Space Studies Program (SSP) 2014. The summer course is an intense 9-week educational immersion into the space industry. I actually was a student of this summer program back in 2012. You can read my blog post on my Florida space camp story here. 

This time around though, I'll be returning as a Teaching Associate for the Human Performance in Space (HPS) Department. I'll be sure to write a blog post with more details very soon :) For now though, I'm not quite ready to leave Munich, but looking forward to some change.

-Nikita