AEM SEMINAR: Robert Haddon, M.D., M.S, Today, March 25, 2016 at 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm, 319 Akerman Hall
Lei Simmons
Preventive, Occupational and Aerospace Medicine
Mayo Clinic, Rochester
Free Fall Blurs the Distinction Between Droplet and Airborne Transmission
Within orbital habitats, such as the International Space Station, fluids, including air and other gas mixtures, behave differently in free fall than in conventional terrestrial environments. Changes in droplet and particle trajectory, the absence of convection, and the dependence upon mechanically-driven airflow all challenge traditional behaviors, procedures and engineering countermeasures that rely upon precipitation, spontaneous mixing and external venting.
This talk intends to highlight some of these challenges in order to better inform the design of airflow and fluid flow in future space architecture. Existing systems work, but refinements and innovations will be needed especially as habitats grow larger, go farther, and intentionally take on more of the features of small ecologies. Examples of unintentional ecology will be discussed. Using the control of infectious agents as an organizing example, the talk will also address the behavior of water, dust, allergens, contaminant gases and unmixed gas pockets to illustrate the conditions to be found in free-fall or “microgravity” habitats and to address some avenues for further development.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/biographies/haddon-robert-m-d-m-s/bio-20114821
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