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.