Page 1 of 16 IAC-17-E5.3.1 68th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Adelaide, Australia, 25-29 September 2017. Copyright ©2017 by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). All rights reserved. IAC-17-E5.3.1 The Emerging Roles of the Observer on Human Space Missions: Curated Autonomy through Boundary Objects Dr. Tibor S. Balint a *, Prof. Paul Pangaro b Abstract The roles of art, design, and architecture on long-duration human space missions could have deep, signiicant impact on the functional capabilities of human environments in space, far beyond mere form and aesthetics. Yet, today’s technology-driven paradigm of space design pays limited attention to “soft” disciplines that relate to artistic and designerly modes of operations. This current worldview is governed by engineers and project managers. “Soft” considerations are looked at as nice-to-have add-ons at the end of the project, dependent on resource availability. While suficient for short missions, this unnecessarily constrained view of artistic and designerly modes must change for long-duration missions, as the crew spends nearly 100% of their time inside a severely limited volume, in virtual isolation. Thus, it becomes necessary for all the systems, usable objects, and artistic artifacts inside the habitat to be connected to the goal of facilitating engaging interactions with the crew. Artifacts—as boundary objects in the intersection of various disciplines—facilitate circular conversations between an observer (crew member) and the environment of the spacecraft, and have many important functions. They provide emotional connections and comfort, promote well-being, support autonomy, help thinking to evolve novel ideas, and aid discovery and entertainment. When designing for experiences and interactions in space, artists, designers, and architects are able to look at artifacts from the perspective of the crew as observers, and imagine a rich set of interactions through various aspects and stages of the spacelight. As a result, these artifacts support the higher-level needs of the observer, beyond basic physiological, psychological, and safety needs. They are designed for the well-being of the crew members, while sustainably utilizing the habitat volume and resources. In this paper we systematically show how human-centered roles and circular conversations between the observers and their environments can be incorporated into the culture of designing for space travel through the involvement of artists, designers and architects, from an early stage of designing the mission and its elements. This process is inclusive of the people who envision and create the environments and user experiences, and those who experience, use, and evolve them. Making the case about the importance of these considerations may help artists, designers, and architects to reframe the discourse of their contributions to space exploration and, in effect, ind a stronger acceptance from the decision makers of a technology-driven human space exploration paradigm. Keywords: design, art, space habitat, human spaceflight, boundary objects, cybernetics 1. Introduction In this paper we ask questions and discuss various aspects of curated autonomy, and how it changes the roles of the observers interacting with their environments. Artist, designers, and architects may design boundary objects in the intersections between their own disciplines, and the cognitive domains of their intended users. In this instance we address the case of the crew on long-duration space missions. The autonomy of these boundary objects are curated towards the needs of the crew. In turn, the crew interacts with these artifacts, where the curated autonomy allows them to enhance their experiences beyond a singular predeined use, which is the typical approach of today. Some of the boundary objects may embody integrated digital content within a physical artifact. NASA’s technology driven paradigm does not readily accommodate higher level crew needs, in reference to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (HoN) [1][2]. To include these needs we have to move beyond today’s technology paradigm, and augment it with other modes of operation. This opens the potential for novel options, leading to preferable outcomes. One possible approach is to include designerly and artistic modes of operation, which we will discuss through the optics of second-order cybernetics. Within the aerospace enterprise art and design are often associated with aesthetics, and considered as “soft” disciplines. Such “soft” considerations are looked at by engineers as nice-to-have add-ons at the end of the project’s lifecycle, dependent on resource availability. In comparison this worldview considers technology topics a Royal College of Art, Innovation Design Engineering, School of Design, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2EU, United Kingdom, tibor.balint@network.rca.ac.uk b College for Creative Studies, Associate Professor & Chair of MFA Interaction Design, Detroit, Michigan, United States of America, paulpangaro@pangaro.com *Corresponding Author