Fixtured Spheres for Training in Simulated Weightlessness

Weightless Environment Training Facility Inertial Training Spheres (WETFITSs) are proposed neutrally buoyant training tools that would be used in NASA's Weightless Environment Training Facility (WETF), where astronauts are trained underwater to manipulate objects in zero gravitation. Heretofore, the training in the WETF has provided astronauts accurate simulations of visual conditions but has not addressed the feel of manipulating objects. The WETFITSs are intended to address the issue of feel; more specifically, each WETFITS would be designed so that its inertial properties underwater would approximate those of a simulated object with a specified mass and six degrees of freedom in zero gravitation. A WETFITS (see figure) could be sized to simulate any large mass to be manipulated in zero gravitation, could be designed and manufactured cost-effectively, and would be reusable.