Spacewalking will be among the most important and highest risk activities during human missions to Mars. Heavier spacesuits, more frequent spacewalks, fewer options for responding to emergencies, and no real-time support from mission control are just a few of the factors that will make Mars walking more hazardous than any other spacewalks.
- How can we reduce the risk of being injured in a spacesuit by an order of magnitude?
- How can we ensure equal protection of health and performance for all astronauts regardless of sex or anthropometry?
- How can we design our systems, training, and operations to accommodate the full range of crewmember physiological and cognitive variability?
- Why will decompression sickness risk during spacewalks be greater than for all previous missions and what can we do about it?
- How can we provide real-time health and performance support to astronauts when communication between Earth and Mars is significantly delayed or completely unavailable?
- This talk will investigate the significant challenges in maintaining astronauts’ health and performance as they use spacesuits to explore the Martian surface, and envisioned evolutions in technology, training, and operations to meet these challenges will be discussed.
Speaker: Dr. Andrew Abercromby
Dr. Andrew Abercromby received an M.Eng. in mechanical engineering from the University of Edinburgh (2002) and a Ph.D. in motor control from the University of Houston (2006).
Andrew has over 20 years of experience at NASA, most recently as Lead of Human Physiology, Performance, Protection and Operations (H-3PO), supporting multiple NASA programs as well as partnering with commercial spaceflight companies, Department of Defense, and multiple universities to provide world-class health and performance in extreme environments on earth and in space.
Andrew’s professional interests focus on measurement and optimization of human performance and operations in extreme environments and have included studies in deserts, active volcanoes, Arctic impact craters, and reduced-gravity parabolic aircraft. Andrew’s favorite extreme environment experiences include living underwater for two weeks during the NEEMO-14 mission, diving in an Antarctic lake beneath 4 meters of ice, fighting wildfires in California, and spending a summer working on construction sites in Houston, Texas.
This lecture will be held on Zoom from 7:00pm-8:30pm CST.
Please register here for Zoom: https://riceuniversity.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_cZxOCcAhTri9DFu9190bZw
Free