Mercury and Skylab missions. However, windows serve many psychological purposes [57]. Windows tend to open-up an interior and make it seem less crowded; they help people satisfy their curiosity; they preserve a sense of connectedness to Earth; and, for many spacefarers, provide the opportunity for peak experiences or "overview effects." Although it may not seem that any work in space lacks glamour, this feeling may not be shared by astronauts, especially those who will be expected to live and work in space for over 30 days. Highly valuable are design features which free astronauts to devote most of their time to interesting, involving, creative tasks [54], Habitats and equipment should be highly reliable and require as little maintenance as possible. Design should facilitate maintenance and repairs. Units likely to need changing should be accessible, plug-in affairs with simple fastening mechanisms, and replacement units should be sent into space fully assembled. Automated systems should be developed to take care of inventory control and other repetitive or unpleasant activities. Furthermore, we need a new generation of spacesuits, a generation that is easier to put on and take off and that requires little effort for operation. This will allow astronauts to redirect the energy expended on the spacesuit itself to the tasks that prompted the EVA. Schedules and Tasks During the Spanish-American War, Frederick Taylor carefully analyzed tasks in terms of their component parts [58]. Through eliminating unnecessary actions and streamlining those that remained, he and his colleagues achieved prodigious gains in productivity. For example, by eliminating the need to bend over to pick up bricks (by storing them on adjustable scaffolding) and reducing from 18 to five the number of motions needed to lay a brick, the average bricklayer's output was tripled. At a launch cost of roughly $10,000 per pound [50] it is very reasonable to assign astronauts heavy workloads. It also makes sense to apply principles of motion economy (regarding the use of the body, the arrangement of the workplace, and the design of tools and equipment) to achieve high efficiency [53,54], However, in our zeal for results we should not overlook another of Taylor's findings, the necessity of minimizing cumulative fatigue. Taylor found that workers who were given rest periods outperformed workers who continued at full speed throughout the day. The most productive were those who were free of load at least fifty percent of the time. Although we welcome attempts to increase productivity through simplifying tasks, we do not support attempts to increase productivity through endless additions to already long lists of chores. Such lists can be counterproductive and may have adversely affected the third Skylab crew [2,27,59], Programming the astronauts' time, it is important to remember that: (1) tasks easily accomplished under normal conditions may be very difficult to perform in microgravity or wearing a spacesuit; (2) the same performance levels that can be maintained for brief missions are difficult or impossible to sustain on missions lasting 30 days or more; and (3) spacefarers must have enough time to pursue projects of opportunity. Schedules should not be so busy or rigid that it is impossible to make serendipitous discoveries or follow exciting new leads.
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