A New Harness For Use with Exercise Countermeasures-Validation of Improved Comfort and Loading with the Center for Space Medicine (CSM) Harness

This Station Development Test Objective (SDTO) assesses whether crewmembers can exercise more comfortably and at higher loads using a new treadmill harness developed through the Center for Space Medicine (CSM) and identified as the CSM Harness, as compared to the existing International Space Station (ISS) treadmill harness. The hypotheses are as follows: i) the CSM Harness will provide greater overall comfort than the current U.S. Treadmill with Vibration Isolation and Stabilization System (TVIS) harness (hereafter referred to as the ISS treadmill harness); ii) crewmembers will be able to tolerate higher external loads from the subject load device and/or Series Bungee System (SBS) Bungees; iii) load distribution measurements collected with strain-gage-based buckle transducer instrumentation between shoulders and hips will correlate with subjective measures of comfort; and iv) the CSM Harness will provide more effective wear and adjustability (easier adjustments, and adjustments will stay fixed once they are set, breathable biocide outer fabric, etc.).

The CSM Harness design has potential to improve comfort, wear, and adjustment effectiveness on-orbit. To support this SDTO, NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) delivered seven (7) flight-certified CSM Harnesses with buckle transducer instrumentation and the instrumentation for 7 ISS treadmill harnesses plus spares. The buckle transducer instrumentation will converge at a junction box, which shall interface with the Ambulatory Data Acquisition System (ADAS) for data recording. The ADAS has previously flown as payload hardware sponsored by the ISS Medical Project (ISSMP) for the Foot Experiment (Experiment Identifier: #96-E318, ISS Expeditions 6, 8, 11, 12) and will be provided by ISSMP. Subject loading data will be collected for eight total sessions in-flight (4 with each harness) with each of five subjects as part of this SDTO. For these 8 sessions, a unique harness evaluation protocol will be followed for the crewmembers’ nominal treadmill exercise session.

The SDTO research protocol is aimed at improving comfort, plus increasing consistent loading for crewmembers exercising on the ISS treadmill(s). The CSM Harnesses will be instrumented to allow for objective correlation with subjective ratings of comfort. To provide a direct comparison with the ISS treadmill harness, the load distribution and subject load device loading applied to the ISS treadmill harness will also be measured. The ISS treadmill harnesses will be instrumented by the crew on-orbit during a one-time set up activity. Current monitoring does not allow measurement of inflight load distribution of the harness or the applied external load – these objective data sets may be correlated with subjective comfort data for improved designs and for existing and advanced concept exercise countermeasures systems requiring crewmember harnessing.