Human Factors in Aerobrake Design for EVA Assembly and Maintenance

Human factors will have a profound impact on aerobrake designs of future Space Transfer Vehicles to allow the vehicles to be assembled, maintained, and refurbished on orbit. Though deployable aerobrake designs are being considered, many extravehicular activity tasks will be a necessary part of assembly and refurbishment. Crew interfaces will need to be easily operated by a suited crewman during all phases of flight. While telerobotic and autonomous systems may be developed for portions of these tasks, extravehicular activity will always be required for contingency plans. This paper details some of the critical human factor issues that must be addressed in aerobrake design based on results from aerobrake neutral buoyancy test performed in October 1990 under the McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Company Independent Research and Development program. This paper examines the need for crew restraint during assembly for torque reaction, familiar frame of reference, and speed of assembly. This paper also examines hardware interface requirements that allow for ease of operation, verification, maintenance, and inspection. While these insights are derived from an aerobrake testbed, they are applicable to other large space structures, such as Space Station Freedom.