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Every kind of human activity in space is made at least different on often more difficult by the peculiarity of the environment, characterized by the almost complete lack of gravity. It is difficult to realize, when staying with our own feet firmly on ground, how life could be altered by the absence of the ever present force of gravity! Among all the psychological faculties directly affected by microgravity, easy and quick orientation, and object identification (as they depend on the visual environment) are analyzed. This work follows on from previously published work (cf. ICES '91) by the authors, highlighting the importance of sensible groundrules in color choice for a space environment, to optimize the above-mentioned capabilities, to which crew performance reliability and safety are directly linked.

Space hardware design, as well as that for hardware destined to work in 1-g environment, needs to be submitted to a complete design verification process before final utilisation in nominal conditions. As space hardware ground verification is difficult and expensive, a design verification philosophy has been developed in order to reach, as far as possible, the highest degree of space hardware reliability and usability and hence to increase crew productivity via a perfect integration of man and machines. This activity is mainly based on a complete hardware testing process (first on ground, then in microgravity simulated environment and, at the end, during a short duration space mission) and on a correct test procedure preparation in order to avoid inconveniences during test execution. Opportunity for an application of the design verification philosophy has been given by Columbus Precursor Flights and the related MIRIAM '95 programme.