PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (S): Owen K. Garriott, and Gary L. Doerre 



EXPERIMENT TITLE/NUMBER : Crew Efficiency on First Exposure to Zero-Gravity 



PROGRAM/MISSION : Skylab 2, 3, 4 



CLASSIFICATION : Human 



DISCIPLINE(S) : Behavioral science 



OBJECTIVES : To determine the effects of zero-g on crew efficiency. 



PROTOCOL : The many work tasks accomplished by each of the three Skylab crews 

 in their early activation phase were identified and their respective 

 performance times estimated. These work performances were compared with 

 pref light estimates of the rate at which work would be done, with crew output 

 later in the mission when adaptation was complete, and when the crewmembers 

 were experienced in zero-g conditions. The very substantial amount of work 

 devoted to repair tasks during the early mission days was also included. 



EQUIPMENT : None identified. 



RESULTS : It was found that on only two of of the nine full or partial 

 activation days was the crew output significantly reduced. On the day of 

 lowest efficiency, mission day 2 of the Skylab 3 mission, it appeared that the 

 crewmen were working at about T5% of their "normal" efficiency and may have 

 lost about 7 man-hours of work. Overall, a nearly constant level of work was 

 achieved on these activation days. However, as crew proficiency improved 

 later in the missions, the daily crew work output increased from a 26 

 man-hour/day to at least a 34 man-hour/day. 



CONCLUSIONS : A relatively modest amount of crew time may have been lost due 

 to motion sickness on Skylab missions 3 and 4 but each crew's performance was 

 never subtantially impaired for more than one day. During the three 

 activation intervals, less than 12 man-hours were lost to reduced efficiency 

 while almost 200 man-hours of productive work were delivered. Work rate 

 improved for tasks in which simulation and training time were extensive and 

 for tasks which allowed zero-gravity operations to be optimized. 



PUBLICATIONS : 209, 210 



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