Space anthropology: physical and cultural adaptation in outer space

Abstract

Humans are the product of biologic and cultural adaptation to our Planet achieved over million years of Primates and Hominids species evolution which has led us to a specific development of intelligence, speech, and manual capability. Interface usability mainly depends on human characteristics that are also modified by variations in the environment. In outer space, body shapes may be different, things may not be in the expected place and models of conventional social relationships may be hardly transferred to prolonged missions. The process known as exaptation, according to which traits developed by a species as a response to a specific need are later "recycled" with new functions in a different environment, will be considered. Biologic and cultural built-in mechanisms belonging to our past cannot be left out in the analysis of design and man---machine interface in the Outer Space.