The
Universal Shop
The Universal Shop is a tool to explore Cosmopolicy. It invites artists, scientists, theoreticians, designers and anyone who is curious to explore and take part in finding a coherent narrative and, hopefully, a sense of alignment for a fast changing world.
Bellow you can find a sparkling portray of how to use this tool, a little space-maze with pockets of imagination blending among tiny stacks of information. Regardless the shape, all forms of collecting and interpreting information as stories, tools, artefacts are invaluable goods to store in The Shop. Let's go!
Jorge Luis Borges
Time in Space
The Experience of Time on the International Space Station
The ISS orbits the Earth in approximately 92 minutes, making 15.5 orbits per day. The astronauts aboard the ISS experience 16 sunrises and sunsets every day. Our biological clock is adapted to the Earth's 24 hour cycle and is influenced by sunlight. There are no 90 minute days anywhere on Earth.
Seconds Younger or Older
The astronauts of the International Space Station orbit the Earth at a speed of 28,800 km/h. So when they return after 6 months of space flight, they will be 0.005 seconds younger than if they had spent the same period on Earth. When he returned from his year-long stay on the ISS, the astronaut Scott Kelly was 0.01 of a second younger than his twin, Mark Kelly, who remained on Earth.
Perception of Time in Space
In 2018, the ESA astronaut, Alexander Gerst, was the first participant in an ISS study to monitor how astronauts estimate the passing of time, as well as their reaction times. The participants in the experiment had to estimate the length of time a visual target was shown on a screen. The astronauts performed this test before flying, on the space station and then when they had returned to Earth. The results were compared at the end.
Atomic Clocks
Atomic Clocks are the most precise clocks in the world. Quartz clocks are not considered stable enough for the requirements of space flight. After an hour even the best quartz oscillator can run slow by a nanosecond, and after 6 months by a millisecond, which could have significant consequences in measuring the position of a fast-moving spacecraft. For greater accuracy, atomic clocks combine a quartz crystal oscillator with an ensemble of atoms. Ground-based atomic clocks are used to measure the distance and direction of a spacecraft. NASA's Deep Space Atomic Clock (mercury-ion) has a margin of error of a second every 10 million years. They will be on missions to the Moon and Mars and will provide precise, on-board timekeeping and streamline on how the spacecraft navigates.
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
Coordinated Universal Time is "the worldwide scientific standard for timekeeping. It is based upon carefully maintained atomic clocks and is highly stable. The addition or subtraction of leap seconds, as necessary, at two opportunities every year, adjusts UTC for irregularities in the Earth's rotation. When it is midnight on Earth's prime meridian, it is midnight (00:00:00:000000) - 'all balls'".
thirsty winds awaiting you
Voyager Golden Record
Phonograph record - Technical Data Set
Period
1977 - launch of Voyager 1 and Voyager 2
25.08.2012 - Voyager 1 flew beyond the solar system.
It is the first spacecraft to have entered interstellar space
5.11.2018 - Voyager 2 probe officially reached interstellar space
Location / Coordinates
- Interstellar universe
- Voyager 1 is the most distant man-made object from Earth
Components
- 12-inch gold-plated copper disc
- Aluminium and electroplated cover is an ultra-pure sample of the isotope Uranium-238 (the average life of Uranium-238 is 4.468 billion years)
- The discs contain images and sound recordings that attempt to convey the variety of life and culture on planet Earth.
The Golden Record is a time-capsule intended to travel, perhaps for eternity, into interstellar space. The disc is protected by an aluminium housing. The symbolic language engraved on the cover provides technical data on how to use the disc and explains the origins of the spacecraft.
The selection of images and sounds recorded on the disc was made for NASA by a committee coordinated by Carl Sagan. 115 images, pieces of music, various natural sounds, and greetings in 55 different languages were gathered.
In almost 40,000 years, Voyager 1 will drift to within 1.6 light-years of AC 79 3888, a star in the constellation of Camelopardalis. In 296,000 years, Voyager 2 will pass to within 4.3 light-years of Sirius, the brightest star in our heavens.
Radiation
The Earth's magnetic field protects us from the constant bombardment of galactic cosmic rays. "One day is space is equivalent to the radiation received on Earth for a whole year" (Marco Durante).
