The human performance during weightlessness was tested in a multiplicity of laboratory experiments during parabolic flights and in space. It is therefore known that human fine motor skills as grasping are affected by the impact of changing gravity levels. However, because everyday life movements differ in several aspects from those done in an experimental lab situation, investigators do not know until know if this kind of movements is altered in the same extend. Fine motor skills seem to depend on the context in which they are made. Thus, the performance in weightlessness during everyday life could substantially differ from the results given by previous laboratory studies. This assumption will be tested in the present project, with subjects executing one and the same grasping movement in two different contexts, both in normal gravity conditions and in weightlessness. To that end, the investigators developed a new method which allows comparing the same grasping movements under different conditions.
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Gravity induced change in movement time (ms)
Timeframe: baseline
Gravity induced change in peak velocity of the hand (deg/sec)
Timeframe: baseline
Gravity induced change in the maximum grip aperture of the hand (mm)
Timeframe: baseline
Gravity induced change in the initial force applied by the hand on the grasped object (newton)
Timeframe: baseline