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NASA Aerospace Medicine overview - Aerospace Medicine is that specialty area of medicine concerned with the determination and maintenance of the health, safety, and performance of those who fly in the air or in space.
The presentation is next Sunday, May 10th. It will be to the Civil Aviation Medical Association, for 2 hours at Disney World in Orlando. It is a high level talk on space medicine, including history, the role of my office, human health risks of space flight, general aspects of space medicine practice, human health risk management (including integrated activities of medical operations and the Human Research Program, and thoughts concerning health risks for long duration exploration class space missions. No proprietary data or material will be used, all is readily available in the public sector. There is also a short (30 min) talk on Monday at the CAMA lunch. There we will describe the Visual Impairment and Intracranial Pressure syndrome, with possible etiologies and plans for research (already selected studies). Again, nothing proprietary will be discussed.
Medical support of spaceflight training operations across international lines is a unique circumstance with potential applications to other aerospace medicine support scenarios. KBRwyle's Star City Medical Support Group (SCMSG) has fulfilled this role since the Mir-Shuttle era, with extensive experience and updates to share with the greater AsMA community. OVERVIEW: The current Soyuz training flow for assigned ISS crewmembers takes place in Star City, Russia. Soyuz training flow involves numerous activities that pose potential physical and occupational risks to crewmembers, including centrifuge runs and pressurized suit simulations at ambient and hypobaric pressures. In addition, Star City is a relatively remote location in a host nation with variable access to reliable, Western-standard medical care. For these reasons, NASA's Human Health & Performance contract allocates full-time physician support to assigned ISS crewmembers training in Star City. The Star City physician also treats minor injuries and illnesses as needed for both long- and short-term NASA support personnel traveling in the area, while working to develop and maintain relationships with local health care resources in the event of more serious medical issues that cannot be treated on-site. The specifics of this unique scope of practice will be discussed. SIGNIFICANCE: ISS crewmembers training in Star City are at potential physical and occupational risk of trauma or dysbarism during nominal Soyuz training flow, requiring medical support from an on-duty aerospace medicine specialist. This support maintains human health and performance by preserving crewmember safety and well-being for mission success; sharing information regarding this operational model may contribute to advances in other areas of international, military, and civilian operational aerospace medicine.
Medical support of spaceflight training operations across international lines is a unique circumstance with potential applications to other aerospace medicine support scenarios. KBRwyle's Star City Medical Support Group (SCMSG) has fulfilled this role since the Mir-Shuttle era, with extensive experience and updates to share with the greater AsMA community. OVERVIEW: The current Soyuz training flow for assigned ISS crewmembers takes place in Star City, Russia. Soyuz training flow involves numerous activities that pose potential physical and occupational risks to crewmembers, including centrifuge runs and pressurized suit simulations at ambient and hypobaric pressures. In addition, Star City is a relatively remote location in a host nation with variable access to reliable, Western-standard medical care. For these reasons, NASA's Human Health & Performance contract allocates full-time physician support to assigned ISS crewmembers training in Star City. The Star City physician also treats minor injuries and illnesses as needed for both long- and short-term NASA support personnel traveling in the area, while working to develop and maintain relationships with local health care resources in the event of more serious medical issues that cannot be treated on-site. The specifics of this unique scope of practice will be discussed. SIGNIFICANCE: ISS crewmembers training in Star City are at potential physical and occupational risk of trauma or dysbarism during nominal Soyuz training flow, requiring medical support from an on-duty aerospace medicine specialist. This support maintains human health and performance by preserving crewmember safety and well-being for mission success; sharing information regarding this operational model may contribute to advances in other areas of international, military, and civilian operational aerospace medicine.
Current activities of the program to accelerate specific applications of space related technology in major public sector problem areas are summarized for the period 1 June 1971 through 30 November 1971. An overview of NASA technology, technology applications, and supporting activities are presented. Specific technology applications in biomedicine are reported including cancer detection, treatment and research; cardiovascular diseases, diagnosis, and treatment; medical instrumentation; kidney function disorders, treatment, and research; and rehabilitation medicine.
An overview is presented of the continuing evolution and enhancement of the principal factors involved in maintaining the highest standards of safety in the U.S. space program. Attention is given to the complexity and the myriad details of assuring maximum safety for each individual component before any unit is joined to the whole. Consideration is given to safety experiments carried out at the School of Aerospace Medicine that focus on fire hazards.