One millisievert (mSv) of ionising radiation is equivalent to about three chest x-rays. Astronauts can be exposed to ionising radiation of between 50 and 2,000 mSv, the equivalent of 150-6,000 chest x-rays. A three year mission to Mars could expose humans to 1,000 mSv of radiation, dramatically increasing cancer risk.
The potential dangers of radiation exposure include radiation sickness, an increase lifetime risk of cancer, degenerative disease and nervous system effects. Astronauts are exposed to 200 times more radiation on the International Space Station than an airline pilot or a radiology nurse.
Cosmonauts from MIR space station (1986-2001) were exposed to 70 mSv of radiation over 90 days spent in orbit.
n to room 2n
Experiments in Space
Bone Loss
In the microgravity environment of space astronauts lose on average between 1% and 2% of bone mineral density per month. People who spend more time in space experience bone loss in the lower half of the body, especially in the leg bones and lumbar area. Weightlessness is one of the causes of bone loss. On Earth gravity exerts a mechanical load on the skeletal system, which forces it to maintain a certain density so that it can successfully support a body's weight. Bones change their calcium structures depending on the force exerted on them. If they are not being used, they weaken. If a person spends a long time in weightlessness, their body will no longer have to support itself against the force of gravity and bone mass will start to decrease due to the lack of stress. With the reduction of muscle mass, calcium levels in the blood rise and increase the risk of kidney stones. It's not yet known whether this decrease in muscle and bone density will stop when it reaches a certain limit or whether it will continue indefinitely.
Eyesight
The Microgravity induces cephalad fluid shift, producing intracranial tension and pressure on the eyes. The astronauts who participated in long-duration space missions experienced visual and anatomical changes: presbyopia, globe flattening, optic disc edema, choroidal folds and hyperopic shifts.
Hearing Loss
Noise induced hearing loss usually occurs when someone is exposed to over 90 decibels. However, even though the noise in the ISS is around 70 decibels, some of the cosmonauts and astronauts who were on the missions on the ISS suffered temporary and permanent hearing loss. The constant noise from fans and pumps can cause hearing loss. In addition to a permanent exposure to sound, hearing problems can also be caused by shifting of body fluids that in turn produce intracranial pressure.
Muscle Atrophy
As humans on Earth we use antigravity muscles - neck and back muscles, calf muscles and quadriceps - to support ourselves against the force of gravity. When the muscles are not used they atrophy, weaken, and begin to deteriorate. As long as they live and work in space, astronauts are in permanent weightless environment. Whether they are static or moving, only very few muscles are used to support their bodies. An astronaut who spends five to ten days in space can los up to 20% of their muscle mass. Astronauts on the ISS perform two and a half hours of special exercises each day to combat muscle atrophy.
Blood Pressure
On Earth, the need to pump blood up the body against the force of gravity requires a strong muscle like the heart. In space there is no gravity to pull body fluids downwards: in microgravity the fluids migrate from the feet and the lower area of the body to the heart. The heartbeat slows down. Heart tissues begin to shrink once the body no longer needs to maintain the strong muscle of the heart.
spacecraft cemetery
Schrödinger's Cat
quantum superposition / supercat
*soon
Goodwill Messages
During the mission Apollo 11(1969), astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin placed a disc on the Moon, on the Sea of Tranquility, which contained statements from US presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon and goodwill messages from the leaders of seventy-three nations. The disc was made of silicone and had the same dimensions as a half-dollar coin. The silicone could withstand the extreme temperatures on the Moon, ranging from +127 to -173 degrees Celsius. Miniaturised by a process used in electronic circuitry, the statements were photographed and scaled down 200 times (0.0425 x 0.055 inches) and appeared on the disc as a tiny dot, almost unnoticeable.
At the top of the disc is the inscription: "Goodwill messages from around the world brought to the Moon by the astronauts of Apollo 11". Around the rim is the statement: "From Plantet Earth - July 1969). The disc is located on the surface of the Moon, protected inside an aluminium capsule. The words on the disc cannot be read with the naked eye; they only become readable through a microscope.
Vatican:
"Jahweh our Lord, how great your name throughout the Earth, above the heavens is your majesty chanted. By the mouths of children, babes in arms, you set your stronghold firm against your foes to subdue enemies and rebels. I look up at your heavens, made by your fingers , at the Moon and stars you set in place. Or the Son of man that you should care for him? Ah, what is man that you should spare a thought for him?
