Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmental support. EVA includes spacewalks and lunar or planetary surface exploration. In a stand-up EVA (SEVA), an astronaut stands through an open hatch but does not fully leave the spacecraft. EVAs have been conducted by the Soviet Union/Russia, the United States, Canada, the European Space Agency and China.
Human spaceflight is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be remotely operated from ground stations on Earth, or autonomously, without any direct human involvement. People trained for spaceflight are called astronauts, cosmonauts (Russian), or taikonauts (Chinese); and non-professionals are referred to as spaceflight participants or spacefarers.
Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disorder characterized by low bone mass, micro-architectural deterioration of bone tissue leading to bone sterility, and consequent increase in fracture risk. It is the most common reason for a broken bone among the elderly. Bones that commonly break include the vertebrae in the spine, the bones of the forearm, the wrist, and the hip. Until a broken bone occurs there are typically no symptoms. Bones may weaken to such a degree that a break may occur with minor stress or spontaneously. After the broken bone heals, the person may have chronic pain and a decreased ability to carry out normal activities.
STS-58 was a NASA mission flown by Space Shuttle Columbia launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on October 18, 1993. The missions was primarily devoted to experiments concerning the physiological effects in space. This was the first in-flight use of the "Portable In-flight Landing Operations Trainer" (PILOT) simulation software. It was also the last time Columbia would land at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
William Edgar Thornton was an American NASA astronaut. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from University of North Carolina and a doctorate in medicine, also from UNC. He flew on Challenger twice, the STS-8 and STS-51-B missions.
Space adaptation syndrome (SAS) or space sickness is a condition experienced by as many as half of all space travelers during their adaptation to weightlessness once in orbit. It is the opposite of terrestrial motion sickness since it occurs when the environment and the person appear visually to be in motion relative to one another even though there is no corresponding sensation of bodily movement originating from the vestibular system.
The effects of spaceflight on the human body are complex and largely harmful over both short and long term. Significant adverse effects of long-term weightlessness include muscle atrophy and deterioration of the skeleton. Other significant effects include a slowing of cardiovascular system functions, decreased production of red blood cells, balance disorders, eyesight disorders and changes in the immune system. Additional symptoms include fluid redistribution, loss of body mass, nasal congestion, sleep disturbance, and excess flatulence. Overall, NASA refers to the various deleterious effects of spaceflight on the human body by the acronym RIDGE.
A space toilet or zero-gravity toilet is a toilet that can be used in a weightless environment. In the absence of weight, the collection and retention of liquid and solid waste is directed by use of airflow. Since the air used to direct the waste is returned to the cabin, it is filtered beforehand to control odor and cleanse bacteria. In older systems, wastewater is vented into space, and any solids are compressed and stored for removal upon landing. More modern systems expose solid waste to vacuum pressures to kill bacteria, which prevents odor problems and kills pathogens.
Space medicine is a specialized field, which developed from Aerospace medicine, that focuses on the acute medical care of astronauts and spaceflight participants. The spaceflight environment poses many unique stressors to the human body, including G forces, microgravity, unusual atmospheres such as low pressure or high carbon dioxide, and space radiation. Space medicine applies emergency medicine, acute care medicine, critical care medicine, interventional radiology, radiology, austere medicine, and toxicology perspectives treat and prepare for medical problems in space. This expertise is then used to inform vehicle systems design to minimize the risk to human health and performance while meeting mission objectives.
A mission patch is a cloth reproduction of a spaceflight mission emblem worn by astronauts and other personnel affiliated with that mission. It is usually executed as an embroidered patch. The term space patch is mostly applied to an emblem designed for a crewed space mission. Traditionally, the patch is worn on the space suit that astronauts and cosmonauts wear when launched into space. Mission patches have been adopted by the crew and personnel of many other space ventures, public and private.
Weightlessness is the complete or near-complete absence of the sensation of weight, i.e., zero apparent weight. It is also termed zero gravity, zero g-force, or zero-g. Micro-g environment is more or less synonymous, with the recognition that g-forces are never exactly zero.
