VECTOR CARDIOGRAPH EXPERIMENT IN SPACE SHUTTLE

Abstract

The Vector cardiography is the 3 dimensional study of Electrocardiographic responses of the human heart. A Vector cardiograph (VCG) instrument was designed and developed to monitor the Cardiographic responses of the Indian payload specialist under zero G conditions in the US Space Shuttle during the scheduled INSAT-lC launch. Accordingly the proposal made by Department of Space for using the vector cardiograph measurement in the Space Shuttle was accepted. A VCG unit was developed under the joint collaboration of HAL, Hyderabad and ISAC-ISRO. This paper brifly describes the design aspects of the VCG instrument, the qulification tests conducted on the same for space application and the final test results obtained during the process. Basically the instrument was built around a Hybrid Instrumentation amplifier and other interfaces for recording the signal into an audio taperecorder.