This paper describes the Spacelab program's scientific accomplishments during the past 10 years, highlighting major scientific accomplishments. An overview of Spacelab systems performance, significant issues, and utilization and operations activities applicable to the space station era is presented.
NASA’s Earth System Observatory (ESO) is an array of Earth-focused, interconnected satellite missions focused on five core study areas: Surface Biology and Geology, Mass Change, Aerosols, Surface Deformation and Change, and Clouds, Convection, and Precipitation. Observatory development follows recommendations from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s 2017 Earth Science Decadal Survey. Data gathered by ESO missions will provide actionable science to inform decisions related to climate change, disaster mitigation, and wildfires, improve real-time agricultural processes, and many other applications. Targeting launch dates in the late 2020s and early 2030s, each ESO satellite will deliver valuable information, but by working together as a single observatory system, their combined data and imagery will provide the global community with a 4D, holistic view of Earth, from bedrock to atmosphere. The ESO is also building on the legacy of international collaboration in Earth science, with initial participation and collaboration on these missions across space agency partners, including the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Centre National D'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), and Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI). This paper provides an overview of ESO, as well as an update on ESO missions currently in formulation – the Atmosphere Observing System, Mass Change, and Surface Biology and Geology elements – including current mission architectures, international partner collaboration, science community engagement, and applications efforts, as well as how NASA and its partners will make ESO data accessible to users all over the world.
The high inclination orbit for the International Space Station poses a risk to astronauts on EVA during occasional periods of enhanced high energy particle flux from the sun known as Solar Particle Events. We are currently unable to predict these events within the few-hour lead time required for evasive action. Compounding the threat is the fact that station construction occurs during increasing solar activity and through the peak of the solar cycle. In this paper we present an overview of the risk, the current methods to provide forecasts of SPEs, and potential risk mitigation options.
Maintaining optimal alertness and neurobehavioral functioning during space operations is critical to enable the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) vision "to extend humanity's reach to the Moon, Mars and beyond" to become a reality. Field data have demonstrated that sleep times and performance of crewmembers can be compromised by extended duty days, irregular work schedules, high workload, and varying environmental factors. This paper documents evidence of significant sleep loss and disruption of circadian rhythms in astronauts and associated performance decrements during several space missions, which demonstrates the need to develop effective countermeasures. Both sleep and circadian disruptions have been identified in the Behavioral Health and Performance (BH&P) area and the Advanced Human Support Technology (AHST) area of NASA's Bioastronautics Critical Path Roadmap. Such disruptions could have serious consequences on the effectiveness, health, and safety of astronaut crews, thus reducing the safety margin and increasing the chances of an accident or incident. These decrements oftentimes can be difficult to detect and counter effectively in restrictive operational environments. NASA is focusing research on the development of optimal sleep/wake schedules and countermeasure timing and application to help mitigate the cumulative effects of sleep and circadian disruption and enhance operational performance. Investing research in humans is one of NASA's building blocks that will allow for both short- and long-duration space missions and help NASA in developing approaches to manage and overcome the human limitations of space travel. In addition to reviewing the current state of knowledge concerning sleep and circadian disruptions during space operations, this paper provides an overview of NASA's broad research goals. Also, NASA-funded research, designed to evaluate the relationships between sleep quality, circadian rhythm stability, and performance proficiency in both ground-based simulations and space mission studies, as described in the 2003 NASA Task Book, will be reviewed.
The Space Radiation Element part of NASA Human Research Program initiated a virtual, annual space radiation curriculum. The SHINE space radiation curriculum aims to educate participants not only in the scientific aspects of space radiation but also in the agency’s risk management strategies. SHINE combines weekly seminars by speakers from NASA, other government agencies, academia, and industry, with networking sessions designed to foster collaboration between participants and interactions with NASA scientists. A total of 59 applications were received from which 25 participants were selected. The 25 participants, with citizenship from a total of 8 countries, are composed of 5 graduate students, 4 postdocs, 11 scientists and 5 professors/medical doctors. Participants have a wide range of expertise including molecular and cellular biology, microbiology, botany, physiology, engineering, physics, aerospace medicine, planetary science, biostatistics, and modeling. The inaugural course ran weekly from February 2023 to August 2023 and was comprised of lectures, less formal coffee hours and office hours. The topics covered ranged from space environments to health effects to granting opportunities. The second annual SHINE training program is scheduled from February to August 2024. In addition, a separate competitive practicum session, to allow participants to gain hands-on radiation experience, will be held Fall 2024 at the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL).