The Treadmill with Vibration Isolation Stabilization System, commonly abbreviated as TVIS, is a treadmill for use on board the International Space Station and is designed to allow astronauts to run without vibrating delicate microgravity science experiments in adjacent labs. International Space Station treadmills, not necessarily described here, have included the original treadmill, the original TVIS, the БД-2, the Combined Operational Load-Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT), and the Treadmill 2. Some share a name, some a design, some a function, some use different (passive) vibration-suppression systems, some it is unclear how they differ.
The International Space Station is a platform for scientific research that requires one or more of the unusual conditions present in low Earth orbit. The primary fields of research include human research, space medicine, life sciences, physical sciences, astronomy and meteorology. The 2005 NASA Authorization Act designated the American segment of the International Space Station as a national laboratory with the goal of increasing the use of the ISS by other federal agencies and the private sector.
Space neuroscience or astroneuroscience is the scientific study of the central nervous system (CNS) functions during spaceflight. Living systems can integrate the inputs from the senses to navigate in their environment and to coordinate posture, locomotion, and eye movements. Gravity has a fundamental role in controlling these functions. In weightlessness during spaceflight, integrating the sensory inputs and coordinating motor responses is harder to do because gravity is no longer sensed during free-fall. For example, the otolith organs of the vestibular system no longer signal head tilt relative to gravity when standing. However, they can still sense head translation during body motion. Ambiguities and changes in how the gravitational input is processed can lead to potential errors in perception, which affects spatial orientation and mental representation. Dysfunctions of the vestibular system are common during and immediately after spaceflight, such as space motion sickness in orbit and balance disorders after return to Earth.
Renal stone formation and passage during space flight can potentially pose a severe risk to crew member health and safety and could affect mission outcome. Although renal stones are routinely and successfully treated on Earth, the occurrence of these during space flight can prove to be problematic.
Even before the very beginning of human space exploration, serious and reasonable concerns were expressed about exposure of humans to the microgravity of space due to the potential systemic effects on terrestrially-evolved life forms adapted to Earth gravity. Unloading of skeletal muscle, both on Earth via bed-rest experiments and during spaceflight, result in remodeling of muscle. As a result, decrements occur in skeletal muscle strength, fatigue resistance, motor performance, and connective tissue integrity. In addition, there are cardiopulmonary and vascular changes, including a significant decrease in red blood cell mass, that affect skeletal muscle function. This normal adaptive response to the microgravity environment may become a liability resulting in increased risk of an inability or decreased efficiency in crewmember performance of physically demanding tasks during extravehicular activity (EVA) or upon return to Earth.
The following page is a list of scientific research that is currently underway or has been previously studied on the International Space Station by the European Space Agency.
The ISS year-long mission was an 11-month-long scientific research project aboard the International Space Station, which studied the health effects of long-term spaceflight. Astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko spent 340 days in space, with scientists performing medical experiments. Kelly and Kornienko launched on 27 March 2015 on Soyuz TMA-16M along with Gennady Padalka. The mission encompassed Expeditions 43, 44, 45 and 46. The pair safely landed in Kazakhstan on March 2, 2016, returning aboard Soyuz TMA-18M with Sergey Volkov. The mission supported the NASA Twins study, which helps shed light on the health effects of long-duration spaceflight, which is of interest for Mars missions especially.
Locomotion in space includes all actions or methods used to move one's body in microgravity conditions through the outer space environment. Locomotion in these conditions is different from locomotion in a gravitational field. There are many factors that contribute to these differences, and they are crucial when researching long-term survival of humans in space.
Timeline of longest spaceflights is a chronology of the longest spaceflights. Many of the first flights set records measured in hours and days, the space station missions of the 1970s and 1980s pushed this to weeks and months, and by the 1990s the record was pushed to over a year and has remained there into the 21st century.
