26 October 2019 | New Scientist | 31Don’t miss
Visit
24/7, an exhibition of
art and design inspired
by Jonathan Crary’s
2013 book about
modern sleeplessness,
explores our increasingly
regulated and sleep-
deprived way of life. From
31 October at London’s
Somerset House.Read
The Lost Planets by
John Wenz (MIT Press)
tells the curious and
frustrating story of
Peter van de Kamp, the
visionary astronomer
who was first to claim
he had detected planets
orbiting a star other
than our sun, and reveals
why he was wrong.Watch
Doctor Sleep, a sequel
to Stanley Kubrick’s
The Shining (both films
being based on books by
Stephen King), stars Ewan
McGregor as a man
coming to terms with
a terrifying telepathic
gift. In UK cinemas from
31 October, if you dare.
MARIA FRANCESCA MOCCIA/EYEEMwith the dog in the spacesuit:
an image that even people who
have never heard of this director
treasure for its kitsch value. It is
also what earned him a telegram
that read: “Due to the low quality
of your work, we hereby inform
you that we are terminating your
contract with the studio.” So much
for the Soviet imagination.
But other cultures, each
with their own deep, historical
motivations, have since stepped
up with plans to settle Mars. My
favourite projects originate in the
Middle East, where subterranean
irrigation canals were greening
the desert a full millennium
before astronomer Percival
Lowell thought he spotted
similar structures on Mars.
Having raised major cities
in one of the most inhospitable
regions on Earth – and this in
less than a generation – we should
hardly be surprised that the rulers
of the United Arab Emirates believe
it is feasible to establish a human
settlement on Mars by 2117. A
development hub, Mars Science
City, is scheduled to open in Dubai
in the next three to four years and
will feature a laboratory that will
simulate the Red Planet’s terrain
and harsh environment. It will be
a sort of extension of the 520-day
Mars-500 simulation that, startingin 2010, sent six volunteers on
a round trip to Mars without
stepping out of the Institute of
Biomedical Problems in Moscow.
The playfulness of “Martian
thinking” is quite properly
reflected in this lively and family-
orientated exhibition. The point,
made very well here, is that this
play, this freedom from strictures
and established lines of thought,is essential to good design.
Space forces you to work from
first principles. It compels you
to think about mass, transport,
utility and reusability.
I don’t think it is much of a
coincidence that Eleanor Watson,
the assistant curator on this show,
has been chosen to curate the 2019
Global Grad Show in November,
which will be bringing the most
innovative new design thinking to
Dubai – a city which, with its own
set of environmental extremes,
can feel halfway to Mars already.
Leaving the show, I was drawn
up short by what looked like some
cycling gear. Anna Talvi, a graduate
of the Royal College of Art in
London, has constructed her flesh-
hugging clothing to act as a sort
of “wearable gym” to counter the
muscle-wasting and bone loss
caused by living in low gravity. She
has also tried to tackle the serious
psychological challenges of space
exploration by permeating her
fabrics with comforting scents.
Her X Earth perfumed gloves
“will bring you back to your
Earth-memory place”, with the
smell of freshly cut grass, say,
or your favourite horse.
Those gloves, even more than
that hydroponically grown lettuce,
brought home to me the sheer
ghastliness of space exploration.
It is no accident that the past year
or so’s most ambitious science
fiction movies, Aniara and Ad
Astra, both focus on the mental
and spiritual damage we would
face were we ever to swap our
home planet for a life of
manufactured monotony.
There is a new realism creeping
into our ideas of living off-world,
along with a resurgence of
optimism and possibility.
This is good. We need light and
shade as we plan our next great
adventure. How else can we ever
hope to become Martian? ❚“ Approaching science
through design draws
us into a conversation
about what we want
from the future”