The perception of verticality in lunar and Martian gravity conditions

Although the mechanisms of neural adaptation to weightlessness and re-adaptation to Earth-gravity have received a lot of attention since the first human space flight, there is as yet little knowledge about how spatial orientation is affected by partial gravity, such as lunar gravity of 0.16. g or Martian gravity of 0.38. g. Up to now twelve...

Motion sickness provoked by torso rotation

Touch down: The effect of artificial touch cues on orientation in microgravity

Orienting oneself in space is not an easy task. On Earth, we combine visual, vestibular and pressure cues into a coherent concept of up and down. Since there are no cues from gravity in space, astronauts have to adjust the way they determine up from down, with the possible risk of space motion sickness. In three tasks performed by one astronaut...

A compact body mass measuring device for space flight applications

During spaceflights, it is important to measure an astronaut's body mass ('weight'), both for investigating the influence of the space environment on the human body and for monitoring the physical (health) condition of the astronaut. This paper reports the development of a mass measuring device that is compact, user friendly, and has an absolute...