Affiliations: University of Colorado at Boulder, 3775 Discovery Dr., Boulder, CO, USA
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Kathrine N. Bretl, 3775 Discovery Drive Room 340, Boulder, CO 80303, USA. Tel.: +1 303 492 4015; Fax: +1 303 492 8883; E-mail: kathrine.bretl@colorado.edu.
Abstract: BACKGROUND:Humans can adapt to the “Coriolis” cross-coupled illusion with repeated exposure, improving the tolerability of faster spin rates and enabling short-radius, intermittent centrifugation for artificial gravity implementation. OBJECTIVE:This investigation assesses the criticality of personalization in acclimation to the cross-coupled illusion. METHODS:We used the median stimulus sequence of our previous effective and tolerable personalized, threshold-based protocol to develop a standardized (non-personalized) approach. During each of 10, 25-minute sessions, the spin rate was incremented independent of whether each subject reported experiencing the cross-coupled illusion. RESULTS:In comparison to the previous personalized protocol, the standardized protocol resulted in significantly reduced acclimation to the cross-coupled illusion (17.7 RPM threshold for the personalized protocol versus 11.8 RPM threshold for the standardized) and generally increased motion sickness reports (average reporting of 1.08/20 (personalized) versus 1.98/20 (standardized)), on average. However, the lack of individualization also leads to significantly less variance in subjects’ acclimation. CONCLUSIONS:These findings are critical for future missions that may require several astronauts to be acclimated concurrently, due to resource and time constraints. Assessing feasibility of fast spin rate, short-radius centrifugation is crucial for the future of artificial gravity implementation during spaceflight.
