Human Modeling Lab Helps Identify Space Ops Risks

If you walk into a hangar near the Shuttle Landing Facility on the right day, you might think you’re dreaming. People covered in black body suits are moving around with what looks like ping-pong balls attached to them. They’re inside a wire cage, moving small wire frame boxes around.

But this surreal-looking activity is a way United Space Alliance could help improve spacecraft design and the safety for the people working on it.

The facility is called the Human Engineering Modeling and Performance lab.

Workers wearing the black suits are tracked by 16 cameras that relay information to a computer. Engineers analyze that data; they can then decide if redesigning part of the spacecraft or a system would speed up the building or processing.

“Modeling and simulation provides the designer and the operator a unique opportunity to visualize actions required to assemble and process the vehicle without having to build an expensive physical mockup,” said USA’s Constellation Program Office Chief Engineer Jeffrey Osterlund.

“As changes in the configuration are made, changes to the simulated vehicle can be accomplished relatively easy to determine the real-time impact and benefit,” Osterlund added.

The USA lab can also tell if a worker might be injured by performing a certain repetitive task. USA set up a wire frame model of an Orion capsule and sent its sci-fi-looking workers inside. Those workers simulated ground processing of the next space vehicle, and the computer tracked their motions.

Once risks are identified, the lab team could be in a position to offer solutions to make those tasks safer for workers.

But the system isn’t just meant to be used for Orion. Virtually any operation or process can be simulated and assessed for potential risks or hazards.

The lab already simulated what it would be like for technicians who will have to secure 400 pieces of plywood at a launch pad so the crawler could access an area for which it needs.

The task involves awkward postures, heavy lifting, repetitive motions and hours of hammering. The lab team analyzed the risk and came up with a way to reduce the injury risk to workers. That team suggested developing a cable system or the use of a forklift to secure the plywood pieces.

  The ability to assess future tasks is one of the selling points of the lab because risks may be identified and reduced before anyone goes to work on the actual hardware being simulated.  

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