August 23, 2006

Katherine K. Martin
Media Relations Office
216-433-2406
katherine.martin@grc.nasa.gov

RELEASE: 06-044

NASA AND CLEVELAND CLINIC WORK TO KEEP ASTRONAUTS STRONG

As NASA prepares to send humans back to the moon and out further into
our solar system, researchers are looking for better ways to keep
astronauts' bones and muscles strong.

Engineers at NASA's Glenn Research Center, and the Cleveland Clinic

Lerner Research Institute's Biomedical Engineering Department,
Cleveland, Ohio, have designed, built and are now testing subjects in
the Enhanced Zero-gravity Locomotion Simulator (eZLS) to simulate how
astronauts exercise during space travel. The eZLS utilizes principles
developed for the zero-gravity locomotion simulator currently in use
at Cleveland Clinic.

Glenn is collaborating with NASA's Exercise Countermeasures Project

and Cleveland Clinic in a study during which test subjects walk and
run on the eZLS while suspended by 20-foot cables hanging from the
ceiling.

This study focuses on the design of the exercise harness that

astronauts wear like a backpack while running on the International
Space Station (ISS) treadmill. The key to the success of load-bearing
exercise, such as treadmill running, is the application of gravity
replacement loads to the crew member via a subject load device
coupled to the body by a harness.

Astronauts are currently allotted up to 2.5 hours per day in exercise

activities, including donning and doffing equipment. They typically
log up to 30 minutes on the treadmill to help maintain fitness and
mitigate effects of spaceflight deconditioning, including bone and
muscle loss. However, crew feedback has indicated the harness
frequently causes chafing and discomfort.

"In this study, we are using the eZLS to understand how we may help
astronauts exercise more comfortably in space," said Gail Perusek,
NASA Glenn project manager for the eZLS. "The end results of this
study will help show us what design factors affect harness comfort,
so we can build better equipment more suited to achieve the greatest
benefit for crewmembers. The eZLS gives us a testbed to simulate
weightlessness and optimize exercise countermeasure devices such as
the harness. We can simulate partial gravity as well (i.e., the
gravity on the moon, or one sixth that of the Earth), so the eZLS has
relevance for lunar missions and beyond."

The prototype harness, developed by Cleveland Clinic utilizing

backpack technology, and the most recent harness developed for
astronauts by NASA will be evaluated to determine how they can best
be used to optimize exercise performed and thereby maintain bone and
muscle mass as well as cardiovascular health. This effort is being
conducted through a consortium called the Center for Space Medicine,
which provides a vehicle for collaborative research efforts by Glenn
and the Clinic to address physiological issues associated with
spaceflight.

Peter Cavanagh, Ph.D., D.Sc., chairman of the Clinic's Department of

Biomedical Engineering and Co-Director of the Center, as well as head
of the Bone Loss Team for the National Space Biomedical Research
Institute, and his laboratory team designed the harness as a way to
measure the benefits of exercise to combat bone loss both in space
and on Earth.

For the current study, test subjects have been recruited from Glenn,
its on-site contractors and the general public. Subjects have gone
through extensive pre-screening to ensure they are fit to exercise in
the simulator. Test subjects are then strapped into the harness and
suspended from the ceiling while they walk or run in a horizontal
position on a special vertical treadmill. In this position, there is
no gravitational force between the runner and the machine. As on the
treadmill used on the ISS, the subject wears the modified harness to
which a system of motors and cables are attached at the waist that
pull the runner toward the treadmill belt, exerting forces into the
harness and on the bottom of the runner's feet that are measured by
dozens of sensors.

NASA and Cleveland Clinic designed the eZLS so it would simulate the
conditions on the ISS as accurately as possible. When astronauts
exercise using the onboard treadmill, it is actually floating inside
the vehicle. This lightens the load on the ISS and reduces vibrations
that might disturb other experiments. As a result, the treadmill
moves a little with the runner, which may limit the effectiveness of
the exercise astronauts perform to keep healthy and strong.

To reproduce this floating effect, Glenn engineers added four bearings

that look like hockey pucks to the bottom of the eZLS. These bearings
have tiny holes that emit a thin film of air, causing the machine to
float like a puck on an air hockey table. This hovering version more
closely replicates the treadmill used in space.

The eZLS is part of Glenn's new Exercise Countermeasures Laboratory,

which provides the capability of simulating in-flight or zero
gravity, and surface or fractional gravity exercise to advance the
health and safety of the next generation of space explorers. The eZLS
is designed to allow development and validation of advanced exercise
countermeasure devices, design, operational requirements and exercise
prescriptions for mitigating the detrimental physiological effects of
long-duration spaceflight. Glenn is also building a similar
treadmill, the standalone Zero-gravity Locomotion Simulator, or sZLS,
for use in bed rest studies at the University of Texas Medical Branch
at Galveston, Texas. The first study will begin in 2007 with the goal
of evaluating countermeasure hardware and prescriptions used on the
ISS.

"The goals and objectives for future space exploration include

creation of a new spacecraft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, that will
return humans to the moon, and eventually Mars and beyond," said
Marsha Nall, manager of the Human Research Program at Glenn.
"Addressing physiological deconditioning associated with spaceflight
is a crucial part of this exploration vision."

For more information on the eZLS, visit

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/eZLS_treadmill_010306.html

For more information on the Exercise Countermeasures Project, visit:

http://hacd.jsc.nasa.gov/projects/ecp.cfm

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