Browsing by Author "Somers, Jeffrey"
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Item A Decision Support System for Extravehicular Operations Under Significant Communication Latency(2023 International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2023-07-16) McGrath, Timothy; Norcross, Jason; Morris, Jon; Piatti, Federico; Figueroa, Fernando; Sparks, Brianna; Somers, JeffreyWithin the next few decades, humanity hopes to perform extravehicular activities (EVAs) on the surface of Mars; however, several technical and operational challenges must first be overcome. Foremost among these challenges is managing a significant two-way communication latency between Earth and Mars. Current and historical paradigms of EVA operations have required near-real-time communication between the crewmember(s) performing an EVA and an Earth-based mission control. Next-generation operational paradigms for supporting deep space exploration will necessitate a distributed decision authority system, including delayed Earth-based mission control, the on-planet extravehicular crewmember(s), and intermediate mission support from intravehicular crewmember(s) within real-time communication range. This latter group is of particular interest: they must provide operations support without the plentiful resources available to mission control on Earth. For this purpose, NASA is developing the Personalized EVA Informatics and Decision Support (PersEIDS) software platform. PersEIDS is designed to bolster operator situational awareness and offload operator workload by automating the tracking and projection of consumables usage over an EVA timeline, providing real-time probabilistic safety assessments of an EVA timeline given consumables constraints, and recommending alternative EVA timeline(s) when the active timeline is not expected to be completed under consumables limits. The PersEIDS concept of operations, use cases, and models will be presented. A limited version of PersEIDS was demonstrated during a three-day-long study where each day a roughly four-hour-long simulated Martian EVA was performed in virtual reality at the NASA Johnson Space Center. The first day was a control trial without PersEIDS support; the second and third days represented different levels of decision support provided by PersEIDS to the intravehicular crewmember acting as mission control. With PersEIDS support, the IV crewmember was able to manage the mission to completion faster and with more remaining consumables; however, additional testing is required to understand confounding factors, e.g. training bias.Item Comparison of Anthropomorphic Test Device and Human Volunteer Responses in Landing Impact Tests of U.S. Space Vehicles(2024 International Conference on Environmnetal Systems, 2024-07-21) Reiber, Teresa; Greenhalgh, Preston; Yates, Keegan; Somers, Jeffrey; Null, Cynthia; Thompson, Rachel; Drake, Aaron; Newby, Nathaniel; Gohmert, Dustin; Suhey, Jeffrey; Perry, Chris; Buhrman, John; Baldwin, MarkUnited States (U.S.) crewed vehicles are being designed to support the National Aeronautics and Space Administration�s (NASA�s) human spaceflight programs. Vehicles must be designed to meet NASA�s occupant protection requirements including landing injury assessment with anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs) and analytical models. However, these tools are limited in capturing all injuries that might occur during spacecraft landings. A NASA study of injuries during Soyuz vehicle landings has shown that analytical models are underpredicting occupant injury. Because of the inherent limitations with our analytical tools, human volunteer impact testing was employed to validate the safety of U.S. crewed vehicles. A total of 84 human volunteer tests in 11 different test orientations and g-levels were completed as part of this effort in collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright- Patterson Air Force Base and the vehicle development companies. Human subjects were tested at various realistic landing loads and in the highest fidelity seat and suit components that were available at the time of testing for two U.S. vehicles. Matched-pair ATD tests in the same test conditions were also conducted with small female and midsized male Hybrid III ATDs. ATDs were fully instrumented. Head accelerations and subjective responses were recorded in human subjects. In some cases, chest accelerations were captured. Responses of the ATDs and humans in matched-pair tests were compared. No ATD tests showed evidence for risk of injury based on NASA occupant protection requirements. Human subjects reported 17 cases of discomfort or pain, 1 human subject was diagnosed with a minor injury that was not evident in the ATD tests. These results provide evidence that ATDs do not capture all potential injury risks, namely lower severity injuries, discomfort, and pain. Overall, human testing is beneficial to understanding the true risk of injury to crewmembers during Earth landings.Item Developing a Hybrid Spacesuit Simulator as a Research Tool for Assessing Extravehicular Activity