The perception of "up"

Where is "up"?

This question is normally easy to answer. However, in unusual environments such as in space, under water or in extreme heights sensual feedback can be contradictive or sometimes lacking.

To test the human perception of upright, participants are exposed to different levels of gravity in a human centrifuge at the DLR national aeronautics and space research centre of the Federal Republic of Germany.

In this series of tests, the participants are lying during the centrifuge flight, whereas in earlier examinations they had an upright position.

The project is managed by Prof. Dr. Rainer Herpers and Sandra Felsner (H-BRS) and by our Canadian partners Prof. Laurence Harris and Prof. Michael Jenkin from York University in Toronto.

The aim is to make human perception more predictable in order to avoid accidents e.g. in astronauts, pilots and divers.