Planning for Space in Space

CAMBRIDGE, MA – Astronauts will rely on a large amount of hardware during the lengthy trips to distant locations like NASA’s planned journey to Mars. As seen in the recent movie “The Martian,” crews need equipment for purposes including communicating with people back on Earth, exercising to offset the muscle loss that occurs in micro-gravity, and operating the spacecraft itself. With room inside at a premium, designers will be challenged as they lay out the interiors of these spacecraft.

Draper is helping NASA better understand how astronauts use a spacecraft’s interior by developing a device that will track them as they move through the International Space Station. Draper engineers achieved successful results during initial testing of a prototype version of the device at NASA’s Johnson Space Center last month.

By having members of the ISS crew wear the device daily, NASA can build three dimensional models of the crew’s use of the habitat, and use those models to inform and improve designs of future spacecraft to maximize available workspace.

“Astronauts are likely going to spend several months in a relatively small spacecraft while they’re on their way to and from Mars,” said Kevin Duda, Draper’s principal investigator for the effort. “Gaining a better understanding of how they use the ISS can help NASA make sure that they have a layout that accommodates the right equipment, and enables them to do their daily work as efficiently as possible.”

The Draper device incorporates low-cost commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) optical and inertial sensing technology. Data from those sensors are fused using Draper’s algorithms to provide continuous accurate information about astronaut’s movement and orientation within the ISS.

Draper engineers carried a prototype version of the device as they moved through JSC’s ISS mockup, as well as through the center’s Human Exploration Research Analog, which is intended to replicate a deep space habitat. Initial results showed that the device accurately tracked them. Draper will use the data gathered at JSC to further refine position and orientation estimation algorithms and conduct a hardware trade study as the company reduces the prototype to a wearable size.  

The company is planning longer demonstrations, working with a former astronaut, in the ISS mockup this winter that are intended to better replicate a day’s work on the space station.