The design of the Ideal Experience of a Commercial Suborbital Spaceflight

The design of the Ideal Experience of a Commercial Suborbital Spaceflight

Bade, J.J.

Vink, P. (mentor)
Bruens, G. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Industrial Design

2010-12-10

This graduation project provides an answer to the question: “What user experience should be offered to the participants at what moment in the entire suborbital spaceflight experience?” by defining ‘a moment’ and designing the experience that should be offered at that moment. Abstract Despite the rapid development in the suborbital spaceflight industry commercial flights with passengers have yet to begin. There is still no clear vision on what the user experience for these spaceflight participants should be. Although the suborbital spaceflights will have a lot of similarities with other industries e.g. human spaceflight, theme parks and VIP aviation, as a whole it is a totally new experience. Because of this a spaceflight ticket holds more than ‘just’ the actual spaceflight, this also means that spaceflight companies should not presume that spaceflight participants will automatically be satisfied if the experience is basically just the activity. As there is no suborbital spaceflight with commercial participants to gain experience from, the question that remains unanswered is: “What user experience should be offered to the participants at what moment in the entire suborbital spaceflight experience?” This graduation project provides an answer to the question stated above by defining ‘a moment’ and designing the experience that should be offered at that moment. Context In the context phase of this project the suborbital spaceflights offered by Virgin Galactic are taken as a case to focus on. The future context of the entire spaceflight experience, starting with ‘thinking of buying a ticket’ and ending with the ‘reunion’, is represented as an Experience Flow. In the Experience Flow all the events and activities a spaceflight participant will experience are written down in individual scenarios. To know what impressions these events and occurrences have on the spaceflight participants different emotions are chosen to supplement the scenarios.?The ‘moment’ for which an user experience should be offered is defined as the actual spaceflight. Concept In the concept phase the user experience that should be offered during the actual spaceflight is constructed. A vision is created that addresses the desired surroundings, activities and emotions during the actual spaceflight, this vision states: "I want the spaceflight participants to feel secure and alert, they immerse themselves in the experience without being distracted by the procedures." Desired material- and social interaction qualities are listed and with an interaction metaphor product concepts are designed. Their specific functionality provide and enable the ideal experience. The designed experience of the actual spaceflight allows the 6 spaceflight participants to enjoy two different activities, looking outside and playing in zero-g, within one cabin. They feel secure and alert, as the procedures feel like one smooth flow of events so they can they immerse themselves in the experience without being distracted.

future context
manned spaceflight
ideal experience
experience flow
design
suborbital
virgin galactic

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0bb66a57-a653-46f1-87bb-ac04709af96e

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2010 Bade, J.J.