Pilot Field Test: Recovery from a Simulated Fall and Quiet Stance Stability After Long-Duration Space Flight

Astronauts returning from the International Space Station (ISS) are met by a team of recovery personnel typically providing physical assistance and medical support immediately upon landing. That is because long-duration spaceflight impacts astronauts' functional abilities. Future expeditions to planets or asteroids beyond the low Earth orbit, however, may require crewmembers to egress the vehicle and perform other types of physical tasks unassisted. It is therefore important to characterize the extent and longevity of functional deficits experienced by astronauts in order to design safe exploration class missions. Pilot Field Test (PFT) experiment conducted with participation of ISS crewmembers traveling on Soyuz expeditions 34S - 41S comprised several tasks designed to study the recovery of sensorimotor abilities of astronauts during the first 24 hours after landing and beyond.