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During future long-duration space missions, crewmembers will be subjected to periods of free time which may be monotonous and hypostimulating. Ground-based studies and Russian space missions have shown that dysphoria and interpersonal tension can occur during these times, and our survey of 54 astronauts and cosmonauts suggests that long-duration space travelers value access to media that can be used to occupy free time. Activities should be individualized, capable of privacy, and flexible enough to account for changing preferences. Important media include audio and video cassettes, news teleprinters, books, two-way televisions, games, and hobby and professional supplies.

This month, during an ongoing review of military training for rotary-wing aircraft, the GAO published a report highlighting gaps in the Department of Defense’s approach for collecting, reporting, and analyzing aviation mishap data to inform aviation risk-management decisions.

Human error has been shown to be a major factor influencing U.S. Army aviation and ground safety. This paper reviews human-error-related Army aviation mishap data and trends. It also describes the Army data bases related to safety issues, providing information on the data contents, access, capabilities and applications. Additionally, the paper discusses current Army initiatives toward resolution of human error safety problems.

Voice technology provides a potential for alleviating the extremely high visual and manual workload of Army helicopter pilots. Before voice technology can be successfully employed in the cockpit, there are many human factors issues that must be resolved. This paper describes the approach used to identify potential applications of voice technology in an Army helicopter and the emulation of a voice interactive doppler navigation set.

The task of chemical process operator in the parts cleaning area is generally considered unskilled labor and in the past, little or no training had been provided or recommended. Since overhaul cleaning is a critical process step prior to visual and fluorescent penetrant inspection processes, consideration must be given to minimum levels of training for these process operators. It is the responsibility of the department supervisor to ensure that all personnel within the department are trained to acceptable level in all general aspects of health and safety and basic operating procedures. This document is intended to augment the local quality control system which will control the application and frequency of the guidelines stated within.

The FAA Office of Aviation Medicine has developed, delivered, and tested a variety of training systems over the past decade. The systems, their design, and guidance materials are directly transferable to the aviation industry at no cost. This paper describes the many training systems that are available.

A trade study was conducted with a goal to develop relatively high TRL design concepts for an Exploration Cooling Garment (ExCG) that can accommodate larger metabolic loads and maintain physiological limits of the crewmembers health and work efficiency during all phases of exploration missions without hindering mobility. Effective personal cooling through use of an ExCG is critical in achieving safe and efficient missions. Crew thermoregulation not only impacts comfort during suited operations but also directly affects human performance. Since the ExCG is intimately worn and interfaces with comfort items, it is also critical to overall crewmember physical comfort. Both thermal and physical comfort are essential for the long term, continuous wear expected of the ExCG.

In providing crew life support for future exploration missions, overall exploration objectives will drive the life support solutions selected. Crew size, mission tasking, and exploration strategy will determine the performance required from life support systems. Human performance requirements, for example, may be offset by the availability of robotic assistance. Once established, exploration requirements for life support will be weighed against the financial and technical risks of developing new technologies and systems. Other considerations will include the demands that a particular life support strategy will make on planetary surface site selection, and the availability of precursor mission data to support EVA and in situ resource recovery planning. As space exploration progresses, the diversity of life support solutions that are implemented is bound to increase.

This Aerospace Recommended Practice (ARP) addresses direct touch interactive electronic display systems installed in the cockpit/flight deck for use by pilots. Direct touch refers to interactivity where the display screen is the input surface. This entire direct interactive electronic display system is referred to as the touch system throughout this document and covers those items related to direct interactive touch on display devices. In cases where only the display and touch device are being considered, this is referred to as the touch screen. The ARP covers system design guidelines as well as the considerations and recommendations for system performance and human factors. This ARP is intended to cover systems installed in 14 CFR Part 23, 25, 27, and 29 aircraft. As an ARP this document collects what are considered good practices by developers, users, and regulators of touch systems. The state of touch technology and the application of that technology is still evolving.

The ALS community faces unique challenges for the interactive modeling of a closed life support system. A top-level model is being developed as part of the System Studies and Modeling team of NJ-NSCORT. This top-level model has been broken down into several groups one of which is the ‘Human Requirements’ or ‘Human Factor’apos in an ALSS. This model examines the physical needs of crew members with respect to the effects of varying mission lengths, habitats and specific human characteristics. The model can be investigated independent of and interactive with the top-level model to examine the human factor using an object oriented approach. Through the object oriented programming language, Java, this model is meant to be accessible to the ALS community to aid in system analysis. This paper will explain the structure and examine the utility of the model with known requirements of humans in space.

The paper leverages the lessons drawn from the French military Electronic Copilot (EC) Program for future civil applications. The “Electronic Copilot” (EC) program involved applying unique human factors concepts to the area of knowledge based systems (KBS). A first section of the paper reviews these concepts and their integration into preliminary design. The EC explanatory program is now in its final stage. Project pros and cons are reviewed with regards to human factors and technical concepts, industry maturity, portability to civil aviation and certification issues.

