NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
Functional decor in the International Space Station: Body orientation cues and picture perceptionSubjective reports of American astronauts and their Soviet counterparts suggest that homogeneous, often symmetrical, spacecraft interiors can contribute to motion sickness during the earliest phase of a mission and can also engender boredom. Two studies investigated the functional aspects of Space Station interior aesthetics. One experiment examined differential color brightnesses as body orientation cues; the other involved a large survey of photographs and paintings that might enhance the interior aesthetics of the proposed International Space Station. Ninety male and female college students reclining on their backs in the dark were disoriented by a rotating platform and inserted under a slowly rotating disk that filled their entire visual field. The entire disk was painted the same color but one half had a brightness value that was about 69 percent higher than the other. The effects of red, blue, and yellow were examined. Subjects wearing frosted goggles opened their eyes to view the rotating, illuminated disk, which was stopped when they felt that they were right-side up. For all three colors, significant numbers of subjects said they felt right-side up when the brighter side of the disk filled their upper visual field. These results suggest that color brightness could provide Space Station crew members with body orientation cues as they move about. It was found that subjects preferred photographs and paintings with the greatest depths of field, irrespective of picture topic.
Document ID
19900004615
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Technical Memorandum (TM)
Authors
Coss, Richard G.
(California Univ. Davis., United States)
Clearwater, Yvonne A.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA., United States)
Barbour, Christopher G.
(Oregon Univ. Eugene., United States)
Towers, Steven R.
(California Univ. Davis., United States)
Date Acquired
September 6, 2013
Publication Date
November 1, 1989
Subject Category
Behavioral Sciences
Report/Patent Number
A-89260
NASA-TM-102242
NAS 1.15:102242
Accession Number
90N13931
Funding Number(s)
PROJECT: RTOP 482-52-21-01
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
No Preview Available