The objective of this study was to develop and deploy a novel motion capture system that utilizes off-the-shelf, dive-rated hardware to measure 3-D whole body reach envelopes of space suits in an underwater analog, which simulates a microgravity environment. The accuracy of the developed system was compared to a gold standard motion capture system in a dry-land condition before deployment. This study is ultimately aimed at providing a methodology for quantitative metrics to evaluate and compare the mobility performances of a newly developed prototype space suit versus an existing space suit at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
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