Sound masking degrades perception of self-location during stepping: A case for sound-transparent spacesuits for Mars
This addresses situational awareness for astronauts in spacesuits, with incremental implications for Mars mission designs.
The study tackled the problem of how sound transparency affects perception of self-location during stepping, finding that sound masking increased error by 14.5cm compared to no masking.
Most efforts to improve spacesuits have been directed towards adding haptic feedback. However, sound transparency can also improve situational awareness at a relatively low cost. The extent of the improvement is unknown. We use the Fukuda-Unterberger stepping test to measure the accuracy of one's perception of self-location. We compare accuracy outcomes in two scenarios: one where hearing is impaired with sound masking with white noise and one where it is not. These scenarios are acoustic proxies for a sound muffling space suit and a sound transparent space suit respectively. The results show that when sound masking is applied, the error in self-location increases by 14.5cm, 95% CI [4.04 28.22]. Suggestions to apply the findings to Mars spacesuit designs are discussed. A cost-benefit analysis is also provided.