Life Sciences in the Space Program 



control over them for future long-duration mission? will be possible. To 

 accomplish this, new methods are needed to obtain the significant habitabUity 

 assessment data. Some of the important questions include the following: Who will 

 have access to the crew and their environment? How often will access be possible 

 and what types of data can be collected? How will the habitabUity of the Space 

 Station be evaluated? The Space Station can be used as a scientific laboratory to 

 answer these questions and to define the requirements for interplanetary missions. 

 As many factors as possible should be studied in ground-based simulations to 

 ensure maximum usefulness of the expensive and limited resources available on 

 the Space Station. 



Space Adaptation/Gravity Environment 



Long-term missions require that crew members safely adapt and readapt to 

 varying gravity conditions. Scientific evidence is lacking at present to demonstrate 

 that the provision of partial gravity may prevent or reduce the effects of 

 microgravity exposure. A variable-gravity research facility is required to support 

 basic investigations of the efficacy of fractional gravity in attenuating the effects of 

 repeated or prolonged exposure to microgravity conditions. The salient questions 

 include the following: What changes are there in crew productivity and 

 performance following prolonged exposure to microgravity conditions? Can a 

 human live comfortably and work productively in a partial-gravity facility that has 

 a fixed- or variable-rotation rate? What is needed to ensure crew comfort? How 

 much artificial gravity is needed and for how long to maintain crew performance 

 and productivity during long-duration missions? What are the major engineering 

 problems in developing a rotating facility? Should a variable-gravity facility be 

 used before the crew descends to the surface of the Moon, or perhaps Mars, or as 

 a recovery vehicle after the flight? 



The problems of adaptation to various gravity environments relate to a number of 

 interesting engineering challenges. An important issue is identifying the 

 requirements for making a large, rotating spacecraft a habitable and productive 

 environment. These requirements are not presently known. It is important that 

 NASA establish a research and development program to provide the basis for 

 designing a rotating Mars transit vehicle. 



bindings and Recommendations 

 Environmental-Monitoring and Decontamination Systems 

 Findings 



• The possible contaminants in a spacecraft are many, ranging from toxic 



gases to particulate matter. The environmental-monitoring system must be able 

 to monitor accurately the status of all critical environmental factors in the same 

 fashion as the Health Maintenance Facility monitors the health of the crew. 



• [Tie success of long-duration missions will depend in part on knowing the 

 impact of continual environmental monitoring of crew performance, the 



successes and limitations o\ technologies to be used on the Space Station, the 





