MICROGRAVITY MAINTENANCE WORKSTATION DEVELOPMENT

Space Station maintenance workstation will be used to support equipmen t servicing and repair operations. The maintenance workstation provide s different work area configurations, giving open workbench or a conta ined area. In the conceptual design evaluated, up to five operators ca n work at the workstation simultaneously. A series of maintenance work station evaluations have been conducted at NASA Johnson Space Center t o determine the critical design issues relating to human-machine inter faces. A primary goal of this work was to verify whether the proposed design accommodated a wide range of users and maintenance task require ments under microgravity conditions. The tests were conducted onboard NASA's KC-135 microgravity aircraft. Three crew and six non-crew subje cts participated in the studies. Tasks performed during the evaluation s consisted of reach sweeps, force/torque task, soldering, handling la rge objects and lens replacement. Each session was videotaped for post -flight observations. In addition, subjects were asked to fill out a q uestionnaire following the flight. These microgravity evaluations were complemented by the computer modeling of different statures to invest igate the viewing, reach, and head clearances. Results indicate that t he size and location of the glove ports, and the enclosed work volume are the critical design concerns. The approach, findings and implicati ons of the study are discussed.