Engineering topics

Skidmore, Michael G.

Publications and source records attributed to Skidmore, Michael G..

6 records

NASA NTRS2006

Foton-M2 Russian/US Biology Experiments - Development, Implementation, and Operations

The Russian Foton-M2 unmanned research satellite launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on May 31, 2005. The satellite was recovered 16 days later in northern Kazakhstan near Kustanay. Prior to this mission, the long history of joint NASA/IMBP research using Russian unmanned spacecraft was in danger of withering due to inactivity. This cooperative history included 9 Bion Russian spaceflights in the period from 1975 to 1997 where NASA had participated first as a guest and finally as a contractual partner. In an effort to reinvigorate this long-standing collaboration, the Institute for Biomedical Problems (IMBP) invited NASA participation in Russian experiments that had been manifested to fly on the Foton-M2 mission.

Ilyin, Eugene A.↗

NASA NTRS2005

International collaboration on Russian spacecraft and the case for free flyer biosatellites

Animal research has been critical to the initiation and progress of space exploration. Animals were the original explorers of "space" two centuries ago and have played a crucial role by demonstrating that the space environment, with precautions, is compatible with human survival. Studies of mammals have yielded much of our knowledge of space physiology. As spaceflights to other planets are anticipated, animal research will continue to be essential to further reveal space physiology and to enable the longer missions. Much of the physiology data collected from space was obtained from the Cosmos (Bion) spaceflights, a series of Russian (Soviet)-International collaborative flights, over a 22 year period, which employed unmanned, free flyer biosatellites. Begun as a Soviet-only program, after the second flight the Russians invited American and other foreign scientists to participate. This program filled the 10 year hiatus between the last US biosatellite and the first animal experiments on the shuttles. Of the 11 flights in the Cosmos program nine of them were international; the flights continued over the years regardless of political differences between the Soviet Union and the Western world. The science evolved from sharing tissues to joint international planning and development, and from rat postmortem tissue analysis to in vivo measurements of a host of monkey physiological parameters during flight. Many types of biological specimens were carried on the modified Vostok spacecraft, but only the mammalian studies are discussed herein. The types of studies done encompass the full range of physiology and have begun to answer "critical" questions of space physiology posed by various ad hoc committees. The studies have not only yielded a prodigious and significant body of data, they have also introduced some new perspectives in physiology. A number of the physiological insights gained are relevant to physiology on Earth. The Cosmos flights also added significantly to flight-related technology, some of which also has application on our planet. In summary, the Cosmos biosatellite flights were extremely productive and of low cost. The Bion vehicles are versatile in that they can be placed into a variety of orbits and altitudes, and can carry radiation sources or other hazardous material which cannot be carried on manned vehicles. With recent advances in sensor, robotic, and data processing technology, future free flyers will be even more productive, and will largely preclude the need to fly animal experiments on manned vehicles. Currently, mammalian researchers do not have access to space for an unknown time, seriously impeding the advancement and understanding of space physiology during long duration missions. Initiation of a new, international program of free flyer biosatellites is critical to our further understanding of space physiology, and essential to continued human exploration of space.

short duration↗

NASA NTRS1997

Final Science Reports of the US Experiments Flown on the Russian Biosatellite Cosmos 2229

Cosmos 2229 was launched on December 29, 1992, containing a biological payload including two young male rhesus monkeys, insects, amphibians, and cell cultures. The biosatellite was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia for a mission duration of 11.5 days. The major research objectives were: (1) Study of adaptive response mechanisms of mammals during flight; and (2) Study of physiological mechanisms underlying vestibular, motor system and brain function in primates during early and later adaptation phases. American scientists and their Russian collaborators conducted 11 experiments on this mission which included extensive preflight and postflight studies with rhesus monkeys. Biosamples and data were subsequently transferred to the United States. The U.S. responsibilities for this flight included the development of experiment protocols, the fabrication of some flight instrumentation and experiment-specific ground-based hardware, the conducting of preflight and postflight testing and the analysis of biospecimens and data for the U.S. experiments. A description of the Cosmos 2229 mission is presented in this report including preflight, on-orbit and postflight activities. The flight and ground-based bioinstrumentation which was developed by the U.S. and Russia is also described, along with the associated preflight testing ot the U.S. hardware. Final Science Reports for the experiments are also included.

Connolly, James P.↗

NASA NTRS1994

US experiment flown on the Soviet biosatellite Cosmos 1667

Two male young-adult rhesus monkeys were flown on the Soviet Biosatellite Cosmos 1667 for seven days from July 10-17, 1985. Both animals were instrumented to record neurophysiological parameters. One animal, Gordyy, was additionally instrumented to record cardiovascular changes. Space capsule and environmental parameters were very similar to those of previous missions. On Cosmos 1514, which flew for five days in 1983, one animal was fitted with a left carotid artery cuff to measure blood pressure and flow velocity. An additional feature of Cosmos 1667 was a postflight control study using the flight animal. Intermittent postural tilt tests were also conducted before and after spaceflight and synchronous control studies, to simulate the fluid shifts associated with spaceflight. The experiment results support the conclusion derived from Cosmos 1514 that significant cardiovascular changes occur with spaceflight. The changes most clearly seen were rapid initial decreases in heart rate and further decreases with continued exposure to microgravity. The triggering mechanism appeared to be a headward shift in blood and tissue fluid volume which, in turn, triggered adaptive cardiovascular changes. Adaptive changes took place rapidly and began to stabilize after the first two days of flight. However, these changes did not plateau in the animal by the last day of the mission.

Hines, John W.↗

NASA NTRS1992

The effect of head-down tilt and water immersion on intracranial pressure in nonhuman primates

Intracranial pressure (ICP) is investigated in primates during and after -6-deg head-down tilt (HDT) and immersion in water to examine the effects of the headward fluid shift related to spaceflight. Following the HDT the primates are subjected to head-out thermoneutral water immersion, and the ICP is subsequently measured. ICP is found to increase from 3.8 +/- 1.1 to 5.3 +/- 1.3 mm Hg during the horizontal control period. ICP stabilizes at -6.3 +/- 1.3 mm Hg and then increases to -2.2 +/- 1.9 mm Hg during partial immersion, and ICP subsequently returns to preimmersion levels after immersion. These data indicate that exposure to HDT or water immersion lead to an early sharp increase in ICP, and water immersion alone leads to higher ICP levels. A significant conclusion of the work is that the ICP did not approach pathological levels, and this finding is relevant to human spaceflight research.

Keil, Lanny C.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Intrapericardial denervation - Radial artery blood flow and heart rate responses to LBNP

The effects of intrapericardial denervation on the radial artery blood flow velocity (RABFV) and heart rate (HR) responses to LBNP in rhesus monkeys were investigated by measuring the RABFV transcutaneously by a continuous-wave Doppler ultrasonic flowmeter in order to derive an index of forearm blood flow response to low (0 to -20 mm Hg) and high (0 to -60 mm Hg) ramp exposures during supine LBNP. Four of the eight subjects were subjected to efferent and afferent cardiac denervation. It was found that, during low levels of LBNP, monkeys with cardiac denervation exhibited no cardiopulmonary baroreceptor-mediated change in the RABFV or HR, unlike the intact animals, which showed steady decreases in RABFV during both high- and low-pressure protocols. It is suggested that forearm blood flow and HR responses to low-level LBNP, along with pharmacological challenge, are viable physiological tests for verifying the completeness of atrial and cardiopulmonary baroreceptor denervation.

Mckeever, Kenneth H.↗