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Effect of Active Muscles on Astronaut Kinematics and Injury Risk for Piloted Lunar Landing and Launch While Standing

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Abstract

While astronauts may pilot future lunar landers in a standing posture, the response of the human body under lunar launch and landing-related dynamic loading conditions is not well understood. It is important to consider the effects of active muscles under these loading conditions as muscles stabilize posture while standing. In the present study, astronaut response for a piloted lunar mission in a standing posture was simulated using an active human body model (HBM) with a closed-loop joint-angle based proportional integral derivative controller muscle activation strategy and compared with a passive HBM to understand the effects of active muscles on astronaut body kinematics and injury risk. While head, neck, and lumbar spine injury risk were relatively unaffected by active muscles, the lower extremity injury risk and the head and arm kinematics were significantly changed. Active muscle prevented knee-buckling and spinal slouching and lowered tibia injury risk in the active vs. passive model (revised tibia index: 0.02–0.40 vs. 0.01–0.58; acceptable tolerance: 0.43). Head displacement was higher in the active vs. passive model (11.6 vs. 9.0 cm forward, 6.3 vs. 7.0 cm backward, 7.9 vs. 7.3 cm downward, 3.7 vs. 2.4 cm lateral). Lower arm movement was seen with the active vs. passive model (23 vs. 35 cm backward, 12 vs. 20 cm downward). Overall simulations suggest that the passive model may overpredict injury risk in astronauts for spaceflight loading conditions, which can be improved using the model with active musculature.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a NASA Human Research Program Student Augmentation Award to NASA Grant No. NNX16AP89G. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the GHBMC, NASA, or KBR. All simulations were run on the Wake Forest University DEAC high performance computing cluster with the support of Cody Stevens and Adam Carlson.

Conflict of interest

Dr. Stitzel and Dr. Gayzik are co-owners and Dr. Weaver is a consultant of Elemance, LLC, which provides academic and commercial licenses for the GHBMC-owned human body computer models.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, 575 N. Patterson Ave, Suite 530, Winston-Salem, NC, 27101, USA

    Mitesh Lalwala, Karan S. Devane, Bharath Koya, F. Scott Gayzik, Joel D. Stitzel & Ashley A. Weaver

  2. Virginia Tech-Wake Forest Center for Injury Biomechanics, 575 N. Patterson Ave, Suite 530, Winston-Salem, NC, 27101, USA

    Mitesh Lalwala, Karan S. Devane, Bharath Koya, F. Scott Gayzik, Joel D. Stitzel & Ashley A. Weaver

  3. Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, 525 Vine Street, Winston-Salem, NC, 27101, USA

    Fang-Chi Hsu

  4. KBR, 2400 NASA Parkway, Houston, TX, 77058, USA

    Keegan M. Yates & Nathaniel J. Newby

  5. NASA Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Parkway, Houston, TX, 77058, USA

    Jeffrey T. Somers

Authors
  1. Mitesh Lalwala
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  2. Karan S. Devane
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  3. Bharath Koya
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  4. Fang-Chi Hsu
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  5. Keegan M. Yates
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  6. Nathaniel J. Newby
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  7. Jeffrey T. Somers
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  8. F. Scott Gayzik
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  9. Joel D. Stitzel
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  10. Ashley A. Weaver
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Correspondence to Ashley A. Weaver.

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Associate Editor Stefan M. Duma oversaw the review of this article.

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Lalwala, M., Devane, K.S., Koya, B. et al. Effect of Active Muscles on Astronaut Kinematics and Injury Risk for Piloted Lunar Landing and Launch While Standing. Ann Biomed Eng 51, 1408–1419 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-023-03143-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-023-03143-y

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