Astronaut-induced disturbances to the microgravity environment of the Mir Space Station.

In preparation for the International Space Station, the Enhanced Dynamic Load Sensors Space Flight Experiment measured the forces and moments astronauts exerted on the Mir Space Station during their daily on-orbit activities to quantify the astronaut-induced disturbances to the microgravity environment during a long-duration space mission. An examination of video recordings of the astronauts moving in the modules and using the instrumented crew restraint and mobility load sensors led to the identification of several typical astronaut motions and the quantification of the associated forces and moments exerted on the spacecraft. For 2806 disturbances recorded by the foot restraints and hand-hold sensor, the highest force magnitude was 137 N. For about 96% of the time, the maximum force magnitude was below 60 N, and for about 99% of the time the maximum force magnitude was below 90 N. For 95% of the astronaut motions, the rms force level was below 9.0 N. It can be concluded that expected astronaut-induced loads from usual intravehicular activity are considerably less than previously thought and will not significantly disturb the microgravity environment.

[1]  Hyoung M. Kim,et al.  MIR STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS EXPERIMENT: A FLIGHT EXPERIMENT DEVELOPMENT , 1997 .

[2]  Richard DeLombard.  Compendium of Information for Interpreting the Microgravity Environment of the Orbiter Spacecraft , 1996 .

[3]  C. K. Yuen,et al.  Theory and Application of Digital Signal Processing , 1978, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics.

[4]  Giancarlo Ferrigno,et al.  Multifactorial movement analysis in weightlessness: a ground-based feasibility study , 2000, IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas..

[5]  Giancarlo Ferrigno,et al.  Measuring astronaut performance on the ISS: advanced kinematic and kinetic instrumentation , 1999, IMTC/99. Proceedings of the 16th IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (Cat. No.99CH36309).

[6]  M. C. Kullas.  Handbook on astronaut crew motion disturbances for control system design. [in skylab] , 1979 .

[7]  Bruce A. Conway,et al.  A summary of the Skylab crew/vehicle disturbances experiment T-013 , 1976 .

[8]  D J Newman,et al.  Astronaut-induced disturbances in microgravity. , 1997, Journal of spacecraft and rockets.

[9]  Dava J. Newman,et al.  Estimation of the transfer function for the Russian Space Station Mir due to astronaut loads , 2000 .

[10]  Richard Delombard,et al.  Space acceleration measurement system description and operations on the First Spacelab Life Sciences Mission , 1991 .

[11]  Bonnie J. Dunbar,et al.  The microgravity environment of the Space Shuttle Columbia payload bay during STS-32 , 1991 .

[12]  Amir R. Amir,et al.  Research into the effects of astronaut motion on the spacecraft: a review. , 2000, Acta astronautica.

[13]  Charles R. Baugher,et al.  Development of and flight results from the Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS) , 1992 .

[14]  Amir R. Amir.  Design and development of advanced load sensors for the International Space Station , 1998 .

[15]  Michail Tryfonidis.  Robust adaptive control modeling of human arm movements subject to altered gravity and mechanical loads , 1999 .

[16]  Giancarlo Ferrigno,et al.  Measuring astronaut performance on the ISS: advanced kinematic and kinetic instrumentation , 2001, IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas..