Safe Passage: Astronaut Care for Exploration Missions

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.

Booknews

This report looks at issues surrounding astronaut health and safety for long duration space missions and makes recommendations regarding the infrastructure for a health system in space, the principles that should guide such a system to provide a standard of care for astronauts, and the nature of the clinical and health services research required before and during long-term missions for astronauts. Chapters cover risks to astronaut health, emergency and continuing care, behavioral health and performance, the ethics of space medicine, and planning an infrastructure for astronaut health care. Ball is chair of the Committee on Creating a Vision for Space Medicine During Travel Beyond Earth Orbit. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)