The Human Spaceship - Moon Vision

The Moon’s name is a secret; all the other moons of our Solar System (about 300) have a specific name or number, but Earth’s moon is called Moon. My page in Moon Bound expresses the concept of an unknown identity and the unknown potential for humans to live on the Moon……Can we do this?

21st century space endeavours have initiated cross-disciplinary investigations, meaning artists, scientists and facilitators are required to represent “frontier thinking” in research and practice to achieve future space ambitions. Uniting creative practices with scientific methods can provide dynamic resolutions to the challenges of living on the Moon (or Mars). Extending this premise, creative thinkers must innovate using art and design methods for human factors and survival on spaceships, space stations and habitats, which includes isolation & confinement in extreme environments (ICE).

The Human Spaceship project (started in 2007) expresses the need for a wider range of skills to achieve these goals by investigating visual perception in altered gravity. This is expressed through large geometric paintings (optical illusions) and stylised images of space technology, as discussed further in ‘The Human Spaceship – Off Balance’.

When human beings step into the extreme darkness and dazzling light of the lunar South Pole, will they have the capacity to solve the many challenges of living on another world? No great advancement has developed without the creative intelligence of the arts, and this is so with lunar settlement plans (and other space endeavours). On a practical level, artists offer advanced visual comprehension and the processing of unusual imagery within the landscape of a new society, therefore the space sector must promote and support a wider utilisation of human talents for these initiatives.

On the Moon there is a muted colour range (achromatic), and two weeks of freezing darkness during the lunar night and two weeks of glaring hot sunlight during the lunar day. (The Moon’s temperature is upwards of 120oC during sun-lit periods at the equator and night temperature is about -130O C.) This will have physiological and psychological effects. The lunar South Pole region has areas of extreme darkness, in particular vast deep craters and long shadows caused by the Sun moving very low across the sky. Some regions are lit permanently or nearly so, albeit with glancing light, while others have been in darkness for billions of years, with temperatures colder than the surface of Pluto. The oblique angle of Sun’s light (-1.5o – + 1.5o) will cause kilometre long, moving mountain shadows to cross the terrain, as well as the darkness of the lunar night. Earth’s light is a factor, but due to the Moon’s libration (wobble), the Earth will appear and disappear from sight on the lunar South Pole.

The Moon has no atmosphere, meaning there is no aerial or atmospheric perspective, where objects and landscapes look bluer and less defined in the distance. Distances are deceiving. Features far away look smaller but are neither more obscured nor less detailed. The Moon’s horizon is half the distance of that on Earth, meaning the curvature of this planetary body can also be perceived.

The Artemis missions will require satellites and space stations orbiting the Moon for human navigation and communication on the surface, but visual comprehension will also be a vital factor. These extreme conditions also cause problems for lunar technology as the ‘machine brain’ is also confused by the lunar surface and currently, solar batteries cannot survive the 2 week freezing darkness of a Moon night.

The Moon’s surface, with its dramatic lighting, lack of colour and no atmosphere creates optical illusions. Our brain and eyes work together to see our three- dimensional world thus informing us about depth, tone, lighting, colour and position to interpret what we see. But it can be confused when it receives information in a conflicting manner. The main factors of this information are line, form, space/distance and colour.

We can expect the three main types of optical illusions to manifest themselves on the Moon:

• Literal illusions such as pareidolia (seeing or assigning a pattern to something random), rapid light/dark visual adjustments and distorted distance perception.
• Physiological illusions, such as multiple patterns, lighting conditions, phosphenes (double vision & after-images), colour misconceptions, particularly caused by black and white interactions (possible moirés).
• Cognitive illusions, meaning visual perception doesn’t connect with the brain’s recognition of what it sees. These could include hallucinations, apparitions and mirages.

Let’s examine some of these possibilities in greater detail:

• Nyctophobia is an innate fear of the dark, possibly caused by Moon blackness (black of long nights, vast black moving shadows, deep black craters and the black sky). This can cause breathlessness, sweating, nausea, shaking, and unclear communication, being very dangerous in a spaceship or spacesuit. This enhances the feeling of claustrophobia, detachment and isolation and possible insomnia.
• Pareidolia & moiré effects can be caused by the bold black, white and grey lunar landscape, producing a dramatic light/shadow contrast and misleading focal points, which might confuse astronauts, as visual perception imposes different interpretations. This could induce visual misunderstanding, like a lunar mirage, meaning a crater hole might appear as a surface plane and a rock feature might appear as a shadow or negative surface. In the strong lunar light, craters can appear concave or convex.
• Visual perturbations (disturbance of motion & balance) cause sudden changes in the visual field, induced by altered gravity, unusual landscapes and dramatic lighting conditions.
• Hypercapnia is temporary blindness caused by a lack of blood flow to the eye, possibly inducing phosphenes. This can be caused by micro-gravity conditions or breathing in too much carbon dioxide.
• Phosphenes can produce colours and shapes (visual worms and geometric patterns) in your brain and induce double vision and after images.
• Far-sighted issues can affect astronauts after long periods on the International Space Station, caused by Spaceflight Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome. This is when the optic nerve is flattened and the eye becomes egg-shaped caused by the movement of spinal fluid, changing the focal point.
• Near-sightedness can affect astronauts living in confined spaceships and habitats for long periods, and prolonged use of digital technology (distant objects appear out of focus with muted colours). Submariners are more likely to suffer from myopia (near-sightedness), esophoria and heterophoria (horizontal & vertical eye misalignment) and accommodative power issues (the ability of the lens to adjust its focal length at speed).
• Spacesuit helmets currently use 3 layers of protective plastic, which is not only light limiting, but can be coated in static dust. New elliptical shaped helmets offer a better view of the landscape and astronaut’s feet, enabling better stability.
• Muted lighting caused by spacecraft windows and spacesuit visors restricts an astronaut’s eyesight and visual panorama, and these conditions may suppress melatonin weakening alertness and disturbing sleep patterns.
• Artificial exterior lighting, spotlights or beams can create a dazzle factor. This effect causes blind-spots around the lights and after-images, as they draw one’s focus while blocking out dimmer background objects.
• Adaptation issues could affect the speed of cone and rod cells when they react to light, dark and colour adjustments.

Art and space science communication structures need to promote collaboration, using creative processes, with participants working and exploring together. Prolonged and accessible funding is required from space agencies, commercial companies and governments to create hybrid research. Artists should be employed as expert enablers for investigation, using their ingenuity, curiosity and ‘disruptive’ methods. The case for space agencies and industries to collaborate and fund artistic enterprises and their visionary concepts is imperative.