For the FIRST LEGO League competitions you need to have some sort of presentation prepared and so this is our team’s presentation. Enjoy!
Loneliness, a common problem on earth, but even more common in space. When having to spend long hours in close quarters with the same people, it can get lonely especially if you don’t get along well with your comrades or you don’t have much to do. Our team wanted to help solve this problem, so our first thought was ANIMALS IN SPACE.
Now, before we get ahead of ourselves, let us address some questions you may have like: what is so terrible about being lonely? Why does it matter? And, are there any current solutions to this problem? Well, my fellow Lego League friends, we found an article in the Wall Street Journal saying that loneliness can shorten your life worse than smoking can. That’s right WORSE THAN SMOKING. Now if that isn’t a reason to prevent loneliness in space I don’t know what is.
There are already some solutions to this problem like using virtual reality to help boredom and to feel more connected, but our team decided that we wanted to take a step further and use animals to help keep connections to earth strong.
Ok, now for the fun part ANIMALS. Animals have a way with people that just puts a smile on your face. There have even been studies and tests were done that show that most people feel happier and not as lonely with a pet, but it isn’t as simple as just sending an animal like a cat in space. You see there are a few bumps in the road. For example, we found a resource showing that a cat, which was the specific animal our team was thinking would be beneficial, can not balance at all in zero gravity and can’t maneuver very well. Also on a spacecraft, you need to take into account how much things are going to weigh.
According to Tony Dreher, an Aerospace Engineer, figuring out what an item will need to still be intact after the launch especially a live animal is time-consuming and can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Cats also need food which is around a half cups a day, and for two years well that is about 100 pounds WHOA! Oh and don’t forget the water, litter, litter box and other items to keep them healthy, that is even more items you to test and even more money.
So we needed to come up with a solution for this. We can’t just send an animal in space so what can we do? Well, that is when we came across remote-controlled cat toys. They are toys that can be controlled from a mobile device and you can watch as cats play with that toy you are controlling. These toys, however, do have their limits. Scott Harris who works for Reach-in, the company that created these toys also known as ipetcompanion, said that the devices don’t have much variety to keep the cats and humans interested for long and their internet control is limited to simple motions. There also wasn’t any means to use catnip.
So what did we do? Well, we were brainstorming how we could make this more exciting and we came up with some ideas and even designed an app that space travelers or even people on earth could use .
We also thought that we could install these toy in cat cafes. Cat cafes are cafes with drinks and food like any other cafe, but have a separate room with adoptable cats that you can play with. This seems like a good match since there would be lots of cats ready to play! The website also says that it can increase adoption rates, so it would also benefit the cafe!
The toys cost about 100 to 150 dollars a toy, which would be a lot less than what you would have to pay for sending and testing to put an animal in space. We were also thinking that the space exploration company that was funding the mission could easily afford the money to pay for these toys.
We talked to several experts about our idea and here is what some of them told us:
Jessica Burge the owner of the cat cafe, Café Meow said: “They would probably work great. If you get a plan together on how we might be able to use them, we would love to see it.”
Tony Dreher, a retired Aerospace Engineer, said: “Just having something that connects pets to people sounds like a great idea. I don’t know of anything like that right now.”
We may never figure out how to successfully send live cats into space, but we do hope that our app design can become next best thing that can connect people and animals closer together and end the loneliness of space.