Home Your browser does not support the video tag. The Systems Analysis and Functional Evaluation (SAFE) Lab is aiming to research and contribute to the development of more robust safety support systems in aerospace and space systems. The focus of the research in this laboratory is to provide a system engineering perspective on the safety and reliability of aerospace systems. The current main research thrust is on spacecraft occupant protection and assessment of the leading causes of general aviation aircraft accidents. Research VIEW ALL RESEARCH ยป Spacecraft Occupant Safety Spacecraft occupants are subject to risk from dynamic loads during spaceflight. On average, 1 out of 3 astronauts have been injured when landing back on Earth, and 9% have needed medical attention. As human spaceflight continues to expand and diversify, it is important to understand how spacecraft occupants sustain injuries in order to mitigate them. Development of a Ground-Based Analog for In-Flight Vestibular Disruption Upon entry into a microgravity environment, astronauts experience altered inputs to the vestibular system, leading to motion sickness and sensorimotor challenges. Current ground-based analogs such as parabolic flight are limited by high costs and short exposure periods (inadequate for studying adaptation to microgravity). The goal of this project is to develop a new ground-based analog for modeling these in-flight vestibular disturbances for both research and training applications. Altered Gravity Ambulation Future manned missions to the moon and Mars will require significant surface EVAs. Altered gravity and vestibular deconditioning are likely to have major impacts on gait and ambulation, but very little data is available as the only human extraterrestrial surface EVAs occurred during the Apollo lunar EVAs over 50 years ago. It is imperative to accurately characterize the impacts of these combined stressors on performance, gait, workload, cardiovascular load, and metabolic load in order to safely plan and conduct EVAs on extraplanetary surfaces. News Congratulations to John Hayes for receiving the Best Student Paper Award from the Aerospace Systems technical group! October 11th, 2024 Relevant Links FAA Aviation Accident Dashboard Global Human Body Models Consortium NASA Human Space Research Roadmap National Academies Board on Human Systems Integration SAFE Reliability Engineering Regents Approve Texas A&M Space Institute Texas A&M builds first-ever life-size simulation of the moon and Mars' surface Texas Space Comission Spacecraft Occupant Protection