The Space Radiation Element part of NASA Human Research Program initiated a virtual, annual space radiation curriculum. The SHINE space radiation curriculum aims to educate participants not only in the scientific aspects of space radiation but also in the agency’s risk management strategies. SHINE combines weekly seminars by speakers from NASA, other government agencies, academia, and industry, with networking sessions designed to foster collaboration between participants and interactions with NASA scientists. A total of 59 applications were received from which 25 participants were selected. The 25 participants, with citizenship from a total of 8 countries, are composed of 5 graduate students, 4 postdocs, 11 scientists and 5 professors/medical doctors. Participants have a wide range of expertise including molecular and cellular biology, microbiology, botany, physiology, engineering, physics, aerospace medicine, planetary science, biostatistics, and modeling. The inaugural course ran weekly from February 2023 to August 2023 and was comprised of lectures, less formal coffee hours and office hours. The topics covered ranged from space environments to health effects to granting opportunities. The second annual SHINE training program is scheduled from February to August 2024. In addition, a separate competitive practicum session, to allow participants to gain hands-on radiation experience, will be held Fall 2024 at the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL).
A high-energy atmospheric physics phenomenon, referred to as a terrestrial gamma ray flash (TGF), is associated with lightning and produces large bursts of energetic photon radiation. TGFs will be investigated using a suite of gamma-ray instruments designed and constructed to fly on ten United States Air Force (USAF) WC-130J Hurricane Hunter aircraft as part of an aircrew ionization study led by the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) and the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM), in cooperation with the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron (WRS). Each instrument consists of one NaI and one plastic detector, a GPS timing device, and an instrument computer that performs data acquisition. High Elevation Radiation Array (HERA) detectors will be employed to maximize the chances of observing TGFs near their source and to gain a better understanding of their origin, mechanism, ubiquity, and to assess potential hazards posed to military and commercial aircrew and passengers. The HERA program, deployed on 10 separate Air Force aircraft over a multi-year campaign, will result in thousands of observational flight hours and be the largest concerted effort to date to observe TGFs in situ through aircraft observations. In this paper, we give an overview of the scientific goals of this campaign and how the HERA instruments have been designed to meet those goals. Here, we include a detailed description of the HERA instrument, along with mass model and signal processing simulations.
On earth, the presence of gravity imposes weight-bearing gradients on tissues which influence the functions of multiple integrative systems. On the other hand, conditions of actual or simulated microgravity can modify and/or nullify these gradients and subsequently alter structure and function. The purpose of this symposium is to discuss the results from short-term Shuttle flights, long term Skylab or Mir missions, or long-term ground based experiments which indicate or suggest that performance has been or could be compromised in space missions of long durations (>one year) or with space tasks (e.g. building space stations) with the goal of identifying countermeasures that could minimize or eliminate the expected anatomical and physiological consequences. After an overview by C. Tipton from the U. Arizona, the countermeasures necessary for the fluid shifts and select functions of the cardiovascular system will be discussed by A. Hargens from NASA Ames Research Center. He will be followed by K. Baldwin of the U. California at Irvine who will discuss the countermeasures needed to prevent the changes that alter the structure, function and control of skeletal muscles. Since changes in bone mass with microgravity are a major concern of NASA, V. Schneider from NASA Headquarters will present data and the countermeasures for bone. Although the results are limited, the changes in the endocrine and immune system deserve mentioning and C. Tipton will assume this responsibility. V. Convertino from the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine has the challenge of discussing the role, importance, and the specificity of exercise as an effective countermeasure while I. Kozlovskaya from Moscow will elaborate on the Russian experiences with past countermeasures and provide a viewpoint on future ones. After the brief (25 min.) presentations, the speakers will assemble as a panel to discuss the issues raised and the concerns of the audience.
