Bernadine Healy, M.D. 

 Chairperson 



William DeCampli, M.D., Ph.D. 



Frederick C. Robbins, M.D. 



Warren Lockette, M.D. 

 Staff Associate 



Biomedical Research 



The primary goal of NASA biomedical research is to ensure the safe transport of 

 humans into space and back to Earth and the safe maintenance of humans living 

 and working on a long-term basis in space. To achieve this goal, several NASA 

 field centers are engaged in biomedical research. Intramural biomedical research is 

 conducted primarily at three NASA laboratories located at Ames Research Center 

 (ARC), Johnson Space Center (JSC), and Kennedy Space Center (KSC). 



Issues and recommendations pertinent to the NASA Biomedical Research Program 

 are summarized in this report. Information was collected from briefings given by 

 investigators in the various disciplines at each center. Briefings were also provided 

 by staff at NASA Headquarters, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) School of Aerospace 

 Medicine and the Human Systems Division, the Naval Medical Research and 

 Development Command, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the 

 National Institutes of Health, and by individual scientists funded through the 

 extramural program in biomedical research at NASA. In addition, NASA 

 publications were reviewed. 



Scientific Issues 



Numerous individual technical reports and a small number of reports in the peer- 

 reviewed literature have reiterated the rationales for conducting biomedical research 

 at NASA, provided a history of biomedical research at the Agency, and presented 

 the findings of biomedical research sponsored by NASA (1,2,3,4,5,6). These and 

 other references, including A Strategy for Space Biology ami Medical Science for the 

 1981 )> and 1990s (7), describe the issues in biomedical research that must be 

 resolved to ensure the safer)' of humans living in space. While the questions 

 discussed below are important for short-term, Shuttle-type, and medium-duration 

 (Space Station) missions, they become vitally significant for longer duration flights, 

 such as an expedition to Mars or the development of a lunar base. 



Cardiovascular Physiology 



In microgravitv, there is a loss o| the gravity-induced vascular pooling of blood in 

 the lower extremities that normally occurs in humans with upright posture ["he 

 volume ot blood normally found in the lower extremities on Earth is centrally 

 listributed in the body when in microgravitv. Volume and pressure receptors in 



I 



