Life Sciences in the Space Program 



flight without contingency planning for reflight. While the equipment was 

 designed well for its one mission, it often could not be modified easily for use in 

 other experiments because of resource and time limitations. 



This situation changed dramatically with the advent of Space Shuttle operations 

 and the development of a large number of versatile and reusable hardware items 

 collectively known as Life Sciences Laboratory Equipment (LSLE). Often, an 

 experiment will call for the development of hardware not already available. In 

 such a situation, Experiment Unique Hardware (EUE) is developed by NASA, 

 flow n, and then added to the standing LSLE stock for use by subsequent 

 investigators. 



The Space Shuttle will never fly as often, nor will it be as flexible or inexpensive, 

 as its planners hoped it would be. In the aftermath of the Challenger accident, the 

 limited number of flight opportunities was reduced even further. Therefore, each 

 flight opportunity must be fully exploited by standardizing experimental equip- 

 ment and protocols, making the best use of personnel resources, and avoiding 

 programmatic overlaps. 



Findings 



• Crew members are generally willing to participate as test subjects if they are 

 informed of the scope and significance of research objectives and if they can 

 expect to benefit from these objectives. There is, however, significant resistance 

 to such participation if it involves the use of invasive probes. Budgetary 

 limitations have precluded the development of appropriate, noninvasive, state- 

 of-the-art instrumentation and have forced the use of off-the-shelf equipment, 

 which sometimes means invasive instrumentation. 



• While NASA strives to maintain a position near the leading edge of advanced 

 technology, the state-of-the-art in instrumentation and in computer design and 

 architecture is changing more quickly than the Agency can accommodate. 



• Instrumentation and techniques used by non-space life sciences researchers and 

 space life sciences researchers are not always compatible. Extrapolation from 

 findings obtained in one area to the other is not always possible. 



Recommendations 



• Noninvasive monitoring instrumentation should be developed to provide 

 physiological data equivalent to that obtained with more traditional, invasive 

 techniques. 



• NASA should invest suitable resources to ensure that the computational 

 capabilities available for life sciences research are commensurate with the 

 evolving state-of-the-art. 



• Greater efforts should be made to reuse flight hardware. 



— The LSLE hardware collection should be increased. 



Engineering models and space-based experimentation protocols should 

 be made more easily available to life sciences investigators. 



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