Previous Experience in Manned Space Flight: A Survey of Human Factors Lessons Learned

Abstract

Three major manned-space programs have been conducted since the mid-1960's: the Apollo, Skylab, and Space Shuttle programs. Each program has contributed significant new data to the field of human factors and to gaining a greater understanding of how humans operate, function, behave, and adapt to the environment encountered in space. This study summarizes relevant human factors data bearing on the lessons learned from previous manned space flights. Our objective is to gather information available from relevant sources, to develop a taxonomy of human factors data, and to provide a centralized source of data that can be used in the future for those individuals involved in the design of manned-spacecraft operations. Our results have significance for the establishment and design of manned space vehicles. Methods developed in the collection and archival of human factors data during the course of this study also bear directly on questions of ways in which to systematically compile and characterize human factors data in other areas of research.