ASTRONAUT SAFETY

SPACEX CREW SAFETY TESTING

MEASURING LAUNCH & LANDING FORCES ON CREW DRAGON CAPSULE

The Challenge:

• Collecting physical measurements in the extreme environment indicative of space travel
• Capturing head, neck and spine loads and forces astronauts may experience during launch, flight and landing
• Support multiple SpaceX Crew Dragon missions, as well as Blue Origin and NASA
• Meet strict size, mass, and power constraints for payload
• Data acquisition equipment & sensors that can withstand the rigors of flight, including to and from the International Space Station (ISS)

The Solution:

• Hybrid III-50M Anthropomorphic Test Device (Ripley) embedded with miniature, rugged DTS data acquisition systems (DAS) and sensors
• Modular and portable DAS and sensors that maintain mass and CoG
• DAS that supports a variety of channel counts and sensor inputs including IEPE, plus built-in sensor options
• Positioning DAS near the sensors to eliminate cable runs to improve data quality and create a more realistic human analog
• Store in place reliability, data writes directly to non-volatile flash memory
• Easy system set-up with intuitive software

Video & Images Courtesy of SpaceX