Description: To combat the physical toll that exploration space flight may take on the crew, NASA’s Human Research Program is charged with developing exercise protocols and hardware to maintain astronaut health and fitness during long-term missions. As NASA aims toward space travel outside of low-earth orbit (LEO), the constraints placed upon exercise equipment on-board the vehicle increase. Proposed vehicle architectures for transit to and from locations outside of LEO calls for limits to equipment volume, mass, and power consumption. The goal of the Advanced Exercise Concepts (AEC) project is to maintain the resistive and aerobic capabilities of the current, ISS suite of exercise equipment, while making reductions in size, mass, and power consumption. Currently, the AEC team is in the testing and development phase of a next-generation device, the Hybrid Ultimate Lifting Kit (HULK), which is a candidate for demonstration on-board the ISS. In order to prepare and further develop the hardware, the required exercises performed on the device need to be characterized in a zero-gravity environment.
Paper (Jan 2015): Parabolic Flight Investigation for Advanced Exercise Concept Hardware Hybrid Ultimate Lifting Kit (HULK)
Technical Report NASA/TM-2015-218852: Digital Astronaut Project Biomechanical Models: Biomechanical Modeling of Squat, Single-Leg Squat and Heel Raise Exercises on the Hybrid Ultimate Lifting Kit (HULK)

Benefits: This technology will benefit future NASA exploration missions by providing exercise equipment for crew on long-duration space missions in less cabin space than is currently available on the International Space Station (ISS).