A summary of the Skylab crew/vehicle disturbances experiment T-013

Abstract

A manned space flight experiment (designated experiment T-013) to assess the characteristics of astronaut crew-motion disturbances was conducted on the second manned Skylab mission. A brief description of the experiment hardware utilized is given, and a comprehensive discussion of the experiment data reduction and analysis is presented. Data obtained from a force-measuring system, an astronaut limb-motion measuring system, motion-picture film, and the Skylab attitude and pointing control system is described. Results show that astronaut crew members can produce significant disturbance inputs to a spacecraft's attitude control system. Total forces of up to 400 N were exerted during vigorous soaring activities, whereas ""restrained'' motions by the experiment subject generated total forces of up to 300 N. A discussion of potential applications of the experiment results is given and appendixes provide additional detail with respect to experiment operations and results