Analysis of Potential Glove-Induced Hand Injury Metrics During Typical Neutral Buoyancy Training Operations

Abstract: Injuries to the hands are common among astronauts who train for extravehicular activity. When the gloves are pressurized, they restrict movement and create pressure points during tasks, sometimes resulting in pain, muscle fatigue, abrasions, and occasionally more severe injuries such as onycholysis. A brief review of NASA’s Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health’s injury database reveals that 76 percent of astronaut hand and arm injuries from training between 1993 and 2010 occurred either …