Reduced Gravity Walking Simulator or Lunar Landing Walking Simulator was a facility developed by NASA in the early 1960s to study human locomotion under simulated lunar gravity conditions. Located at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia, it was designed to prepare astronauts for the Moon landing during the Apollo program.
Design and operation
editReduced gravity simulator was needed to prepare astronauts for the Moon landing. It was proposed by NASA engineer William Hewitt Phillips. The simulator was completed in 1965; 24 astronauts trained there for lunar missions. In 1972, it was redesigned into the Impact Dynamics Research Facility.[1]
The simulator consisted of an inclined walkway tilted at a 9.5° angle from horizontal. Test subjects were suspended on their side via cables attached to different parts of their body. This arrangement allowed them to walk along the inclined surface while experiencing only one-sixth of Earth's gravity - equivalent to the Moon's gravitational pull. The suspension system used multiple cables connected to an overhead monorail trolley that moved parallel to the walkway. This setup permitted subjects to walk, run, jump and perform other locomotive activities along the length of the walkway. However, lateral and rotational movements were restricted.[2][3][4]
According to Francis B. Smith, during the training, the suspended astronaut feels "approximately 1/6 of the earth's normal gravity field ... a 180 pound astronaut "standing" on the platform would exert a force of only 30 pounds - the same as if he were standing upright on the lunar surface".[5]
Scientists used the simulator to analyze the physiological effects of reduced gravity on various forms of locomotion: walking, jumping, and running; fatigue limit, energy expenditure, and speed of locomotion were also studied and measured.[5]
Subjects wore pressurized spacesuits[6] during some tests to more closely replicate lunar surface conditions.[4]
Gallery
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Astronaut training at the Reduced Gravity Simulator -
Astronaut training at the Reduced Gravity Simulator in the pressurized spacesuit -
Astronaut in the pressurized spacesuit -
Journalist Walter Cronkite at the simulator -
A model space suit being tested for use with the Reduced Gravity Walking Simulator
See also
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References
edit- ^ "NASA Landing and Impact Research Facility: To the moon and beyond". Air Combat Command. 26 June 2013. Retrieved 14 July 2024.
- ^ De Martino, Enrico; Green, David A.; Ciampi de Andrade, Daniel; Weber, Tobias; Herssens, Nolan (6 February 2023). "Human movement in simulated hypogravity—Bridging the gap between space research and terrestrial rehabilitation". Frontiers in Neurology. 14. doi:10.3389/fneur.2023.1062349.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link) - ^ Allain, Rhett. "How to Simulate Walking on the Moon—Without Leaving the Planet". Wired. Retrieved 14 July 2024.
- ^ a b Hewes, Donald E. (October 1969). "Reduced-Gravity Simulators for Studies of Man's Mobility in Space and on the Moon". Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. 11 (5): 419–431. doi:10.1177/001872086901100502.
- ^ a b "NASA Image and Video Library". NASA Image and Video Library. Retrieved 14 July 2024.
- ^ Mason, Betsy. "From the NASA Archive: The Lunar Walking Problem". Wired. Retrieved 14 July 2024.