Preliminary report: Biomedical considerations for future manned space flights

Abstract

The behavioral, psychological, and sociological aspects of space travel, particularly with emphasis on longer duration missions, are discussed along with the biomedical aspects of space flight. These factors may strongly interact with the various psycho-social factors and as such they stand as an immensely important area of concern in and of themselves. A foundation for understanding weightlessness related medical problems through a discussion of the history of symptoms reported specific details on the major areas of concern and approaches to their investigation are presented. Also, discussion is given to the possibility of various countermeasures. Some indication of the effects of various biomedical changes in performance are also covered.