Rotary chair experiments in Spacelab (1)

(Jan 30, 1992) Canadian astronaut and neurologist Roberta L Bondar (b 1945), STS-42 Payload Specialist, gets into the Microgravity Vestibular Investigations (MVI) rotator chair to begin an experiment. The chair is mounted in the center aisle of the International Microgravity Laboratory 1 (IML-1) Spacelab module. Just above Bondar's head is the helmet assembly, which is outfitted with accelerometers to measure head movements, and with visors that fit over each eye independently to provide visual stimuli. The chair system has three movement patterns: (1) "sinusoidal" or traveling predictably back and forth over the same distance at a constant speed; (2) "pseudorandom" or moving back and forth over varying distances; and (3) "stepped" or varying speeds beginning and stopping suddenly. (Source: NASA/Johnson Space Center [Houston]. NASA ID: STS042-06-031. Public domain.)