Water-Immersion Technique for Simulation of Ingress-Egress Maneuvers Under Conditions of Weightlessness

A water-immersion technique has been developed whereby a pressure-suited subject, unrestrained by connecting lines and hoses, can simulate maneuvers under conditions of weightlessness in six degrees of freedom. This simulation has been applied to a series of ingress-egress experiments, and some of the results are described in this paper. The results of these experiments indicate that the technique has application to the study of human factors and capabilities in extravehicular space operations and to a determination of design criteria for advanced manned space vehicles and related equipment.