Contents


Preface

The first 60 years of manned space exploration has seen great advances in technology and achievement. Not the least of these are the great leaps in knowledge made through observation and experimentation in the biological and medical sciences. Though the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) completed twelve crewed missions to the moon between 1969 and 1972, the vast majority of our knowledge of human physiology and response to space flight comes from extended stays in low Earth orbit on the space station Mir, the Space Shuttle,

NASA has expressed its intention to conduct crewed expeditions to the moon in the 2020s, working toward the goal of humans visiting Mars in the 2030s. The extended duration and distance from Earth these missions entail pose a number of new challenges for space agencies seeking to send humans into the abyss and return them safely home to Earth. New knowledge and new technology will be needed to

This book presents a small sample of the physiological changes and human health risks that have been observed in low Earth orbit, and that will undoubtedly be magnified with extended exploration operations to deep space. This book presents the evidence to date and offers a glimpse at what will be needed to take humanity

> **Robert J. Reynolds, MS MPH PhD** Mortality Research and Consulting Inc.,

> > Baylor College of Medicine,

USA

Translational Research Institute for Space Health,

and the International Space Station.

further into deep space than ever before.

conquer these challenges.
