Design of the Portable Offloading for Walking, Exercise, and Running (POWER) Device

Date

2022-07-10

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Volume Title

Publisher

51st International Conference on Environmental Systems

Abstract

The return to the Moon through the Artemis missions will bring the return of planetary extravehicular activity (EVA). Planetary EVAs will be more complex than the current microgravity EVAs on the International Space Station because of the required ambulation to and from the mission locations. Spacesuits are known to be cumbersome because of poor fit, high pressure, changes in soft material volume during movement, and additional mass. The combination of these factors can lead to suboptimal EVA performance and impact mission operations. Thus, robust modeling of walking factors, such as kinematics, kinetics, and metabolic cost in partial gravity environments would be invaluable to spacesuit design, astronaut training, and mission planning. In addition, these variables provide useful information for future planetary path planning tools. To accomplish the goals of modeling kinematics, kinetics, and metabolic rate in partial gravity, a body weight support system (BWSS) was created using a passive vertical force system attached to a mobile I-beam crane. In this paper, we discuss the design of the vertical body weight support system. One pilot subject was then connected to the system via a full body harness and was offloaded to varying gravity levels (1g and 0.75g) and ambulated at a constant speed. Finally, minor changes and enhancements are proposed and discussed.

Description

Logan Kluis, Texas A&M University, US
Deanna Kennedy, Texas A&M University, US
James Hubbard, Texas A&M University, US
Ana Diaz-Artiles, Texas A&M University, US
ICES403: Extravehicular Activity: Operations
The 51st International Conference on Environmental Systems was held in Saint Paul, Minnesota, US, on 10 July 2022 through 14 July 2022.

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Keywords

Partial Gravity, Metabolic Modeling, Offload Devices, Planetary EVA

Citation