HUMAN FACTORS & BEHAVIORAL PERFORMANCE EVALUATION FRAMEWORK FOR INTRAVEHICULAR ACTIVITIES UNDER SIMULATED LUNAR GRAVITY: Focus on the Lunar Agriculture Module (LAM)

Kurzfassung

The Planetary Infrastructure Research Group at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is developing a Lunar Agriculture Module (LAM) to support sustainable food production and provide Bioregenerative Life Support System (BLSS) functions for long-duration lunar missions. Despite various ongoing research efforts on BLSS development and lunar surface human activities, a critical knowledge gap remains regarding how reduced gravity (0.16g) impacts human factors and behavioral performance (HFBP) during intravehicular activities (IVAs) in a lunar module. To fill the existing research gap, DLR is constructing the Lunar Agriculture Module – Reduced Gravity Simulator (LAM-RGS). The LAM-RGS integrates a Mixed Reality (MR) environment—combining Physical Reality (PR) mockups and Virtual Reality (VR) systems—with a gravity offloading system and multimodal data acquisition tools. This simulator will assess task performance, workload, and biomechanics under simulated lunar gravity conditions to optimize the internal system and rack design of the LAM, minimize ergonomic risks, and improve human-system interaction. To achieve these goals, this paper presents the experimental design and architecture of the LAM-RGS, introducing a four-pillar research framework consisting of: (1) simulator system development and experimental design, (2) system integration and validation, (3) human factors and performance assessment, and (4) data-driven design optimization. The proposed methodology provides a foundation for systematically evaluating human performance in lunar IVA operations and supports the evidence-based design of future lunar habitat systems.