Human Visual Orientation in Weightlessness Charles M. Oman Man Vehicle Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 Abstract: An astronaut's sense of self-orientation is relatively labile, since the gravitational “down” cues provided by gravity are absent and visual cues to orientation are often ambiguous, and familiar objects can be difficult to recognize when viewed from an unfamiliar aspect. This chapter
orientation of the vehicle is described in engineering t gular and linear position, velocity, acceleration, and often other factors. Engineers are tly confronted with
“One should beware of mathematicians and all who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and confine man in the bonds of Hell” St Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, circa 400 A.D “To move things is all that Mankind can do…For such the
Muscles Active while Lengthening Consider the example of ordinary exercise, lets say one of the running events in the Olympics. Muscle functions to stop the motion of the athlete as often as it does to start it. When a load larger than isometric tetanus tension To is applied to a muscle in a tetanic state of activation, the muscle lengthens at a constant
Early Ideas about Muscular Contraction Hippocrates thought that the tendons caused the body to move (he confused tendons with nerves, and in fact used the same word, neuron, for both)
Principal Aim To assess the strength changes, and associated change in fracture risk, due to structural alterations in the proximal femora of astronauts experiencing longterm weightlessness
