ONE SMALL STEP: A LOOK AT THE IMPACT OF OPENING UP CREW POSITIONS TO BELOW THE KNEE PROSTHETIC USERS ON ANALOG ASTRONAUT MISSIONS.

Brane, Lucas; Cooper, Mary; Diamond, Madison; Heft, Nicolas

INTRODUCTION: Recent shifts in human spaceflight have shown interest in including astronauts who fall outside the historical standards for selection. Most recently this trend has included persons with disabilities, however no data on the impact of this inclusion exists within the literature. METHODS: This observational study was conducted in the setting of at the LunAres ICAres-2 analog mission in Poland. The crew consisted of six people, 4 women, 2 men ranging in age from 23-42yrs, including one person with a disability (lower-limb amputee). The crew members were assigned anonymized numbers, which they used to fill out questionnaires after events where performance was to be measured. This included a perceived-effort rating scale (Borg RPE), perceived time taken, and any changes or modifications needed to complete a task. Additionally, objective time performance and error-rate data was obtained through video data with those tasks where these metrics pertained. RESULTS: In all activities that were measured the crewmember using the prosthetic scored in the middle range of values for perceived effort, time performance, and error rate. Additionally, there were only a few occasional modifications undertaken to complete a task, but it was not always the prosthetic-user needing to make the modifications. DISCUSSION: Acknowledging the paucity of data including persons with disabilities in this setting, and the small n involved in this study, the data interpretation must be undertaken with caution to its wider applicability at this time. However, the notable lack of performance delta in our crewmember using a prosthetic lower limb as compared with the able-bodied crew during normal operations opens up an interesting discussion on crew selection and performance measures in the analog environment. It also sets the stage for follow-up studies that might inform mission planners about where failure points could be when considering a prosthetic user for crew. Based on the findings in this study, this would require more examples of prosthetic users, different prosthetic systems, and likely more extreme testing environments to identify salient deltas in performance. Learning Objectives 1. To understand what mission impacts, planning considerations, or equipment adaptations might facilitate this inclusion, there needs to be a deliberate study of these ideas in a relevant setting. Because so few analog missions have included people with disabilities, this lack of data acts as a further barrier to their inclusion. 2. Impact of inclusion of persons with disability in spaceflight endeavors are, in many cases, not as onerous as it might first seem. The actual impact may be negligible, but there might also be a few small, but important details needed to facilitate inclusion, which must be studied to be understood. 3. Normal operations in this analog study did not produce a delta in performance between crew members. in highlight potential relevant deltas, additional studies which more aggressively focus on aspects of the crew member's disability, will be needed.

POLAND; ARTIFICIAL knees; KNEE; HUMAN space flight; INCLUSION (Disability rights); ASTRONAUTS; PEOPLE with disabilities

Aerospace Medicine & Human Performance, 2024, Vol 95, Issue 8, p550

2375-6314

Academic Journal