Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Michaud, Roger.
Brief report proposes use of flexible tunnel to provide "soft docking" between Space Shuttle Orbiter and space station during resupply visits. Soft docking reduces risks of structural damage to either spacecraft during docking maneuvers, provides adaptable docking interface, and avoids jarring sensitive material-processing experiments in space station. After docking, tunnel pressurized to enable exchange of people and cargo between two spacecraft.
The Biomedical Research Project (BmRP), a major component of the NASA Life Sciences Space Station Program, incorporates a laboratory for the study of the effects of microgravity on the human body, and the development of techniques capable of modifying or counteracting these effects. Attention is presently given to a representative scenario of BmRP investigations and associated engineering analyses, together with an account of the evolutionary process by which the scenarios and the Space Station design requirements they entail are identified. Attention is given to a tether-implemented 'variable gravity centrifuge'.