---
title: Musculoskeletal Injury Is the Most Persistent Problem in EVA
description: NASA data shows hand and finger injuries dominate extravehicular activity. Metakosmos research addresses suit-induced musculoskeletal injury.
---

 Sep 8, 2026 · 5 min read

# Musculoskeletal Injury Is the Most Persistent Problem in Extravehicular Activity

 NASA data shows hand and finger injuries dominate extravehicular activity. Metakosmos research addresses suit-induced musculoskeletal injury.

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 Metakosmos Editorial Team

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NASA's Human Re[sea](https://www.metakosmos.co/sea)rch Program documents a consistent injury pattern in extravehicular activity. The Extravehicular Mobility Unit, pressurised to 4.3 psi, requires the astronaut to expend energy deforming the suit, which limits mobility.

Injuries divide into two classes. Contact injuries are contusions, abrasions and impacts against the suit. Strain injuries come from overuse, repeated movement and high muscle forces. Hand and finger injuries are the most common in both training and flight.

## WHY IT HAS PERSISTED

Glove design combines the highest dexterity requirement, the highest cycle count and the tightest pressure containment tolerance in the suit.

Addressing it requires biomechanical analysis of the hand under repeated loading against a pressurised restraint, which sits outside conventional aerospace engineering.

## COMPOUNDING PHYSIOLOGY

Long-duration missions change the baseline. Space radiation affects the musculoskeletal system through bone density loss, muscle atrophy, joint degeneration and impaired healing. Microgravity produces spinal lengthening measurable in centimetres.

A crew member six months into a mission has different injury thresholds, body geometry and healing capacity than the person the suit was fitted to.

## MEASUREMENT APPROACH

The Kolling Institute's MuscleMap programme provides assessment applicable in flight, on return and in preparation for later missions.

Continuous measurement of motion, posture and loading through the [PULSE layer](https://www.metakosmos.co/pulse) records the movements and forces preceding an injury, which post-hoc injury reporting does not capture.

## SURROGATE TESTING

Investigating injury mechanisms in human subjects is constrained. A hand cannot be loaded to failure to characterise a glove.

[SYNHUM](https://www.metakosmos.co/prove/synhum) can be loaded beyond failure limits, held at conditions no ethics board would approve, and instrumented at locations a person cannot be. Paired with [SUITRIX rigs](https://www.metakosmos.co/prove/suitrix) applying representative cyclic loading, it generates mobility torque and injury mechanism data safely.

## TERRESTRIAL SCOPE

Firefighters in structural ensembles, divers in dry suits, CBRN operators in encapsulating protection and industrial workers in heavy PPE experience comparable strain and contact injury at far larger scale, across the [land](https://www.metakosmos.co/land) and sea domains.

### References

- [Metakosmos - PULSE](https://www.metakosmos.co/pulse)
- [Metakosmos - PROVE](https://www.metakosmos.co/prove)
- [Metakosmos - SYNHUM](https://www.metakosmos.co/prove/synhum)
- [Metakosmos - SUITRIX](https://www.metakosmos.co/prove/suitrix)
- [Metakosmos - CORE](https://www.metakosmos.co/core)
- [Metakosmos - Land](https://www.metakosmos.co/land)
- [Metakosmos - Sea](https://www.metakosmos.co/sea)
- [Metakosmos - Space](https://www.metakosmos.co/space)
- [Metakosmos - LABS](https://www.metakosmos.co/labs)
- [NASA HRP — Human Health and Countermeasures evidence report on EVA injury](https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20170002574/downloads/20170002574.pdf)
- [Kolling Institute — Researchers inform next-gen space suit design](https://kollinginstitute.org.au/news/researchers-inform-next-gen-space-suit-design/)
- [Northern Sydney Local Health District — musculoskeletal effects of spaceflight](https://www.nslhd.health.nsw.gov.au/News/Pages/Researchers-inform-next-gen-space-suit-design.aspx)

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