You made him a little less than an angel, you have crowned him with glory and splendour, and you have made him lord over the work of your hand. You set all things under his feet, sheep and oxen all these, wild animals too, birds in the air, fish in the sea travelling the paths of the ocean. Jahweh our Lord, how great your name throughout the earth! Psalm 8 - To the glory of the name of God who gives such power to men, we ardently pray for this wonderful beginning" Paul VI, Pope
Sir John Pendry
The Physics of Invisibility
*soon
Beresheet Lander
Lunar Lander - first privately funded mission into lunar orbit,
made by Israeli non-profit SpaceIL
Technical Data Sheet
22.02.2019 - launched
4.04.2019 - entered the Moon obit
11.04.2019 - crashed into the Moon
- Spacecraft, dry mass of 150 kg, the approximate size of a washing machine
(launched mass of about 585 kg, 2 m in diameter)
- Lunar Library - a nanotechnology device weighting 100 grammes; 25 nickel disks,
each only 40 microns thick; 60,000 analogue images of book pages etched at 150
to 200 dpi
The first Israeli spacecraft to travel beyond Earth's orbit had onboard samples of human DNA, thousand of tardigrades (microorganisms capable of surviving in almost any environment and considered one of the toughest creatures on Earth, almost impossible to kill) and Arch Mission Foundation's first Lunar Library.
The Lunar Library
The DVD-sized archive contains 30 million pages detailing languages, genres and time periods, including: a full copy of the English-language Wikipedia ( as of 20 July 2018), a "Rosetta disc" one side has instructions in eight different languages and scripts (Bahasa Indonesia, English, Hindi, Mandarin, Modern Standard Arabic, Spanish, Swahili and Russian, the Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (327 languages), a copy of Torah, histories of the indigenous people of Earth, as well as the memoirs of a Holocaust survivor.
As part of the Lunar Library, a thin layer of epoxy resin was added between each nickel layer - the synthetic equivalent of fossilised tree resin - wherein human blood samples, fair follicles, dehydrated tardigrades and samples from major holy sites were inserted.
On 11 April 2019, as it tried to land Beresheet on the Sea of Serenity, the team lost contact with the spacecraft. It crashed onto the Moon surface shortly thereafter. In theory, there is a chance the tardigrades survived the crash landing and could be revived in the future.
"We have either installed the first library on the Moon, or we have installed the first archeological ruins of early human attempts to build a library on the Moon". (Nova Spivack, Co-founder, Arch Mission Foundation).
Project A119
y. 1958
The top-secret Project A119, called "A Study of Lunar Research Flights" was devised by the United States Air Forces during the Cold War. Project A199 planned to detonate an atomic bomb on the Moon surface, and the explosion would be so strong that it could be seen from Earth with the naked eye.
The experiment aimed to explain certain phenomena related to planetary astronomy, but primarily, had to be a demonstration of strength in front of USSR, which was also preparing a similar project.
The explosion was obviously best on the dark side of the Moon and the theory was that if the bomb exploded on the edge of the Moon the mushroom cloud would be illuminated by the Sun. The bomb would have been at least as large as the one used on Hiroshima at the end of World War II. The project was not completed.
Pickled Particles
cosmo-vitamins for your mental health
*soon
Antoine de Saint Exupéry
Asteroid Mining
There are hundreds of thousands of asteroids, measuring from a few meters wide to hundreds of km in diameter. Small asteroids are the most common, but even they can contain metals worth millions of dollars.
There are three categories of asteroids:
- "C-type" - dark, carbon-rich, containing hydrated clay minerals, organic carbon and phosphorus
(fertiliser for agriculture). Even if these are not yet considered valuable the resources
from such asteroids will be extremely important if humans ever live in outer space and need water and organic substances for growing plants.
- "S-type" - brighter asteroids, stony composition, very little water, contain a significant fraction of metal, mostly iron, nickel and cobalt. A small 10 meter S-type asteroid contains about
1,433,000 pounds (650,000 kg) of metal, with about 110 pounds (50 kg) in the form of
rare metals like platinum and gold.
- "M-type" - rare asteroids, metallic asteroids, contain ten times more metal than S-type asteroids.
Precious metals such as platinum, gold and silver could be transported to Earth, while the
other ferrous metals could be used for building in space.
"Nothing is perfect, sighed the fox"
The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint Exupery
Cosmopolicy
A political project / Another concept of co-existence
A way of looking at it with a "kaleidoscope gifted with consciousness" (J. Baudelaire),
soon in The Universal Shop
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