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The need to make human spaceflight as safe as technically possible is a characteristic of this special branch of space missions and drives the cost and feasibility of human space exploration. Between the time prospective astronauts first apply for a chance to fly into space and the actual time when they climb into the spacecraft on top of a rocket for the first flight, risk awareness, mitigation, and assessment are present as a constant background reflection. What drives human explorers to accept the remaining non-mitigatable risks and when is the individual "go" decision made? In light of future long-term missions; leading humans again from LEO into deep space a sound understanding of this decision process may lead to an improved selection and composition of capable space expedition crews. • Astronauts launching on a rocket are visibly exposed to an assumingly life threatening risk. • Human rating for a spacecraft requires enhanced risk mitigation in form of highest technical reliability standards. • Tolerable remaining risks should be in balance with expected flight results (science, technology). • Training is a key factor to positively tip the balance towards performing a spaceflight despite the risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A long-duration microgravity environment has numerous detrimental effects on the human physiology. The most obvious solution for this problem related to long duration space exploration missions is to remedy the lack of gravity. This could be done using short arm human centrifuges but they do not seem to be sufficiently effective, perhaps because of the short duration exposure of this countermeasure and/or the huge body gravity gradient. New views have to be investigated, such as to see if a (very) long-arm rotating system generating a continuous 1 g or partial gravity field might resolve this issue. Besides the expected benefits regarding astronauts' microgravity pathologies, additionally the spacecraft itself, its on-board (sub-)systems and procedures might benefit from a rotating configuration. In this paper we address very briefly the medical issues, but the work is mainly focused on the advantages regarding engineering, operations, life support, safety and budget of having a constantly rotating spacecraft first in Low Earth Orbit and later for long duration missions to Mars. A large rotating spacecraft is feasible and affordable to build, operate and maintain. It has advantages for governmental and commercial use but also in light of the expected increase in space tourism. It will also save crew time and billions of dollars now being spent to counteract the effects of microgravity. A continuous rotating spacecraft providing Artificial Gravity will: • Improve crew health and wellbeing. • Improve mission safety and success. • Reduce costs significantly. • Simplify numerous operations in flight. • Provides the use of 1 g verified systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The Space Station Design Workshop (SSDW), instigated by the Institute of Space Systems (IRS) at the University of Stuttgart, is an international and interdisciplinary workshop, targeted to undergraduate and graduate students as well as young professionals. The first workshop started in 1996, and except for some small breaks, it has taken place on a yearly basis. Currently, 40 participants are divided into two teams, which within six days have to fulfil one goal: to design a space station. The goal of the workshop is to obtain creative solutions from young and fresh minds, but also to enable students to learn by doing how an interdisciplinary and international project works. Several tools are provided by the IRS for the entire week: internal/external experts on the required fields; a concurrent design facility and specialized software. As the conceptual design needs to be created in a short period of time, the entire process is monitored by the IRS staff. This guidance should however not compromise the creativity and the "out-the box thinking" of the participants. The experience of previous editions and the lessons learned help improving this guidance process year after year. This paper explains the teaching approach using the activities during the SSDW 2017 as an example, starting from the mission statement to the final presentation. As a conclusion, the evaluation and opinions of the experts, the students and the organization staff are presented, as well as the main lessons learned, including how they can be implemented to further improve the SSDW. Highlights • The Space Station Design Workshop (SSDW) is held since 1996 by the Institute of Space Systems at the University of Stuttgart. • The SSDW provides students and young professionals an opportunity to work in an interdisciplinary and intercultural team. • The participants task is to design a preliminary concept for a space station in 6 days. • The SSDW provides a team of experts during the workshop, who provide short lectures and guidance. • Mission scenarios during past editions include: LEO, GEO, Lagrange points and Cis-lunar space. In 2017: the Mars vicinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interplanetary human missions to Mars and beyond will suppose a very demanding physical and psychological environment for future astronauts. Isolation, confinement, hypoxia or hypercapnia in a less pressurized atmosphere, darkness and other factors are expected to endanger a mission's success, directly influencing human performance. In order to study the effects of such environmental conditions on human beings, the SIMSKILL Experiment aims to investigate how spacecraft piloting performance decays over time by deploying a Soyuz flight simulator on the Antarctic research stations Halley VI and Concordia, which feature similar living conditions as those of a space mission, leading eventually to muscular atrophy, loss of cognitive capacities, and reduction of psycho-motor skills. This paper offers an analysis on the recorded data from the scientific campaigns in Antarctica, compared to those of the subjects in a control group in Stuttgart, Germany. An overall total of 69 subjects and more than one thousand approach and docking flights to the ISS performed in a Soyuz-TMA simulator have been analysed using a performance assessment methodology. The post-processed simulation dataset allows to recognize collective trends and find which are the essential parameters that affect the pilot's skill evolution. The results obtained from this analysis show how the influence of isolation, confinement and hypoxia in Antarctica is crucial to understand how differences in performance appear between subjects. The significance of the obtained results has been proven by means of statistical models, which show that a one-month training refreshing delivers satisfactory performance for a docking simulation, whereas a frequency of 3 months follows to a loss of piloting reliability. Moreover, the effect of isolation and hypoxia aggravates the loss of flight performance. • Use of a Soyuz space flight simulator for the analysis of flight performance. • International Space Station approach and docking procedures prove to be an optimal testbed for human performance analysis. • Antarctic isolation and confinement conditions cause a degradation on spacecraft piloting performance. • Training intervals of three months show a decrease on flight performance and reliability. • The hypoxic environment at the Concordia Station exacerbates the decay of piloting skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]