{"id":401136,"date":"2025-11-07T14:38:49","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T19:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/yfile\/?p=401136"},"modified":"2025-11-07T14:38:51","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T19:38:51","slug":"york-study-explores-how-astronauts-find-their-bearings-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/yfile\/2025\/11\/07\/york-study-explores-how-astronauts-find-their-bearings-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"York study explores how astronauts find their bearings in space"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When astronauts drift through the weightless environment of the International Space Station (ISS), even the simplest movements can defy intuition.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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With no \u201cup\u201d or \u201cdown\u201d to rely on, their brains must constantly recalibrate, sometimes leading to strange illusions or fleeting moments of disorientation.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Robert
Robert Allison<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\"Michael
Michael Jenkin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

快播视频 Professor Robert Allison<\/strong> wants to understand exactly how this happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

York has been contributing to space research for decades through the Centre for Vision Research and the Centre for Research in Earth and Space Science, establishing itself as a leader in visual perception and aviation-space studies. That legacy underpins Allison\u2019s latest project, the Home-Base experiment<\/a>, which he presented on Oct. 28 during a Canadian Space Agency (CSA) media briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Developed in collaboration with computer science Professor Michael Jenkin<\/strong>, Home-Base explores how astronauts maintain their sense of place and direction in microgravity \u2013 using virtual reality (VR) to probe one of space flight\u2019s most puzzling challenges: orientation without gravity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been exploring these questions for many years,\u201d says Allison, a professor in York\u2019s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Lassonde School of Engineering<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur work began with the Neurolab mission in the 1990s and continued with NASA and CSA projects like BISE and Vection. Home-Base builds on that foundation by examining how we maintain our sense of place when gravity is no longer a reference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n