Neutral Body Posture in Spaceflight

The neutral body posture (NBP) has been characteristically observed from crewmembers in a 0 g space flight. This study quantified the NBP from International Space Station crewmembers using a new technique for structured camera calibration and multiple-camera 3D triangulation. Template manikins derived from 3D body scans of the individual subjects also were used to improve accuracy. A skeletal link system was embedded in the manikin and articulated to reproduce the posture matching with the calibrated video images. The estimated body shapes and postures were compared against the NASA Technical Standards. The NBP, as more reliably estimated from this study, can help to improve spaceflight hardware and spacesuit design.