COLUMBUS UTILIZATION SIMULATIONS IN THE ESTEC CREW WORKSTATION TEST-BED

The ESTEC Crew Workstation Test-Bed is an experimental laboratory and reference facility for upstream engineering in support of ESA's manned space activities. It enables the assessment of concepts and technolog ies for crew working environments and for on-orbit operation of the ma nned space systems. As well as a conventional laboratory environment f or stand-alone assessment of particular technologies, the Test-Bed inc ludes a full scale mock-up of the Columbus Attached Laboratory fitted out with prototype payloads, utilities, and crew terminals; this has p rovided the first practical forum for bringing together the latest thi nking of the Columbus development and utilisation teams. Since early 1 992 the mock-up has been used for simulations of typical crew activity scenarios, oriented mainly towards payload operations. The overall ob jectives of the simulations were to assess new techniques in a realist ic operational environment, to practice crew operations, and to explor e optimum cooperation of the onboard hardware, software, and crew reso urces, together with the ground resources, in order to improve the pra cticality and cost-effectiveness of Columbus as a facility for the adv ancement of science.