Spatial disorientation (SD) is the leading cause of Class A mishaps in terrestrial aviation. As NASA and other space agencies plan to return humans to the moon, SD during piloted planetary landings is a major concern as it is likely to be exacerbated by the gravity transitions astronauts will have undergone during transit. Gravity transitions, such as those experienced by astronauts entering microgravity and returning to Earth gravity after missions, are known to provide unexpected stimuli to the otoliths within the vestibular system, as well as other graviceptors. As a result, motions in the novel gravity environment are systematically misperceived, likely leading to decrements in piloted manual control task performance.To assist with pilot SD during planetary landings, reduce mental workload, and improve situational awareness, active countermeasures to aid the pilot should be implemented when it is expected that pilots are experiencing SD. To quantify and predict SD, we will employ a computational model that has been developed and validated for terrestrial pilot SD. This framework takes outputs from the Observer Model - which predicts spatial orientation perception - and compares them to the veridical vehicle orientation to create a one-dimensional SD metric. This SD metric can then be used to trigger countermeasures when it exceeds certain thresholds. By utilizing the Tilt-Translation Sled at the University of Colorado, Boulder, we have demonstrated the capability of the system to trigger countermeasures only when necessary, based upon a real-time estimate of pilot SD.Once re-tuned for landing situations following gravity transitions, the model will be able to predict SD during a lunar landing, which would then allow us to trigger active countermeasures to assist piloted planetary landings.
Countermeasure Triggering for Spatial Disorientation Experienced During Piloted Lunar Landing
2024-03-02
2275218 byte
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English