The Space Radiation Element of the NASA Human Research Program initiated a virtual, annual space radiation curriculum. The Space Health Impacts for the NASA Experience (SHINE) space radiation didactic curriculum aims to educate participants not only in the scientific aspects of space radiation but also in the agency’s risk management strategies. SHINE combines weekly seminars by speakers from NASA, other government agencies, academia, and industry, with networking sessions designed to foster collaboration between participants and interactions with NASA scientists and HRP funded investigators. The inaugural course ran weekly from February 2023 to August 2023 and was comprised of lectures, less formal coffee hours and office hours. The SHINE topics ranged from space environments to health effects and countermeasure to granting opportunities. Participants developed beam time proposals for real, proposed, or potential experiments at the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. For the 2023 course, a total of 59 applications were received from which 25 participants were selected. Selected participants were citizens from 8 countries and comprised 5 graduate students, 4 postdocs, 11 scientists and 5 professors/medical doctors. Participants had a wide range of expertise including molecular and cellular biology, microbiology, botany, physiology, engineering, physics, aerospace medicine, planetary science, biostatistics, and modeling. The second annual SHINE training program is scheduled from February to August 2024. In addition, a separate SHINE space radiation practicum session, to allow participants to gain hands-on radiation experience, will be held Fall 2024 at the NSRL.
The 2017 Earth Science Decadal Survey by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine identified five foundational observations, or Designated Observables (DO), to be implemented as missions by NASA. To address these five DO areas – Surface Biology and Geology; Mass Change; Aerosols; Cloud, Convection, and Precipitation; and Surface Deformation and Change – NASA is developing the Earth System Observatory (ESO) as an array of Earth-focused, interconnected satellite missions. The ESO will build on the strong history of international partnerships in NASA Earth science, with initial participation and collaboration on these missions across space agency partners including the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Centre National D'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), and Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI). Targeting launch dates in the late 2020s and early 2030s, the ESO will work as a single observatory, with each satellite in the ESO delivering its own valuable information, but taken together, the data and imagery will provide the global community with a multidimensional, holistic view of the Earth. In addition to furthering the world’s scientific knowledge, data gathered by ESO missions will provide actionable science to inform decisions related to climate change, disaster mitigation, and wildfires, improve real-time agricultural processes, and many other applications. This paper will provide an overview of the ESO development activities, as well as an update on the individual ESO missions currently in formulation – Atmosphere Observing System, Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment-Continuity, and Surface Biology and Geology – including current mission architectures and concepts, international partner collaboration, science community engagement, and applications efforts, as well as how ESO data will be freely open and accessible to users all over the world.
INTRODUCTION: The Human Factors and Behavioral Performance Exploration Measures (HFBP-EM) suite is a set of standardized measures to assess behavioral health and performance risk related to future exploration class missions, and to support reduction of the Human Research Program’s (HRP) Behavioral Medicine (BMed), Team, Sleep, and Human Systems Integration Architecture (HSIA) risks. This presentation will provide an overview of the HFBP-EM program, describe its implementation across spaceflight analogs and the international space station (ISS), and discuss its applicability to audience members. TOPIC: HFBP-EM is a research program designed to develop a standard set of measures that can be used in space and space-analog research to characterize BMed, Team, Sleep, and HSIA risks. It is an ongoing research project that is used examine the validity and reliability of HFBP measures, as well as their shorter forms. It also serves as a test bed for HFBP measures being considered for the spaceflight standard measures. The suite of measures is used to test the efficacy of countermeasures. To date, HFBP-EM has been collected in Human Exploration Research Analogs campaigns 4 and 5, and the SIRIUS 19 mission in the Russian Ground Based Experiment Complex. A subset of the HFBP-EM suite was collected during spaceflight as part of HRP’s Standard Measures in Spaceflight Project. Data was collected from a total of 55 multinational astronaut and astronaut-like crewmembers (mean age: 39.5, SD = 7.6; 31% female; 91% with advanced degrees). Three broad categories of HFBP-EM measures and their relevance to HRP risks will be discussed: 1) surveys that assess team functioning (Teams risk) as well as mood and affect (Bmed risk), 2) performance-based tasks of cognitive functioning and operationally relevant performance (Bmed risk), and 3) physiological biomarkers of sleep (sleep risk) and heart rate (Bmed risk). We will provide an overview of the background of the HFBP-EM program, what the suite currently includes, and next steps in its future development. We will also discuss the application to aerospace practitioners and researchers. APPLICATION: Astronaut teams selected for future space exploration missions will face several challenges that pose significant yet still unknown risks to the behavioral health and performance of astronauts. The HFBP-EM suite provides a comprehensive assessment of behavioral health and performance in space analog and spaceflight settings. This suite can be applied to both operational and research settings to advance risk reduction research for long duration space exploration missions.