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Extravehicular mobility unit training and astronaut injuries
Samuel Strauss1, Ralph L Krog, Alan H Feiveson
1Sonny Carter Training Facility, Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, NASA-Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058-3696, USA. samuel.strauss@jsc.nasa.gov
Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine
|May 17, 2005
Summary
Astronaut spacewalk training frequently causes mild hand, shoulder, and foot symptoms. Most are manageable, but some injuries require multidisciplinary approaches for prevention and improved astronaut health.
Area of Science:
- Space Medicine
- Human Factors Engineering
- Occupational Health
Background:
- Astronaut spacewalk training, particularly in neutral buoyancy facilities, is associated with various symptom complaints and potential injuries.
- This study focuses on quantifying and characterizing these signs, symptoms, and injuries during extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuit training.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify the frequency, incidence, and common locations of symptoms and injuries during EVA training.
- To determine the causal mechanisms of these injuries.
- To recommend improvements in injury prevention, astronaut training, and equipment design.
Main Methods:
- Data collected from 770 EVA training sessions at NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory.
- Post-test questionnaires documented signs, symptoms, injury mechanisms, and countermeasures.
- Analysis focused on symptom frequency, location, and causal factors.
Main Results:
- 24.6% of training sessions (190/770) reported suit symptoms, totaling 352 comments.
- Most frequent symptom locations were hands (47.16%), shoulders (20.7%), and feet (11.4%).
- Common causes included moisture/glove contact (hands), hard contact/strain (shoulders), and boot contact (feet), with highest severity in these areas.
Conclusions:
- While most symptoms were mild and self-limiting, some pose risks to astronaut health and performance.
- A multidisciplinary approach involving prevention, medical intervention, training, planning, and suit engineering is crucial for addressing EVA training injuries.
Keywords:
Non-programmatic