Space Station Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Operational Considerations

One of the questions to be addressed in the development of the Space Station is how to best divide tasks between Intravehicular Activity (IVA) and Extravehicular Activity (EVA). While there may be a tendency to assume the flight crew is available for any maintenance task whether IVA or EVA, there are a number of impacts which must be assessed prior to assigning a task to the crew rather than utilizing an automated system. This is particularly true when crew utilization will involve an EVA.