Suborbital Pilot Assessment

The advent of commercial suborbital spaceflight will introduce new exposures and stress profiles to both pilots and passengers unique to the commercial field, and thus not previously studied during the era of government spaceflight activities. Among these stressors is the exposure of the crew to sustained high Gx (front-to-back) and Gz (head-to-toe) acceleration in highly demanding flight profiles outside the common experience of even skilled pilots in tactical aircraft. Currently, flight crew medical standards are minimal, though many aerospace specialists are encouraging the adoption of more stringent medical and physiological requirements for flight crew expected to undergo repeat flights within a short period of time. Recommendations for such requirements are limited due to a current lack of experience on which to base predictions of pilot performance or the specific physiological demands of such repetitive stress scenarios. This study proposes to use multiple training modalities, including the NASTAR centrifuge and aerobatic flight profiles, to expose pilots to repeated high Gx and Gz sustained acceleration, assess their performance and physiological responses during serial simulated launch and re-entry profiles, and evaluate the impact of fatigue with repetitive exposures.

• Record URL:
  http://www.coe-cst.org/index.html

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $146675
• Sponsor Organizations:

  Federal Aviation Administration Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation

  William J. Hughes Technical Center
  Atlantic City International Airport, NJ  United States  08405
• Managing Organizations:

  Federal Aviation Administration Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation

  William J. Hughes Technical Center
  Atlantic City International Airport, NJ  United States  08405
• Project Managers:

  Davidian, Ken

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Texas Medical Branch

  Galveston, TX  United States  77555
• Principal Investigators:

  Vanderploeg, James

• Start Date: 20140909
• Expected Completion Date: 20180817
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Acceleration (Mechanics); Air pilots; Commercial space transportation; Fatigue (Physiological condition); Spacecraft; Stress (Physiology)
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01678239
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Federal Aviation Administration Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation
• Files: RIP, USDOT
• Created Date: Aug 22 2018 1:03PM