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One of the issues that extended spaceflight raises is the provision to the crew of a living environment not only safe but also comfortable and pleasant, two features which also enhance crew productivity. Interior design and decor are understood to gain more relevance as mission duration increases. This means that colour theory application to the actual space system configuration becomes a fundamental step. Obviously, two other relevant variables are the impact of the overall environment (e.g., illumination, structural design, other decorative techniques adopted) and the personal taste, mediated by his own experience, of the designer. The presented work started from a brief review of the general principles pertaining to colour theory, analyzing commonly accepted systems used to categorize and individualize colours with an unambiguous procedure, to exploit the theory as an exact, almost mathematical, tool.

Microorganism accumulation and growth onboard a spacecraft may impact adversely on crew efficiency and safety as well as system, subsystems and payload. The results of test campaigns performed at Alenia Spazio in Summer 1993 are reported here. From them, some simple and effective prevention methods to be applied during the manufacturing and integration phases of a pressurised spacecraft have been identified and are here discussed. Although data obtained from Earth experience may be considered useful, it is uncertain and unfit for space station operational lifespan. Therefore, it is necessary to build a model of the phenomenon, able to provide a series of quantitative data as a function of different parameters related to environmental characteristics, crew, and on-board activities.

In the ANNIE project - Applications of Neural Networks to Integrated Ergonomics - BE96-3433, a tool for integrating ergonomics into the design process is developed. This paper presents some features in the current ANNIE as applied to the design of car interiors. A variant of the ERGOMan mannequin with vision is controlled by a hybrid system for neuro-fuzzy simulation. It is trained by using an Elite system for registration of movements. An example of a trajectory generated by the system is shown. A fuzzy model is used for comfort evaluation. An experiment was performed to test its feasibility and it showed very promising results.