Safe Passage: Astronaut Care for Exploration Missions

Front Cover

Safe Passage: Astronaut Care for Exploration Missions sets forth a vision for space medicine as it applies to deep space voyage. As space missions increase in duration from months to years and extend well beyond Earth's orbit, so will the attendant risks of working in these extreme and isolated environmental conditions. Hazards to astronaut health range from greater radiation exposure and loss of bone and muscle density to intensified psychological stress from living with others in a confined space. Going beyond the body of biomedical research, the report examines existing space medicine clinical and behavioral research and health care data and the policies attendant to them. It describes why not enough is known today about the dangers of prolonged travel to enable humans to venture into deep space in a safe and sane manner. The report makes a number of recommendations concerning NASA's structure for clinical and behavioral research, on the need for a comprehensive astronaut health care system and on an approach to communicating health and safety risks to astronauts, their families, and the public.

 

Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1
ASTRONAUT HEALTH BEYOND EARTH ORBIT 23
RISKS TO ASTRONAUT HEALTH DURING SPACE TRAVEL 37
MANAGING RISKS TO ASTRONAUT HEALTH 75
Table 31 InFlight Medical Events for U S Astronauts During
Box33 Breast Cancer as an Example of Risk Assessment
Box35 Advances in Preventive Dentistry 99
Box36 Health Care Opportunities in Space Medicine 113
EXPLORING THE ETHICS OF SPACE MEDICINE
Box 62 The Common Rule and Informed Consent 182
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Box 71 Infrastructure Elements for Developing a Comprehensive
REFERENCES 221
APPENDIXES
B Committee and Staff Biographies 263
INDEX 275

EMERGENCY AND CONTINUING CARE 117
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