The main objective is to evaluate crew preference for advanced technology, light-weight COTS clothing in the microgravity space craft environment. Such clothing is expected to facilitate long-duration wear. Clothing with longer wear and lighter weight will permit reductions in up-mass and storage requirements. The BDC component of the study will permit correlation or calibration of the preference data with preference data collected during flight.
APPROACH:
Pre- and Postflight Baseline Data Collection:
The BDC can occur preflight or postflight based on crewmember scheduling convenience. Only exercise t-shirts and shorts will be evaluated for the BDC component of the study. Crew members will be randomly assigned t-shirts and shorts. Each crewmember will be provided with 2 t-shirts and 2 shorts. When the crewmember determines that a garment is no longer wearable, it will be replaced with the extra garment that the crewmember has for the next exercise period. The study team will be contacted via email or phone to pick up the retired garment(s) and provide additional replacement garments.
Data on when garments are donned and doffed and on exercise type will be collected for the periods that t-shirt and shorts are worn.
In-flight: portion of the study can be scheduled anytime the crewmember has 15 consecutive days (except weekends) available to wear both the routine wear shirts and the exercise wear garments. Crewmembers will be randomly assigned t-shirts and shorts. The exercise wear garments will only be worn during the cardiovascular exercise sessions (T2, TVIS, CEVIS). After each exercise session, a short questionnaire will be taken. The exercise clothing shall be mounted on a hard surface to dry for no more than 3 hours and then stowed away in a flame-retardent bag until the next use. If the crewmember determines that the garment is no longer wearable, it will be retired from use and replaced with a remaining garment from the study.
The routine wear garments will be worn during nominal daily activities. If a non-study shirts is required to be worn (ex. PAO session), it shall be worn over the study shirt. At the end of the day, a short questionnaire will be taken on a SSC and the shirt shall be stowed with other crew clothing. If the crew member determines that the garment is no longer wearable, it will be retired from use and replaced with a remaining garment from the study.
RESULTS:
Results from this experiment are currently not available.