William C. Schneider D.Sci. 

 Chairperson 



Gerald P. Can; P.E., D.Sci. 



Michael Collins 



Keith Cowing 

 Staff Associate 



Mitchell K. Hobish, Ph.D. 



Staff Associate 



Lauren Leveton, Ph.D. 



Staff Associate 



Flight Programs 



Summary 



The NASA Life Sciences Division has a well-developed and well-understood set of 

 strategic objectives for the 1990's: extending crew stay time for the Space Station to 

 at least 180 days; understanding the human physiological and psychological 

 requirements for long-duration missions to other planets, such as a round trip to 

 Mars; understanding the physiological and psychological needs for extended living 

 in gravitational fields of less than 1 Earth gravity (g); and using the unique 

 environments of space to better understand biological and physiological processes 

 in 1 g. 



Each of these objectives has emphases common to the other objectives. Each 

 would benefit by complementary and supportive elements conducted in a number 

 of flight projects. Each could be furthered by a program plan that calls for 

 diversified flight opportunities: short-duration, human-tended projects, such as the 

 Shuttle, Spacelab, and Spacehab; longer duration experiments flown on 

 recoverable flight projects, including Lifesat, Biocosmos, the Commercially Devel- 

 oped Space Facility (CDSF), and the Space Pallet Satellite (SPAS); and long- 

 duration experiments using the Space Station as a base. Maximum progress can 

 be made at minimum cost if flight experiments are selected that support multiple 

 strategic objectives and a variety of flight projects. 



Introduction: NASAs Mandate and the Life Sciences 



NASA is a mission-oriented organization dedicated to conducting the research and 

 engineering necessary to explore space. The Agency was chartered to contribute to 

 "the expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and space" 

 and to "develop vehicles capable of carrying instruments, equipment, supplies and 

 living organisms through space" (NASA Act of 1958, Section 102 [c][l][4]). While 

 the relationship between scientific research and engineering is synergistic, it 

 requires cultivation and depends on close coordination among various disciplines. 



NASA conducts life sciences research for two reasons: to understand basic 

 biological processes and to support the presence of humans in space. These two 

 efforts are often intertwined, with a finding in one area often leading to a 



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