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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2002

History of Nutrition in Space Flight: Overview

Major accomplishments in nutritional sciences for support of human space travel have occurred over the past 40 y. This article reviews these accomplishments, beginning with the early Gemini program and continuing through the impressive results from the first space station Skylab program that focused on life sciences research, the Russian contributions through the Mir space station, the US Shuttle life sciences research, and the emerging International Space Station missions. Nutrition is affected by environmental conditions such as radiation, temperature, and atmospheric pressures, and these are reviewed. Nutrition with respect to space flight is closely interconnected with other life sciences research disciplines including the study of hematology, immunology, as well as neurosensory, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, circadian rhythms, and musculoskeletal physiology. These relationships are reviewed in reference to the overall history of nutritional science in human space flight. Cumulative nutritional research over the past four decades has resulted in the current nutritional requirements for astronauts. Space-flight nutritional recommendations are presented along with the critical path road map that outlines the research needed for future development of nutritional requirements.

Circadian rhythms↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Biological Research and Space Health Enabled by Machine Learning to Support Deep Space Missions

A key science goal of the NASA “Moon to Mars” campaign is to understand how biology responds to the Lunar, Martian, and deep space environments in order to advance fundamental knowledge, reduce risk, and support safe, productive human space missions. Through the powerful emerging approaches of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), a paradigm shift has begun in biomedical science and engineered astronaut health systems, to enable Earth independence and autonomy of mission operations. Here we present an overview of AI/ML architecture to support deep space mission goals, developed with leaders in the field. First, we focus on the fundamental biological research that supports our understanding of physiological responses to spaceflight, and we describe current efforts to support AI/ML research including data standardization and data engineering through maximally open and FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) databases and the generation of AI-ready datasets for reuse and analysis. We also discuss remote data management frameworks for research data as well as environmental and health data that are generated during deep space missions. We highlight several research projects that leverage data standardization and management for fundamental biological discovery to uncover the complex effects of space travel on living systems. Next, we provide an overview of cutting-edge AI/ML approaches that can be integrated to support remote monitoring and analysis during deep space missions, including generative models and large language models to learn the underlying biomedical patterns and predict outcomes or answer questions during off world medical scenarios. We also describe current AI/ML methods to support this research and monitoring through automated cloud-based labs which enable limited human intervention and closed-loop experimentation in remote settings. These labs could support mission autonomy by analyzing environmental data streams, and would be facilitated through in situ analytics capabilities to avoid sending large raw data files through low bandwidth communications. Finally, in the context of deep space missions with limited communications or access to medical advice from Earth, we describe a solution for integrated, real-time mission biomonitoring across hierarchical levels from continuous environmental monitoring, to wearables and point-of-care devices, to molecular and physiological monitoring. We introduce a precision space health system that will ensure that the future of space health is predictive, preventative, participatory and personalized.

artificial intelligence↗
NASA NTRS1998

Overview of the Neurolab Spacelab mission

Neurolab is a NASA Spacelab mission with multinational cooperative participation that is dedicated to research on the nervous system. The nervous systems of all animal species have evolved in a one-g environment and are functionally influenced by the presence of gravity. The absence of gravity presents a unique opportunity to gain new insights into basic neurologic functions as well as an enhanced understanding of physiological and behavioral responses mediated by the nervous system. The primary goal of Neurolab is to expand our understanding of how the nervous system develops, functions in, and adapts to microgravity space flight. Twenty-six peer reviewed investigations using human and nonhuman test subjects were assigned to one of eight science discipline teams. Individual and integrated experiments within these teams have been designed to collect a wide range of physiological and behavior data in flight as well as pre- and postflight. Information from these investigations will be applicable to enhancing the well being and performance of future long duration space travelers, will contribute to our understanding of normal and pathological functioning of the nervous system, and may be applied by the medical community to enhance the health of humans on Earth.

