A Survey of Crew Systems for the Crew Exploration Vehicle

The Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) proposed as part of NASA’s Project Constellation will be a small vehicle designed for transfer of crew from the Earth to the vicinity of the moon. Compared to the relatively spacious Space Shuttle and the International Space Station, the crew systems requirements for CEV cannot be entirely met by existing hardware. This paper defines the crew systems requirements for CEV and analyzes available crew systems hardware for applicability to the CEV mission. Existing crew systems hardware used on or planned for Soyuz, Space Shuttle, and ISS will be described and evaluated for applicability to CEV. Included in the analysis are crew systems components such as seating, food preparation equipment, waste management, cargo storage, and pressure suits.