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Analysis of Factors and Countermeasures for Astronaut Space Disorientation

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Book cover Man-Machine-Environment System Engineering (MMESE 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering ((LNEE,volume 406))

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Abstract

In the manned spaceflight, since the gravitational “down” cues provided by gravity are absent and visual cues to orientation are often ambiguous, the altered gravity environments affect astronaut’s sense of self-orientation and can lead to spatial disorientation and space motion sickness, affect the operational performance of astronauts, eventually threat astronaut’s life and result in mission failure. Several types of representation of disorientation based on different situations are described, the influencing factors of disorientation according to human physiology and cognition are discussed, the research methods and progresses currently are summarized, and several possible countermeasures, such as pharmaceuticals, virtual reality, galvanic vestibular stimulation and artificial gravity, are analyzed.

Project support: National Defense Basic Scientific Research Plan (B1720132001).

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Correspondence to Xiuqing Zhu .

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© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore

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Zhu, X. et al. (2016). Analysis of Factors and Countermeasures for Astronaut Space Disorientation. In: Long, S., Dhillon, B. (eds) Man-Machine-Environment System Engineering. MMESE 2016. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 406. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2323-1_36

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2323-1_36

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-2322-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-2323-1

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