From Space to Earth: The Landing Chair
Have you ever thought about what is the first thing astronauts do once they land after a space mission? They might have already come up with a long “to-do list” before they return to the Earth. In reality, they must be rested in a chair for at least eight hours, transiting between venues and to proceed initial medical check-up. Far more than feeling exhausted, astronauts feel intensively nauseous due to the huge changes to their bones and muscle strengths caused by prolonged experience of weightlessness in space. Thus, the chair is designed for providing the greatest comfort and support to the vulnerable astronauts in need.
So how is the chair associated with Ms Anna Qin, Assistant Professor of the Academy of Visual Arts, School of Creative Arts (SCA) of HKBU? As a product designer and engineer, Anna collaborated with Shenzhen ND Industrial Design Co., Ltd for the third time and optimised the landing chairs (3rd generation) in 2022, for use by crews of mainland China’s Shenzhou space missions.
The Journey Starts Here
The first model of the landing chair was used by the crew of the Shenzhou-10 mission in 2013, with an improved version used for Shenzhou-11 in 2016 and Shenzhou-12 in 2021. The third and latest model of the chair offers enhanced spinal support and a recline feature with an adjustable backrest, which was used by three astronauts of the Shenzhou-13 mission who landed in April 2022.
Ever since Anna and her design team’s first design of the landing chair in 2013, she has been collaborating with experts from the Astronaut Center of China (ACC) to further optimise the design. “After the astronauts land, they need to sit in this landing chair for more than eight hours and transit to different venues. Comfort comes first. We had been doing a lot of interviewees with the astronauts, asking about how they physically feel in the chair and what can be improved to the smallest details. We are exploring adding sensors to the chairs that can monitor and collect data from the astronauts about their levels of comfort,” said Anna, a caring and experienced product designer who has been applying human-centered designs in the medical and biomedical engineering fields.
Moving Heaven and Earth
As the landing chair is a pioneering product design, no references are available for Anna and her team. They did a lot of research in the market to check out all designs for testing, and to try them out themselves. “The landing chair has to be carried around, and the lightweight requirement of the chair is a major challenge to us. So how can we balance the chair’s complex structures, ergonomics, weight, and aesthetics issues?” said Anna passionately, “After intensive discussions, we preferred the support and comfort of the chair to the weight issues, while we eventually eliminated the weight using lightweight 3D printing materials on some of the parts.”
Then the COVID-19 pandemic came as another challenge, making it not possible to run the tests as frequently as required, and turning most of their work to be done online. “I am glad that we are a very close team. We are familiar with each other’s methods in the product design team, that the digital 3D models we co-worked on speak for themselves during the remote design process,” said Anna, with great pride in her team members.
Being proud as a product designer, Anna was also grateful for the opportunities and support given by HKBU, SCA, AVA and collaboration invites by her peers and senior colleagues from HKBU School of Chinese Medicine.
Goodness on Earth
To Anna, “sustainability” is the keyword for her designs: “Design, or design thinking, is actually everywhere. Instead of developing products that are not long-lasting and result in pollutants, why not initiate sustainable designs that could contribute to the globe and achieve SDGs (i.e., Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations)?”
Anna, the remarkable landing chair’s designer, never leans back in her chair. There is great diversity in her research plans. On top of her continuous collaboration with HKBU’s Chinese medicine team on further astronaut-related research, she is working on advancing wheelchairs for enhanced mobility echoing future lifestyles. Moreover, as a mother of two, she is interested in improving the outdoor public facilities like the children’s playgrounds, gerontology and self-reliant lifestyle, cultural development in terms of city walking and the colour scape of Hong Kong, as well as exploring traditional crafts in contemporary designs.
Anna concerns most about humans’ well-being, physically and psychologically, which is well reflected in her current and future research projects and plans. Design is not simply about aesthetics. The rationale behind is improving humans’ well-being.
About the Researcher
Ms Anna Qin (M.Phil., Biomedical Engineering, CUHK) is an Assistant Professor at the Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University. She was trained with practical, technical, and theoretical skillsets in Product Design at Central Saint Martins of the University of The Arts London. With more than 15 years of experience in design consultancy, manufacturing, enterprise, and third sectors, she worked with various teams in Europe, mainland China and Hong Kong.
Anna's early work belongs to the medical field, where she applied human-centered design to hospital equipment like exoskeletons, medicine processors and portable/domestic healthcare devices like wheelchairs and accessible facilities with inclusive and service design.
Combining design and engineering, she further defines her visions in various innovation projects such as the astronauts’ landing chair, exoskeletons and smart insoles for rehabilitation, intelligent homes, healthy aging, design for sustainability and UI/UX for start-ups.