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The operational suitability of using laptop computers in crew work stations for future spacecraft and lunar/planetary bases has been assessed by evaluating conceptual mockups of these work stations. Analysis of the crew functions showed substantial commonality among crew work stations for earth orbit and lunar/planetary flight vehicles, as well as lunar/planetary bases. Further, the use of laptop computers in place of traditional fixed consoles was found to be suitable for most crew work stations and work sites in future spacecraft and space bases. With these analysis and evaluation results in hand, NASA will be able to take full advantage of capabilities currently available in laptop computers in future crew work station design.

Redesign of the Space Station to the Alpha configuration has led to significant changes in the crew work stations. The Multi-Purpose Applications Console, which was the primary crew interface with the Data Management System, has been deleted and replaced with a laptop computer. The proposed design process for these new work stations includes analysis and definition of the crew functions, the display and control requirements and the conceptual layouts of candidate work stations. Following crew acceptance of static mockups, detailed functional simulations must be conducted for crew evaluation of the proposed configurations, particularly for the Robotics Control Work Stations.

Space Station Freedom is under development by numerous contractors from the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan. In order to develop a useable product, each system and element is being designed with the capabilities of the operator in mind. The Space Station will be assembled from these individually-developed systems and elements. To achieve mission objectives, it is critical that the human-machine interface is not only well-designed, but also integrated in an effective manner. For this reason, a disciplined process was developed to assess the integrated human-machine interface design. Assessments of the human-machine interface design begin with identifying the critical crew tasks which must be performed. If these unique or difficult tasks can be performed by the crew, then it follows that the remaining, more typical, tasks can be successfully performed. For each critical crew task, the information required to perform the task is evaluated.