Space Station Maintenance Workstation Development

Abstract

Space Station Maintenance Workstation will be used to support equipment servicing and repair operations. The Maintenance Workstation provides different work area configurations, giving open workbench or a contained area. Up to five operators can work at the workstation simultaneously. A series of Maintenance Workstation evaluations have been conducted at NASA Johnson Space Center to determine the critical design issues relating to human-machine interfaces. A primary goal of this work was to verify whether the proposed design accommodated a wide range of users and maintenance task requirements under microgravity conditions. The tests were conducted onboard NASA's KC-135 microgravity aircraft. Three crew and six non-crew subjects participated in the studies. Tasks performed during the evaluations consisted of reach sweeps, force/torque task, soldering, handling large objects and lens replacement. Each session was videotaped for post-flight observations. In addition, subjects were asked to fill out a questionnaire following the flight. These microgravity evaluations were complemented by the computer modeling of different statures to investigate the viewing, reach, and head clearances. Results indicate that the size and location of the glove ports, and the enclosed work volume are the critical design concerns. The approach, findings and implications of the study are discussed.