Rotary chair vestibular experiment in Skylab

(August 9, 1973) Scientist-astronaut and electrical engineer Owen K Garriott (1930-2019), Skylab 3 science pilot, serves as a test subject for the Skylab Human Vestibular Function M131 experiment in this image from a television transmission made by a color TV camera aboard the Skylab space station in Earth’s orbit. The objectives of the M131 experiment were: (1) assess specific behavioral or physiological responses influenced by vestibular activity under 1-g and zero-g conditions; (2) determine man's adaptability to unusual vestibular conditions and predict habitability of future spacecraft conditions involving reduced gravity and Coriollis forces; and (3) measure the accuracy and variability in man's judgment of spatial coordinates based on atypical gravity receptor cues and inadequate visual cues. Dr. Garriott is seated in the experiment's "litter chair," which can rotate the test subject at predetermined rotational velocity or a programmed acceleration/deceleration profile. (Source: NASA/Johnson Space Center [Houston]. NASA ID: S73-34171. Public domain.)