Development of Human-Spacesuit Interaction Models

Today’s astronaut corps represents a wide range of various anthropometric dimensions. Accommodating this wide range of anthropometry and protecting for size variations in future crews, makes spacesuit sizing and fit a challenging and necessary aspect of suit development. Spacesuit fit can play an important role in performance, but a suit fit assessment, especially in dynamic postures, is difficult without extensive human-in-the-loop testing. One approach to address this issue is to model and simulate the human-spacesuit interactions for a target population early in the design process. The Anthropometry and Biomechanics Facility (ABF) at the NASA Johnson Space Center has been working to incorporate parametric human models based on 3D full-body scan data with spacesuit CAD models that can be driven by the user or imported motion capture data. An articulated spacesuit model combined with a poseable high-fidelity human model allows comparisons to be made between spacesuit capabilities and normal human ranges of motion. Furthermore, predictions can be made as to how a specific individual or population may perform in the suit from the perspective of reach and mobility. In this paper, we will present case study examples of reach, mobility, and fit analyses that can be done with these models and the methodology developed thus far. These models have the potential to become powerful tools for evaluating future spacesuit design architectures from the perspective of optimizing fit and performance.