posted 01-07-2009 03:15 PM               

HANS Helps NASA Protect Next Generation Astronauts

HANS Performance Products is working with NASA and NASCAR on proven ways to help protect NASA's future generation of astronauts.

NASA recognizes that recent improvements in racing safety can help protect crewmembers while in space and returning to earth. Working with Dr. Bob Hubbard, inventor of the HANS Device, NASA is cooperating with NASCAR to simulate racing crashes and to expand and refine injury assessment and protection technologies.

Dr. Hubbard said "Energy management and rapid body motions are something we really understand." He continued, "NASA wants to know how the principles and practices learned in auto racing can improve the effectiveness of similar restraint systems used in spacecraft. There is no doubt we are contributing significantly to crew safety."

NASA plans to use knowledge gained in auto racing to help them improve protection for future spacecraft, including the Orion Crew Vehicle which is expected to return Americans to the moon as early as 2020.

HANS Performance Products CEO Mark Stiles had a final word: "Whether returning from the moon, racing down a quarter mile or lapping a racetrack, astronauts and racing drivers require advanced safety systems like those developed by HANS Performance Products."

The HANS Device is worn by more than 65,000 racers worldwide and continues to be the #1 choice for performance, #1 for vision and #1 for winners.

posted 01-07-2009 03:23 PM               

Until recently (last 10 years) it was thought humans could not survive impacts of 100g's or more. There was all kinds of misinformation about safety in automotive wrecks, much of it "intuitive" or shade-tree in nature, and therefore incorrect or at best unreliable.

Progressive motor racing sanctioning bodies, and the inventors of the HANS Device, starting investigating vehicle crashes in a scientific manner using laboratory sled tests to help understand the situation. Impacts are over in under 100 milliseconds (often half that) and are very complex events. Dr. Hubbard (HANS inventor) was instrumental in developing the crash dummy used to simulate these impacts. Even today it is not possible to perfectly duplicate a human in an auto crash. The current dummy, for instance, although very advanced has a solid spine and an aluminum chest - both very different from real people.

Research, mainly by HANS and others, showed drivers could survive much higher wrecks if they were packaged correctly. Put simply, you have to limit the things the driver can interact with. In 1999, Ritchie Hearn survived a 140g impact with a concrete wall - he suffered a broken foot, and was wearing a HANS Device. In 2001, there were four high profile deaths in NASCAR auto racing - one which was Dale Earnhardt. Earnhardt died at an impact speed of 43mph. He would absolutely have been saved by a HANS Device, this was not a big impact.

This fatality pushed NASCAR into the front lines of safety research. Previously a bit behind in this area, they now lead the world. They have a database of over 4,000 crashes that attempts to correlate accident severity (both in delta V or change in velocity and peak g - there is some discussion over which is more valuable) with injury. The military has similar databases, and there is some kind of accident severity index that allows data to be used back and forth between the databases.

However, the seat and harness systems used in these safety systems are very confining. They are not practical for a space vehicle. One critical value is the tension put on the straps. Often a crew member reaches in and helps the driver strap down. That isn't possible in a returning space vehicle, and the astronauts might be tired or otherwise busy and not give this enough attention. But it is super critical to the performance of the restraint system, and NASA found this out in early testing. They would make a tiny change in the tightness of the straps and get a huge change in the test result and got confused, not understanding the importance of this value.

So the challenge is to give NASA astronauts the level of safety a modern race car offers. NASA thinks it must limit the impacts to 20g's and this brought some discussion. Some engineers believe the capsule can be designed to safely see the crew through a 100g impact. NASA counters that kind of impact would destroy the vehicle so it wouldn't matter. NASA misses the point that drivers often walk away from destroyed vehicles, and the race boys miss the point that a NASCAR does not contain pressurized hydrazine or ammonia etc.

NASA wants to use the ideas of smart safety experts including their own, and the NASCAR injury prediction database, to try and establish safety levels for Orion.

posted 01-08-2009 08:53 AM               

From the picture released of the proposals that are on the board, it seems that some follow what the Russians have done with Soyuz for decades: form fitting seats, knee supports and foot restraints. If there is one thing that NASA can see from the Soyuz program is the old saying "if it ain't broke dont fix it".

posted 01-08-2009 12:16 PM               

I believe the deaths of Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin and (of course) Dale Earnhardt, all suffering basal skull fractures, sparked NASCAR's interest in HANS technology.

Funny, when I was reading the Columbia survivability report about the seat restraint problems, I immediately thought back to the Earnhardt report, which was equally detailed about a similar seat belt failure.

posted 01-08-2009 12:27 PM               

Ringo 67 makes an excellent point about crew restraint systems. Research has shown the tighter the restraint the better it works. But how can we closely restrain someone in a pressure suit? It's a tough problem, and they are now trying restraints that pass through the suit. This raises other problems like the integrity of the suit.

posted 12-23-2010 01:55 PM               

NASA Completes First Test for Space-Age HANS

What do HANS Device inventor Dr. Robert Hubbard, NASA and NASCAR have in common? All three are collaborating in an effort to improve crash restraints for astronauts.

The first series of crash sled tests was recently undertaken at Wright Patterson Air Force Base using a dummy fitted with a prototype restraint for use during NASA launches and landings. Dustin Gohmert of the Crew and Thermal Systems Division of NASA directed the tests.

The new head restraint resulted from a collaboration first undertaken in 2008 at the Texas Motor Speedway, where officials from NASA's Johnson Space Center and Hubbard met with NASCAR officials to discuss the use of the sanctioning body's data base for assessing crash injury dynamics. NASCAR subsequently provided data taken from recorders in race vehicles, which facilitates the development of injury criteria for astronauts by using computer modeling in conjunction with the real world experience from NASCAR competition.

The prototype HANS-type head restraint for astronauts is comprised of a round collar and yoke made from carbon fiber. The helmet and neck ring of the space suit fit to the round collar and yoke, a single unit to be held in place by an astronaut's shoulder belts.

The testing was the first of more to follow. "The issue is to understand crew safety well enough to optimize crash injury reduction with the many, many other considerations such as weight and the unique environment of space and other threats to crew safety like emergency egress," said Hubbard, who has been a consultant to NASA since 2007.

The new prototype was built by Jerry "Rabbitt" Lambert of Downing/Atlanta Composites. Lambert has worked as a fabricator for the race team of Jim Downing since 1986. He has participated in four IMSA championships by Downing's team and the LMP2 class victory at the Le Mans 24-hour scored by Downing's Kudzu-Mazda. Lambert has been instrumental in the development of the HANS Device, first introduced to the market in 1990 by HANS Performance Products.