The Habitability and Environmental
Factors Division (HEFD) at NASA/Johnson Space Center
is responsible for providing a safe and productive
environment for any human spacecraft or habitat and
overseeing the research and technology development
to enable humans to safely and effectively live and
work in space. This work includes human factors and
habitability systems; air and water quality, toxicology,
microbiology, acoustics and radiation health; and
rapid prototyping and integration of human-centered
and vehicle systems. HEFD is comprised of 3 branches:
Environmental Factors
Branch
The Environmental Factors Branch defines, develops,
and manages programs, projects, and technologies to
ensure environmental standards and crew health and
safety are achieved onboard space vehicles. This branch
provides operational support for all human space flight
programs, including setting spacecraft environmental
requirements, providing pre-mission or pre-increment
analyses and planning, and evaluating actual on-orbit
internal environmental conditions. Research activities
include the development of advanced environmental
monitoring technology concepts and a variety of applied
research tasks focusing on evaluating and controlling
environmentally induced risks to crew health and safety.
For additional information, contact
Crystal Haddock, Branch Chief.
Habitability and
Human Factors Branch
The Habitability and Human Factors Branch is responsible
for ensuring that space human factors, including human
physical parameters and performance capabilities and
limitations, are defined, documented, and applied
to the design and operation of vehicles, habitats,
and flight crew systems equipment to ensure the safety
and productivity of humans in space. Crew station
integration and crew interface analysis for flight
crew systems are also performed by this group in support
NASA's human space flight programs. This group establishes
conceptual designs for habitats and crew systems;
verifies human-machine interfaces and the operational
habitability of spacecraft and habitats; and oversees
and conducts research in space human factors to improve
human performance and productivity. This Branch develops
food systems for all U.S. human space missions and
food processing for advanced life support systems,
develops and operates specialized and unique facilities
and laboratories to support investigations and analyses,
human engineering, and integration of safe and productive
flight crews with vehicles, habitats and flight crew
systems. For additional information contact
David Fitts, Branch Chief.
