Paper
A Historical Overview of Space Medicine
Published Dec 1, 2020 · David R. Williams
McGill Journal of Medicine
3
Citations
0
Influential Citations
Abstract
cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to fly in space on a one hour and 48 minute mission that orbited the earth. May 5th, 1961 Alan B. Shepard launched from Cape Canaveral on a Mercury Redstone 3 rocket to become the first NASA astronaut to fly in space. These exciting missions started a new era of human space exploration, which over the past 40 years has seen humans walk on the moon to using reusable launch vehicles to construct and live on board space stations on missions lasting from months to greater than one year. The first decade of human space exploration sought to determine if humans could safely live and work in space. Prior to the Mercury flights, considerable concern existed about the ability of humans to survive in space, as many of the responses to this unique physiological challenge were unknown. Building upon the success of Project Mercury, the Gemini Program demonstrated the capability to rendezvous spacecraft on orbit, to perform space walks, to extend mission duration to be able to support lunar landing and to enhance flight and ground crew operational experience. The decade closed with the historic Apollo 11 mission and the world watched in awe July 20th, 1969, as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon. The second decade of human space exploration evaluated adaptation and performance during long duration missions with NASA astronauts living on the Skylab Space Station. Mission duration ranged from 28 days on Skylab 2 to 84 days on Skylab 4 setting a new record for NASA. Bone loss and muscle wasting were noted in the long duration astronauts despite an orbital exercise program. A lower body negative pressure device was used for the first time to determine the cardiovascular response to a simulated orthostatic stress on orbit. Customary indices of reduced cardiovascular deficiency were obtained. This was found to stabilize after four to six weeks in space with no apparent impairment of crew health or performance. The physiological changes associated with adaptation to microgravity suggested the need for further research to develop countermeasures to mitigate the potentially deleterious physiological changes observed on orbit or after landing. Following Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz represented a unique technological achievement with US and Russian spacecraft docking to demonstrate international collaboration in space exploration. This collaborative flight was an important precursor to joint operations between NASA and the Russian …
Space medicine has evolved over time to adapt to microgravity and support long-duration missions, with the most recent space missions demonstrating the ability to live and work in space for months or years.
Full text analysis coming soon...