PUMA Headgear
NASA
engineer Dan Dietrich and a team of scientists at Glenn developed the
Portable Unit for Metabolic Analysis (PUMA) to monitor the oxygen
consumption and carbon dioxide production rates of astronauts exercising
during long missions. The portable unit was designed to give the crew
the ability to move around the spacecraft without being tethered to a
large immovable unit.
PUMA measures six components to evaluate
metabolic function: oxygen and carbon dioxide partial pressure, volume
flow rate, heart rate, and gas pressure and temperature. From those
measurements, PUMA can compute the oxygen uptake, carbon dioxide output
and minute ventilation (average expired gas flow rate). A small,
embedded computer takes readings of each sensor and relays the data
wirelessly to a remote computer via Bluetooth.
Image Credit: NASA
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