This Space Shuttle Orbiter Discovery (STS-42) onboard photo shows Canadian Payload Specialist Roberta Bondar getting into the Microgravity Vestibular Investigation (MVI) chair to begin an experiment in the International Microgravity Lab-1 (IML-1) Science Module. The (MVI) chair was designed to test the crew member's visual and vestibular responses to head and body movements.

Astronaut David C. Hilmers conducts the Microgravity Vestibular Investigations (MVI) sitting in its rotator chair inside the IML-1 science module. When environmental conditions change so that the body receives new stimuli, the nervous system responds by interpreting the incoming sensory information differently. In space, the free-fall environment of an orbiting spacecraft requires that the body adapts to the virtual absence of gravity. Early in flights, crewmembers may feel disoriented or experience space motion sickness. MVI examined the effects of orbital flight on the human orientation system to obtain a better understanding of the mechanisms of adaptation to weightlessness. By provoking interactions among the vestibular, visual, and proprioceptive systems and then measuring the perceptual and sensorimotor reactions, scientists can study changes that are integral to the adaptive process. The IML-1 mission was the first in a series of Shuttle flights dedicated to fundamental materials and life sciences research with the international partners. The participating space agencies included: NASA, the 14-nation European Space Agency (ESA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the French National Center of Space Studies (CNES), the German Space Agency and the German Aerospace Research Establishment (DAR/DLR), and the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). Both life and materials sciences benefited from the extended periods of microgravity available inside the Spacelab science module in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Orbiter. Managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center, IML-1 was launched on January 22, 1992 aboard the Space Shuttle Orbiter Discovery (STS-42 mission).

STS042-27-037 (22-30 Jan. 1992) --- Astronaut David C. Hilmers, STS-42 mission specialist, wearing a helmet assembly, sits in the Microgravity Vestibular Investigation (MVI) rotating chair. The scene is in the International Microgravity Laboratory (IML-1) science module aboard Discovery. Hilmers, a mission specialist, and six other crewmembers spent more than eight days in Earth-orbit conducting experiments. Hilmer's helmet assembly is outfitted with accelerometers to measure head movements and visors that fit over each eye independently to provide visual stimuli. The chair system has three movement patterns: "sinusoidal" or traveling predictably back and forth over the same distance at a constant speed; "pseudorandom" or moving back and forth over the varying distances; and "stepped" or varying speeds beginning and stopping suddenly.

STS042-06-031 (30 Jan 1992) - - - STS-42 Payload Specialist Roberta L. Bondar gets into the Microgravity Vestibular Investigations (MVI) rotator chair to begin an experiment. The chair is mounted in the center aisle of the International Microgravity Laboratory 1 (IML-1) Spacelab (SL) module. Just above Bondar's head is the helmet assembly which is outfitted with accelerometers to measure head movements and visors that fit over each eye independently to provide visual stimuli. The chair system has three movement patterns: "sinusoidal" or traveling predictably back and forth over the same distance at a constant speed; "pseudorandom" or moving back and forth over varying distances; and "stepped" or varying speeds beginning and stopping suddenly.