Designing Beyond Current Conceptualizations of Spaceflight Experiences

TL;DR

This paper advocates for designing transformative spaceflight experiences accessible to diverse participants, emphasizing salutogenesis as a framework to shape future commercial spaceflight experiences.

Contribution

It introduces a novel design framework based on salutogenesis to enhance and measure profound spaceflight experiences for future commercial travelers.

Findings

Transformative experiences occur despite stressors during spaceflight.

Salutogenesis can serve as a guiding framework for experience design.

Design decisions impact future space travelers' experiences.

Abstract

The potential future democratization of spaceflight reveals a need for design of experiences that extend beyond our current conceptualization of spaceflight. Research on career astronauts indicates that transformative experiences occur during spaceflight despite the physiological and psychological stressors involved. This phenomenon allows us to envision a future where such profound experiences are accessible to diverse spaceflight participants. In this position paper, we advocate for acknowledging how design decisions made at the genesis of commercial spaceflight might impact space travelers of this speculative future. In proposing salutogenesis as an orienting topic, a potential design framework, and as a metric for spaceflight participant experience, we offer a call to action for the broader experience design community to engage with the design of profound experiences for spaceflight participants.