PREFLIGHT ADAPTATION TRAINING FOR SPATIAL ORIENTATION AND SPACE MOTION SICKNESS

Two part-task preflight adaptation trainers (PATs) are being developed at the NASA Johnson Space Center to preadapt astronauts to novel sens ory stimulus conditions similar to those present in microgravity to fa cilitate adaptation to microgravity and readaptation to Earth. This ac tivity is a major component of a general effort to develop countermeas ures aimed at minimizing sensory and sensorimotor disturbances and Spa ce Motion Sickness (SMS) associated with adaptation to microgravity an d readaptation to Earth. Design principles for the development of the two trainers are discussed, along with a detailed description of both devices. In addition, a summary of four ground-based investigations us ing one of the trainers to determine the extent to which various novel sensory stimulus conditions produce changes in compensatory eye movem ent responses, postural equilibrium, motion sickness symptoms, and ele ctrogastric responses are presented. Finally, a brief description of t he general concept of dual-adapted states that underly the development of the PATs, and ongoing and future operational and basic research ac tivities is presented.