Crew Health Care Systems (CHeCS) aboard Space Station Freedom will provide unprecedented on orbit capabilities targeting a wide range of nominal and contingency health concerns, from regularly scheduled exercise countermeasures and environmental monitoring, to advanced medical life support and medical transport.
CHeCS design addresses unique requirements in functional performance and equipment/user interaction within the framework of physical and operational constraints imposed by the Space Station and related space vehicles.
This paper presents an overview of the design and development of CHeCS for Space Station Freedom (SSF) with an emphasis on physical installation and flight crew suitability. Particular emphasis is directed at unique aspects of the system which are driven by environmental peculiarities such as limited volume and resources (electrical power, heat rejection, crew time, launch constraints), location remoteness, isolation and microgravity, while minimizing detriment to other non-related Space Station operations. Design implications resulting from phased Space Station build-up are also described. General and specific topics involve selected component and installations designs, development testing and simulation activities, and system design integration into Space Station elements. Implications introduced by CHeCS relationships to the Space Transportation System are also presented.