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The Life Sciences Glovebox will be the site of most of the crew operations associated with the non-human life sciences research on Space Station Freedom. For this reason, it is imperative that the Glovebox provides an enclosed work volume that accommodates the many diverse life science procedures which will be performed. To meet this challenge, the Biological Flight Research Projects Office conducted a study to identify a design concept which best accommodates the various procedures. Two candidate Glovebox work volume concepts were developed; one in which two operators worked side-by-side (the “Fineg” work volume), and one that conformed to the reach envelope of a single operator (the “wrap-around” work volume). To evaluate the different concepts, an experimental methodology using operational criteria was established. Six test volunteers participated in this study, including 4 experienced biologists, a 5th percentile Japanese female, and a 95th percentile American male.

The Specimen Chamber Service Unit, a component of the Space Station Centrifuge Facility, must provide a clean enclosure on a continuing basis for the Facility's plant, rodent and primate specimens. In the Centrifuge Facility, animal and plant specimens reside in enclosures called Specimen Chambers which fit inside larger, self-contained Habitat modules. The Specimen Chambers will become soiled and will require periodic servicing to maintain a clean environment for the specimens. Two methods of servicing the Specimen Chambers have thus far been proposed: washing the Chambers with an on-board washer, or disposing of the soiled Chambers and replacing them with clean ones. The choice of servicing method involves a large and complex set of issues.

The Life Sciences Glovebox will provide the bioisolated environment to support on-orbit operations involving non-human live specimens and samples for human life sciences experiments. It will be part of the Centrifuge Facility, in which animal and plant specimens are housed in bioisolated Habitat modules and transported to the Glovebox as part of the experiment protocols supported by the crew. At the Glovebox, up to two crew members and two Habitat modules must be accommodated to provide flexibility and support optimal operations. This paper will present several innovative design concepts that attempt to satisfy the basic Glovebox requirements. These concepts were evaluated for ergonomics and ease of operations using computer modeling and full-scale mockups. The more promising ideas were presented to scientists and astronauts for their evaluation. Their comments, and the results from other evaluations are presented.