ASTRONAUT WEARABLE WORKSTATION 1987
PROJECT WITH SPACEHAB INC
The purpose of the workstation was to provide astronauts with a mobile microgravity (weightlessness) work interface for use in space modules. Workstation functions include daily crew timelines, crew task checklists, experiment command input and data retrieval, housekeeping duties,
crew health, emergency systems, communications to and from the ground and video surveillance of all internal Station areas.
A working prototype, (black-and-white photos below) was built in 1987 from off-the-shelf hardware parts. It combined hinged worksurfaces and clipboard attachments mounted on a tubular alloy framework supported by the wearer's back and held firm by a waist harness. When in use, it unfolded outwards in front of
the wearer. When not in use, it folded up against the wearer's torso. The prototype incorporated the Tandy TRS-80 Model 100, the first commercially available notebook-sized laptop computer. Apple introduced its first laptop two years later. Workstation functions would operate in any part of the Station using a short range wireless link, such as Bluetooth, which was not commercially available until the early 2000s. The prototype was tested on a NASA-Spacehab KC-135 simulated microgravity flight (photos top) from Houston in 1987. The flight operator was Joe Kennedy, a graduate student at Southern California Institute of Architecture and the first architecture student to fly on a NASA KC-135 flight. The tests confirmed the ergonomic feasibility of the design.
