The purpose of this phase of the project was to design an innovative system for evaluating space suit mobility and stability in conditions that simulate EVA on the surface of the Moon or Mars. While prior volumes in the series focus on novel data-analytic techniques, this volume addresses technology that is necessary for minimally intrusive data collection and near-real-time data analysis and display.

The operational validity of the ground-based investigation was improved by building a device that increased the degrees of freedom of extravehicular mobility unit motion on the Precision Air-Bearing Floor. The results revealed subtle patterns of interaction between motions of an orbital replacement unit mockup and mass handler that should be important for effective performance on orbit.

In this volume of the NASA Technical Paper, we describe the details of our empirical protocol for investigating skill in extravehicular mass handling using NASA's principal mass handling simulator, the precision air bearing floor. As a preface to the presentation of the empirical data in Volume III of this report series, a set of detailed hypotheses is presented.