manned↗
NASA NTRS2003

Overview of atmospheric ionizing radiation (AIR) research: SST-present

The Supersonic Transport (SST) program, proposed in 1961, first raised concern for the exposure of pregnant occupants by solar energetic particles (SEP), and neutrons were suspected to have a main role in particle propagation deep into the atmosphere. An eight-year flight program confirmed the role of SEP as a significant hazard and of the neutrons as contributing over half of the galactic cosmic ray exposures, with the largest contribution from neutrons above 10 MeV. The FAA Advisory Committee on the Radiobiological Aspects of the SST provided operational requirements. The more recent lowering of ICRP-recommended exposure limits (1990) with the classification of aircrew as "radiation workers" renewed interest in GCR background exposures at commercial flight altitudes and stimulated epidemiological studies in Europe, Japan, Canada and the USA. The proposed development of a High Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) required validation of the role of high-energy neutrons, and this resulted in ER-2 flights at solar minimum (June 1997) and studies on effects of aircraft materials on interior exposures. Recent evaluation of health outcomes of DOE nuclear workers resulted in legislation for health compensation in year 2000 and recent European aircrew epidemiological studies of health outcomes bring renewed interest in aircraft radiation exposures. As improved radiation models become available, it is imperative that a corresponding epidemiological program of US aircrew be implemented. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of COSPAR.

Review↗
NASA NTRS2001

Psychosocial issues in long-term space flight: overview

Anecdotal evidence of the individual and interpersonal problems that occurred during the Shuttle-Mir Space Program (SMSP) and other long-duration Russian/Soviet missions, and studies of personnel in other isolated and confined extreme (ICE) environments suggest that psychosocial elements of behavior and performance are likely to have a significant impact on the outcome of long-duration missions in space. This impact may range from individual decrements in performance, health and well being, to catastrophic mission failure. This paper reviews our current understanding of the psychosocial issues related to long duration space missions according to three different domains of behavior: the individual domain, the interpersonal domain and the organizational domain. Individual issues include: personality characteristics that predict successful performance, stress due to isolation and confinement and its effect on emotions and cognitive performance, adaptive and maladaptive coping styles and strategies, and requirements for the psychological support of astronauts and their families during the mission. Interpersonal issues include: impact of crew diversity and leadership styles on small group dynamics, adaptive and maladaptive features of ground-crew interactions, and processes of crew cohesion, tension and conflict. Organizational issues include: the influence of organizational culture and mission duration on individual and group performance, and managerial requirements for long duration missions. Improved screening and selection of astronaut candidates, leadership, coping and interpersonal skills training of personnel, and organizational change are key elements in the prevention of performance decrements on long-duration missions.

Review, Tutorial↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

An Automated Medical Inventory System (AMIS) to Enable Earth-Independent Medical Operations

BACKGROUND: Inventory of medical consumables and durables (medications, treatment aids, diagnostic equipment, etc.) aboard the International Space Station is a manual process whereby crewmembers reach out to their flight surgeon to relay when items are used. Performing a full medical system inventory is time intensive. However, as exploration progresses to long duration missions with little to no resupply or evacuation capabilities, maintaining an accurate account of inventory and location for medical systems across the mission will become increasingly critical. A new system must be developed for future exploration missions to meet the need for a crew-facing, real time method of managing medical inventory. OVERVIEW: NASA’s Exploration Medical Integrated Product Team (XMIPT) is funding the AMIS project to mature the technology readiness level and to conduct a flight demonstration of a medical inventory capability. AMIS will leverage lessons learned from a Medical Consumables Tracking project previously demonstrated aboard the ISS in 2016 and 2017. Key components of AMIS include a database, supporting hardware and software, and interfaces to power, communications, or other vehicle or medical systems. Some medical inventory capability may be provided by the vehicle inventory management system which relies upon RFID-based technology and can track larger items such as medical kits or medical hardware. AMIS will augment these capabilities to enable tracking of individual medical kit contents. Efforts are underway to characterize the optimal solution trade space by comparing system specifications (e.g. mass and volume, etc.) across maintenance and operational use cases (e.g. crew time saved, total inventory automated, etc). DISCUSSION: The contents of a Mars Medical System have not been fully defined which poses challenges to defining an inventory system and requires assumptions regarding medical kit contents and medical system design. Other important considerations include minimizing crew time required, avoiding access restrictions to medical inventory in the event of an emergency, and ensuring that data is accessible to other medical system elements to enable crew autonomy in provision of medical care.

Automated Medical Inventory System↗