SPACE CENTER, Houston -- In the name of science, the shuttle astronauts Tuesday turned themselves into human guinea pigs for a series of space sickness experiments that turned Spacelab into something resembling a torture chamber.
They were pulled to the floor by elastic cords, and sometimes shocked at the same time. They were bounced around on elastic cords and released in mid-air. They drew blood samples from each other.
And -- if that was not enough -- the astronauts were spun around in a restraining chair while a video camera mounted in the helmet of the chair snapped pictures of their wide-open eyes.
The experiments were designed to provide more clues on how the body adapts to the strange lack of gravity in orbit and often develops space motion sickness at the same time.
The experiments were performed at various times Tuesday on mission specialists Owen Garriott, Robert Parker and payload specialists Ulf Merbold and Byron Lichtenberg.
Space sickness, called space adaptation syndrome in NASA jargon, ranges from loss of appetite, mild headaches to severe nausea and vomiting. Half those who fly in space suffer from it, but researchers have not pinpointed its cause.
The tests focused on measurement of the inner ear vestibular systems that help the body maintain balance and upright posture in gravity.
'We think there is a connection between motion sickness and the disruption of balance and posture,' said Millard Reschke, the principal investigator in the 'drop and shock' experiment.
In that experiment, which was partially relayed to mission control via video cameras, Lichtenberg attached small electrodes to the back of Garriott's right leg and knee.
Garriott, clad in shorts and attached with cables, restraining devices and electrodes, pulled himself about a foot off the floor by a T-bar. When the T-bar was released, Garriott received mild shocks in his leg and his reflexes were recorded.
The astronauts admitted before launch they did not particularly like the experiments, but Garriott said he had been shocked so many times 'a few more thousand is not going to make any difference.'
Following Garriott's test, Lichtenberg performed a 'hop and drop' experiment in which he was dropped from elastic cords to the floor of Spacelab.
Lichtenberg complained the tests made him dizzy.
Other tests investigated the sensitivity and control of eye movements as a body moved in the space environment.
'I think it's a significant thing they are putting themselves through. They're subjecting themselves to medical experiments for 12 hours at a time. It's not torturous but it is demanding,' mission scientist Charles Chappell said.
Results of the tests will be compared with similar tests conducted before the mission. Five more days of testing are planned after landing Dec. 7.
