Human Factors in Space

Abstract

Space is a unique living and working environment. It is an environment that demands the highest level of performance from crewmembers and is very unforgiving of errors and inefficiency. The spacecraft that we build will have to sustain their inhabitants at a high level of productivity for missions of many months, perhaps longer. Clearly, human factors has a most important role to play in this area. In recognition of this fact, NASA has recently contracted for the writing of a single human factors standard to aid in the design and construction of manned spacecraft. This document is the Man/System Integration Standards, and is the subject of this symposium. Participating contractors include the Boeing Aerospace Company, Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, the Essex Corporation, and CAMUS, Inc. The six presentations in this session provide an overview of this project. We begin with a history of the manned space program. Then, through the use of a film shot on orbit, graphically demonstrate the need for human factors in space. The mechanics of organizing and managing a large scale project to create a new human factors standards document is outlined next. The final three presentations describe contents of the document. These include a description of how human performance in space differs from that on Earth, unique design requirements in zero-gravity, and human factors considerations of extravehicular activities.