Today’s Spotlight features an animation, by Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT, about how vibrating shoes could help astronauts and the visually impaired avoid obstacles.
Video of astronauts tripping over moon rocks can make for entertaining Internet viewing, but falls in space can jeopardize astronauts’ missions and even their lives. Getting to your feet in a bulky, pressurized spacesuit can consume time and precious oxygen reserves, and falls increase the risk that the suit will be punctured.
Most falls happen because spacesuit helmets limit visibility, so researchers from MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) and the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts are developing a new space boot with built-in sensors and tiny “haptic” motors, whose vibrations can guide the wearer around or over obstacles.
Read the full article on MIT News.
Video of astronauts tripping over moon rocks can make for entertaining Internet viewing, but falls in space can jeopardize astronauts’ missions and even their lives. Getting to your feet in a bulky, pressurized spacesuit can consume time and precious oxygen reserves, and falls increase the risk that the suit will be punctured.
Most falls happen because spacesuit helmets limit visibility, so researchers from MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) and the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts are developing a new space boot with built-in sensors and tiny “haptic” motors, whose vibrations can guide the wearer around or over obstacles.
Read the full article on MIT News.