Relevant Workload(2023 International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2023-07-16) Hew, Yayu Monica; Hoffmann, Bradley; Wusk, Zachary; Marshall-Goebel, Karina; Somers, JeffreyConducting human tests in a pressurized spacesuit is limited by availability, cost, and manpower; however, pressurized spacesuits are not always needed depending on the objectives of testing, including the development and testing of new informatics capabilities. The Human Physiology, Performance, Protection & Operations Laboratory (H-3PO) at NASA is developing a Hybrid Spacesuit Simulator (HS3) to support testing and characterization of human performance during analog planetary exploration extravehicular activities (EVAs). The goal of HS3 is to create a low-cost, modular, and unpressurized spacesuit simulator as a research tool that provides relevant physical and cognitive workload approximations with EVA-like immersion. HS3 consists of a soft outer suit, thermal control, gloves, boots, helmet, and integrated bioinformatics and communications. Baseline HS3 assessments were performed during 3-hour EVA simulations in two different subjects (DEMO1 and DEMO2) that included traverses at variable resistances and geological sampling activities. Liquid cooling garment (LCG) temperature, mean skin temperature, heart rate, motion capture, and metabolic rate were collected during each 3-hour simulated EVA. During DEMO1 and DEMO2, baseline metabolic rates at rest were 836 ± 327 BTU/hr and 869 ± 207 BTU/hr and increased to 2124 ± 548 BTU/hr and 2269 ± 559 BTU/hr, respectively, during 500m traverse. Average inlet LCG temperatures were 29.57 ± 6.62 °C and 25.63 ± 6.48 °C for DEMO1 and DEMO2 with increased outlet LCG temperatures of 33.53 ± 6.62 °C and 29.21 ± 4.79 °C, respectively. Overall, HS3 will enable future studies to characterize EVA tasks, human performance, and test future EVA capabilities in analog test environments without the need for pressurized suited environments.Item NASA Crew Health & Performance Capability Development for Exploration: 2021 to 2022 Overview(51st International Conference on Environmental Systems, 7/10/2022) Abercromby, Andrew; Douglas, Grace; Kalogera, Kent; Somers, Jeffrey; Suresh, Rahul; Thompson, Moriah; Wood, Scott; Hwang, Emma; Parton, Kyle; Broyan, JamesRadiation, reduced gravity, distance from earth, isolation and confinement, and habitation within artificially created and controlled life support environments are hazards that present risk to human space explorers. In many cases, research is required to characterize those risks and help identify risk mitigation strategies. Where new capabilities are necessary to maintain crew health and performance (CHP) during exploration missions, a multi-step process is followed: 1) a Capability Gap is defined; 2) a plan or �roadmap� to develop that capability is established based on agency priorities and anticipated mission development timelines; and 3) work defined on the roadmap is then initiated as resources allow, with the objective that the capability will be available in time to support the future mission. Over the past year, significant progress has occurred in CHP technology development, ground testbed development, ground-based testing, and in preparations for ISS technology demonstrations. This paper provides a development update in the following capability areas: crew health countermeasures, EVA physiology and performance, food and nutrition, exploration medical capabilities, and radiation. Project overviews will include descriptions of CHP development activities over the past year, the human system risks and capability gaps being targeted, as well as planned follow-on activities and anticipated program infusion points.Item NASA Crew Health & Performance Capability Development for Exploration: 2022 to 2023 Overview(2023 International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2023-07-16) Abercromby, Andrew; Douglas, Grace; Kalogera, Kent; Marshall-Goebel, Karina; Somers, Jeffrey; Suresh, Rahul; Thompson, Moriah; Wood, Scott; Fritsche, Ralph; Hwang, Emma; Yang, Justin; Broyan, JamesRadiation, reduced gravity, distance from earth, isolation and confinement, and habitation within artificially created and controlled life support environments are hazards that present risk to human space explorers. These hazards necessitate development of new technologies to protect crew health and performance during future long-duration missions to the moon and Mars. NASA’s System Capability Leads coordinate with agency experts, programs, and exploration architecture teams to identify and prioritize technology investments in support of future missions. This paper describes progress over the past year in CHP technology development, ground testbed development, ground-based testing, parabolic flight testing, and on-orbit technology demonstrations. Technology maturation progress and future plans are described in the following capability areas: crew health countermeasures; spacesuit physiology and performance; food and nutrition; radiation protection; and exploration medical capabilities.