Abstract
With the increasing use of the International Space Station, humans have more opportunities to work in space. In space, a mobility device that operates efficiently is needed. But, some problems must be solved. First, the human body is suspended without the force of gravity. Second, the air cannot be polluted in the closed space of the Space Station. In this research, a mobility system called the "Tether Space Mobility Device" (TSMD) is proposed. In general, a tether is a cable or wire rope. TSMD has a mechanism that enables the tether to move an object. In this study, we designed the prototype of TSMD and produced it. The fundamental experiments of TSMD are performed by duplicated two-dimensional microgravity with the air bearing and the flight-table. Then the motion and the utility of TSMD are discussed. We show the validity of the component and the effectiveness of the feedback control from the results of experiments under the special circumstance of microgravity. Therefore it is found that TSMD is stable system to deliver the man.
