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When traveling in space, astronauts are exposed to many changes in
their physical environment that can harm their health. For example,
astronauts lose up to 2% of their bone mass in weight-bearing
areas of the skeleton and fluid shifts combined with lack of resistive
motion can harm cardiovascular performance. Because future exploration
missions will be much longer and more physically demanding than
previous missions, NASA must expand its efforts to ensure the
health and safety of the astronauts.
NASA’s Human Research
Program consists of several projects to improve astronaut health
during exploration missions, of which the Exploration Medical
Capability Project is one. The portion of the project at the Glenn
Research Center consists of several tasks, including developing
hardware to produce IV fluid from resources onboard space vehicles,
the Integrated Medical Model to quantify the risks associated
with exploration missions, sensors to monitor astronaut health,
and advanced fluid systems to provide the capability to perform
medical laboratory tests with reusable devices.
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| BioWATCH unit shown for size
next to an ECG lead and a ruler. |
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PUMA
being used in Aquarius, NOAAís underwater ocean laboratory,
during NASA's NEEMO-12
mission |
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Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer lab on a chip system (Credit: Agilent
Technologies).
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