Gender-Based Differences in Thermal Physiology

As the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) continues to plan for extended missions in space, the need increases for an automatic thermal comfort controller within NASA spacesuits. The temperature control in the current model of the spacesuit is operated manually. For this reason, the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) Thermal Control Group has been working with NASA for the past nine years on several related topics such as human thermal dynamics, spacesuit thermal dynamics, and the design of an automatic thermal comfort controller for advanced spacesuits. The objectives of this paper are to i) present and ii) discuss the thermal physiological differences between men and women. This information will then be included in the MU Human Thermal Model, which will improve its accuracy and account for gender variation and individuality.