This paper will look at some of the reasons why companies are beginning to provide their technicians with Human Factors training. It will enable an organization initiating its own training course or purchasing a training course to know what should be covered and what constitutes an effective program. The paper will also offer suggestions as to when it is more economical to contract out the training. There will be time allotted to allow for any questions you may have.

As planetary suit and planetary life support systems develop, specific design inputs for each system relate to a presently unanswered question concerning operational concepts: What distance can be considered a safe walking distance for a suited crew member exploring the surface of the Moon to ‘walkback’ to the habitat in the event of a rover breakdown, taking into consideration the planned extravehicular activity (EVA) tasks as well as the possible traverse back to the habitat? It has been assumed, based on Apollo program experience, that 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) will be the maximum EVA excursion distance from the lander or habitat to ensure the crew member's safe return to the habitat in the event of a rover failure. To investigate the feasibility of performing a suited 10 km walkback, NASA-JSC assembled a multi-disciplinary team to design and implement the ‘Lunar Walkback Test’.

The objective of this paper is to review the flight simulation facilities at NASA Ames Research Center, and to also consider the many uses of flight simulation that have emerged over the last decade. Flight simulators have evolved into a very useful and economic research tool. Component technologies have also evolved considerably to meet demands imposed by the aerospace community. In fact, the utilization of flight simulators for research and development has become so widely accepted that they are now being used as an integral element of much different and more complex domains. Whereas flight dynamics and control, guidance and navigation, human factors, vehicle design, mission assessment, and training have been, and perhaps always will be, the most popular research areas associated with simulation, many other areas have realized significant benefits from the use of simulation.

For the past thirty-five years the United States Air Force used the USAF Aircraft Structural Integrity Program (ASIP) to maintain safe and economical operation of aging aircraft. That program has been supported over the years by Air Force laboratory programs in the areas of fracture mechanics, corrosion prevention, flight loads, nondestructive evaluation, human factors, and maintenance and repair. These efforts provided the Air Force with the technology required to support the operational aircraft maintenance programs based on damage tolerance. There has also been a mutual need to develop the capability to estimate the time of onset of widespread fatigue damage that could degrade the damage tolerance capability of aircraft. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss the USAF aging aircraft program and its associated efforts.

This paper describes the initial results of a simulation experiment in which the human factors implications of three Mixed Equipage, Integrated Air-Ground, Free Flight Air Traffic Management (ATM) scenarios were investigated. The experiment primarily addressed how to accommodate a fleet of mixed equipped aircraft, with and without Airborne Separation Assurance System (ASAS), in a transitional free flight era in which both air and ground players have defined responsibilities. All three transitional ATM operational concepts evaluated, were designed with the idea that equipping aircraft should be immediately beneficial to the airlines.

Installation of a touch-sensitive control/display unit (touch-CDU) could improve the operational reliablility of future aircraft cockpits, providing that basic human factors issues are addressed early in the development phase of this device. The touch-CDU could be implemented with electronic displays to help: (1) reduce peak workload levels, (2) improve situational awareness, (3) improve the mental set of command and control over the process of flight, (4) reduce the number of controls outside of the optimum eye-hand envelope, (5) reduce crew error due to data-entry, (6) encourage cockpit designers to employ a systems approach. Although the technology exists to implement touch-CDUs in aircraft, several problem areas need to be studied: (1) the effects of turbulence, (2) glare and reflections, (3) cockpit location and orientation to the operator, (4) electronic display formats compatible with touch-entry activities.

The Requirements and Technical Concepts for Aviation, Inc. (RTCA) has recently proposed a new concept known as “free flight” for guiding the separation of aircraft in the National Airspace System (NAS). “Free flight” in the United States is a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) strategic goal for system capacity and for Air Traffic Services to improve accessibility, flexibility, and predictability in the national airspace in order to reduce flight times, crew resources, maintenance, and fuel costs. The scenarios in the current experiment were used to explore the farthest out parameters of “free flight” anticipated by RTCA in the year 2025.

This paper explores the current status of error management strategies and human factors efforts within regional airlines. It briefly addresses the potential needs of the environment from a perspective of the market’s accident and incident history as well as anecdotal reports received from members of the regional airline community. It also raises questions concerning the applicability of human factors and error management strategies developed in other segments of aviation to the problems faced within regional airline environments.

A causal analysis of aviation accidents that involved pilot error is presented. The analysis employs a top-down methodology that investigates the relationship between pilot errors and other causal factors with accidents. The Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) framework is utilized to produce a comprehensive causal analysis of accident groups. This analysis will compare and evaluate causal factor patterns for both accidents induced by pilot errors and those where pilot error was a contributor but not the initiating event. Pilot induced accidents are those initiated by an inappropriate action of the aircrew. That is, the National transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report cited pilot error first within its analysis defining accident causes, factors, and findings. Pilot contributed accidents are those that are initiated by some other causal factor (weather, aircraft failure, etc.) and the pilot’s inappropriate action played a part in the outcome.