Findings and Recommendations 



— Include a physician among the crew and train all other crew members to 

 respond to medical emergencies. The physician should meet requirements 

 established by the Operational Medicine Program and be trained as well to 

 contribute to multidisciplinary mission objectives. 



— Pursue longitudinal studies to collect biomedical data on all astronauts and 

 an age-matched control population. This information, along with pre-, post-, 

 and inflight data, should be integrated into a medical information system. 



— Develop a Crew Emergency Return Vehicle to allow transport of crew mem- 

 bers to Earth in case of space system and /or medical contingencies, as well 

 as possible disruption in services provided by the Space Transportation 

 System. 



— Develop the capabilities of the Health Maintenance Facility with the ulti- 

 mate goal of achieving autonomy for a Mars mission. 



— Give priority to testing medical technologies necessary for the success of 

 long-duration missions. 



— Continue to recognize the Medicine Policy Board as the Agency's highest 

 authority on issues of crew health and safety. 



• NASA's Life Sciences Division should expand the existing data base of 

 astronaut medical information to include a data base for all life sciences mis- 

 sions in space. The data base should take two forms: 



— First, an index data base should be created to catalog all relevant life sciences 

 data sets. The index should provide browse facilities and summary informa- 

 tion to help NASA investigators find archives of life sciences data sets ger- 

 mane to their areas of interest. 



— A second data system should be created that provides a formal and standard 

 archive for all past, current, and future life sciences mission information 

 (both from U.S. and international flights) and that allows for data retrieval 

 and analysis. 



• In conducting ground-based and space research in the life sciences, NASA 

 should identify other scientific agencies in the U.S. and abroad that have paral- 

 lel interests and should work actively to secure their collaboration in joint 

 projects. 



Gravitational Biology 



Gravitational Biology focuses on the role of gravity in the reproductive, develop- 

 mental, and metabolic activities of all forms of life. It is one of the few NASA pro- 

 grams that has both an intrinsic need for microgravity and the potential to make 

 important contributions to basic science, as well as to operational research. 



Findings 



• Access to microgravity in space is crucial to developing an understanding of the 

 role(s) of gravity in biologic processes. 



31 



